Why a Christian in Somalia will not hide his faith

"Somali Christians are among the most extremely persecuted in the world. You could be sitting in a cafeteria, enjoying your meal, and somebody could come and attempt to decapitate you, to cut your head off." Aweis Ali doesn't hold back in sharing the realities of being a Somali Christian, particularly in Somalia.
  Aweis mostly grew up on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia's capital, as the son of a Muslim cleric who was preparing Aweis to follow in his footsteps. For Somali people, being Somali is synonymous with being Muslim, but when Aweis heard the gospel over the radio, his life was forever changed.

He would use the radio to learn English, listening to the BBC World Service for hours every day. Suddenly, through the white noise of the radio trying to find a foothold in the different stations, there came the sound of Somali worship. 

For Somali people, being Somali is synonymous with being Muslim. When Aweis heard a Somali proclaim Jesus Christ, it was both strange and wonderful.  

“Instead of finding the BBC English service, I heard a radio ministry,” he remembers. “I said to myself, ‘Whoa, these are Somali people who are preaching Christ!’”  

In the following days, Aweis kept tuning in to find out more about Jesus. He even wrote to the radio ministry to ask for Bible study materials and a New Testament. He received it by post, not even considering what his family may think or what danger it could cause. This was many years ago when the postal system was still working in Somalia.

  "[My father] said, 'I cannot stop you from reading your Bible, but if you become a Christian, I will be the one to kill you.' And that's when I realized, it could really cost me my life. So, I kept a low profile from that day on."

"When I chose to become a Christian three years later, I was cut off," Aweis says. "I was an outcast, someone who had defiled the family name. There were threats against my life, and it was very painful."


 

Finding fellowship

For seven years, Aweis walked alone, clinging to Christ but increasingly overwhelmed by loneliness. His desperation drove him to talk to someone who he thought must be a Christian. The risks were immense. 
 
“I said, ‘I need fellowship, do you happen to know any Somali Christians?’ She told me, “Wait here,” and left, for much longer than I expected,” Aweis recalls. “She came back with a young man, whom she introduced as Liban*.

“I later learned from Liban that she’d gone back to her office and prayed to Jesus to reveal if I was a genuine Christian looking for fellowship, or a mole trying to collect names and information to persecute the church. She prayed for about 20 minutes until God confirmed that I was safe.” 

Through this step of faith, he found a fellow believer – an entirely unthinkable discovery in Somalia. 

  “It was like the whole world was open to me,” he says. “What was once seen as impossible became possible, because God was in it.” 

Together, they started looking for more believers. Little by little their community grew, and they reached 14.  

“It was the happiest time I’d had, since I’d come to the Lord,” Aweis explains. God had made the impossible possible.
 

A hunted house church

However, it wasn’t long before persecution began to catch up with them.  

"That's when the persecution started," Aweis says. "Liban was the first to be killed… Within a short time, another person was killed. So, we had no doubt that we were being targeted."

"But we had started receiving visions and dreams from God," Aweis continues. "We were receiving these regular affirmations that [the persecution] would continue, and it would get bad, but at the end of the day we would emerge stronger."

Shockingly, after a couple of years only two members remained. The rest were martyred for their faith.

"I'd lost almost all my friends," Aweis says. "I couldn't eat, and I lost so much weight. I couldn't sleep due to the constant threats and spiritually I was not doing well."
 

'The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church'

Aweis fled the country, and whilst recuperating in another country, Aweis was given the opportunity to attend theological college by a missionary couple, giving him the strength and support he needed to continue his ministry. As Tertullian, the early Christian church father from North Africa famously said, 'The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church'."

Today, Aweis is a scholar, prolific author, bible translator and continues to minister to Somali believers in the Horn of Africa through discipleship and leadership training.
 

Aweis is bold in his assurance. "Some Somali Christians now believe, and I'm one of them, that the era of hiding is over," he says. "We will not live in fear. We refuse to be intimidated. We refuse for our existence to be denied. We want to show the world and the Somali people that we do exist."

For Aweis, this means that he doesn't hide his face, as you can see in the photo above. But it's not foolhardiness: "Being bold, also requires wisdom," he says. "We can't be too timid, but we can't be foolish. Most Somali Christians in Somalia who are under the sword want to remain underground, and there's nothing wrong with that because it's an extremely volatile situation. They have to be very careful, and we respect that. But those Somali Christians who have the freedom to speak up, who have the privilege to say, 'We are followers of Christ, and we do not apologize for it', should do it."


 

'The Holy Spirit can penetrate every wall'

However, Aweis' bold choice to be open with his faith, identity, and ministry is not without real risk.

"I receive constant threats, regular emails, WhatsApp messages, social media pages about me threatening my life," he says.

"It's true that the Somali church is the second or third most persecuted church in the world according to the World Watch List," Aweis says, "but do not feel bad for us. Rejoice with us because we're seen worthy to be persecuted as Christ was persecuted… Pray for us to be stronger spiritually, that we thrive in the midst of persecution, that we become more Christ-like."

That's where everything begins for Aweis: The desire to see more and more people encounter the saving love and grace of Jesus. "We want the persecutors to follow the Lord," he says. "We want God to open their eyes."

Aweis concludes: "There is no place where Christ cannot be followed. It's impossible. The Holy Spirit can penetrate every wall."