Mother of 3 in Somalia loses family for receiving Christ

Originally published in My Christian Daily

The Muslim husband of a woman in Somalia sent her back to her parents for accepting Christ – without their three young children – and then her parents drove her away for sharing the gospel with her sister, sources said.

Fatuma Hussein, 30, was beaten and then ostracized by her birth family on Saturday March 22 for sharing her new faith in Christ with her sister in Tabta village, Lower Juba Region, said the leader of a Christian team that first visited her on March 15.

They entered a house that day as her relatives were breaking the daily Ramadan fast at about 7.30pm., and Hussein’s husband was not present. The team found Hussein unwell and complaining of Jinn (supernatural beings from the unseen world in Islam) power menacing her; they prayed for her and left for another village, the leader said.

On March 17, Hussein phoned the team to let them know that that since the time of prayer, she had felt peace and comfort in her heart and invited them back to her house. When they arrived, she happily requested more prayer and said she would pay them $100 (R1 877) – which the team declined, telling her that salvation was a free gift of God through his Son, Issa (Jesus), the leader said.

Hussein told the team that she had heard the voice of God telling her: “Receive my power so that you can pray for others for healing as well,” he said.

“She needed some clarification on this, and we took time explaining to her that she is a vessel of God, and she was receiving salvation in Christ Jesus,” the leader told Morning Star News. “After her receiving Christ as her Saviour, then we left the village to another area for mission outreach.”

On March 19, Hussein boldly shared her new faith with her husband, Ibrahim Suleiman. Angry with her for embracing a faith different from Islam, he informed her parents, and Hussein’s father told Suleiman to send her back to him so that he could “deal with the issue”, Hussein said.

On March 20, Hussein’s husband sent her back to relatives without their three children ages 7, 5 and 3, she said. Undaunted, she began sharing about the love of God with her sister, the Christian leader said.

On March 22, Hussein’s father learned about her sharing Christ with his other daughter and began mistreating her, the leader said, recalling that Hussein told him, “My father started beating me with sticks and threatening to kill me and immediately kicked me out of the family by chasing me away with a sharp sword. He even told my husband to beat and even kill me whenever I am seen around.”

Driven from both families, Hussein is lonely and praying for them to receive what she has received, the leader said. His team has connected her with a nearby underground Christian family, a stop-gap measure that he does not regard as safe in the long term.

Hussein said she was trusting God to take her to a safe place where she can have freedom to worship God.

“I have lost my children, but the peace of God will continue comforting my heart,” she told the leader.

“Please tell Christian families wherever they are to continue praying for me and support me with money to buy food to sustain me wherever I will be staying, so that I do not become a burden, and more so that God will sustain and meet all my physical and spiritual needs. I am lonely, but Issa is with me.”

Somalia’s constitution establishes Islam as the state religion and prohibits the propagation of any other religion, according to the US State Department. It also requires that laws comply with sharia (Islamic law) principles, with no exceptions in application for non-Muslims.

The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law according to mainstream schools of Islamic jurisprudence. An Islamic extremist group in Somalia, Al Shabaab, is allied with Al Qaeda and adheres to the teaching.

Al Shabaab or Al Shabaab sympathisers also have killed several non-local people in northern Kenya since 2011, when Kenyan forces led an African coalition into Somalia against the rebels in response to terrorist attacks on tourists and others on Kenya’s coast.

Somalia is ranked 2^nd on Christian support group Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian.

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