Our Nairobi Correspondent
An American evangelist charged with insulting the noble messenger of Allah, upon whom be peace, was deported from Kenya on July 30 leaving the country’s 1.5 million Muslims disappointed and angry. They had demanded the trial of Edward Andrews Stagl under section 87 (a) of the Kenyan criminal code and were confident that the blasphemous preacher would meet his just desserts according to law.
A Nakuru court on July 30 ordered the evangelist deported to the US as thousands of Muslims protested the decision. The deportation order came in what appeared to be a deal between the US embassy in Nairobi and the Kenyan government. This was hinted at by the State counsel, Andrew Omutelema, who told Nakuru chief magistrate Babu Achieng that he had instructions from the attorney general’s office to withdraw the charge against Stagl.
‘We have instructions to terminate the proceeding against the accused to enable the Immigration Department to deal with Stagl under Section 172 of the Immigration Act,’ Omutelema said. But Wachu Chachole, assistant secretary of the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims (SUPKEM), who had travelled from Nairobi to hear the case, told reporters the Muslim community was not happy with the court’s decision.
Chachole was quoted by the Nairobi daily, the East African Standard, (July 31, 1998) that SUPKEM will appeal as ‘we are not satisfied with the decision of the attorney general to withdraw the charge under Section 87 (a) and the deportation of a man who has injured our feelings by abusing the Prophet Muhammed, upon whom be peace.’ ‘It is very unfortunate for over 1.5 million Muslims; the court should have tried Stagl under the laws of Kenya before deporting him.’
The blasphemous American evangelist had arrived in Kenya last September and stayed in Nyahururu. He left briefly for Namibia but returned in June and was given a three-month stay visa. Stagl went to Nakuru on July 23. The following day (Friday July 24), a major prayer day for Muslims, he went to the Jamia Mosque in Nakuru and placed posters there insulting the Prophet, upon whom be peace. Among his insulting allegations was one accusing the noble messenger of Allah of adultery (astaghfirullah).
Stagl’s was a deliberate act of provocation. He wanted to provoke the Muslims by going to the Jamia Mosque to place his filthy posters. Had the irate Muslims attacked him, they would be accused of being irrational and prone to violence. Yet the deliberate provocations of an apparently sane evangelist preacher were quietly brushed aside by allowing him to escape the law.
Besides, for a Christian preacher to accuse the noble messenger of Allah of adultery takes gall. Adultery is a peculiarly American habit, as the current travails of Bill Clinton show and as we have seen the goings-on of evangelists like Jimmy Swaggert and Jim Baker in the not-too-distant past.
Crescent International has learnt that while Muslims were holding protest rallies outside the US embassy in Nairobi on July 26 and 27, two Egyptian diplomats visited the embassy to try and advise the Americans on how to defuse the crisis. The Egyptians, ever eager to serve their American masters, do not care about the honour of the Prophet, upon whom be peace. Such is the level of degeneration among officials of Muslim regimes.
Muslimedia: August 16-31, 1998
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