TANZANIA: Arrested Evangelists Say Muslims Colluded with Police

Two Christian evangelists in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, have been arrested after Muslims invited them to debate religion but instead called in security agents who charged the evangelists with illegal preaching. Anglicans Eleutery Kobelo and Cecil Simbaulanga, released on bail and facing a hearing on 11 February, told Compass that Christian and Muslim groups organised the inter-faith debate that was planned for a neutral venue in October of last year in the Kariakoo area of Dar es Salaam. Kobelo said no Muslims showed up at the debate until Islamists arrived with government security agents who charged them with “using religious sermons to incite Muslims and Christians into viewing each other with suspicion.”