(LifeSiteNews) — Persecution of the Catholic Church is on the rise in the Portuguese-speaking African nation of Guinea-Bissau, one of the world’s poorest countries where relations between Muslims and Christians have been historically good and peaceful, a Catholic radio broadcaster warned last week.
In an interview with Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), the director of Guinea-Bissau’s only diocesan radio station, Casimiro Jorge Cajucam, sent out an alert that the country was turning into an “Islamic state.”
“First was the attack, never seen in Guinea-Bissau, on a church. It was July. Then, in September, the government decides to suspend tax exemptions to the Catholic Church. In the midst of all this and for some time, there is proliferating throughout the country the construction of new mosques,” ACN reported from the interview.
According to the report, when in July the news of the vandalism of the Catholic Church in Gabu circulated across the country, citizens were shocked, “not least because relations between religious communities, between Christians and Muslims, have always been very good.”
“It was very amazing because it was the first time this has happened in a country where the relationship between religions, the relationship between Muslims and Christians is extremely good,” Cajucam told ACN.
However, Catholics were further dismayed at the public response of President Umaro Sissoco Embaló, a Muslim who minimized the gravity of the attack and the efforts to hold those responsible accountable. “It makes us all worried,” Cajucam remarked. “It was an unfortunate statement. I was hoping later for an apology from the president, but unfortunately it never happened.”
Speaking of the government’s decision to withdraw the tax exemption status of the Catholic Church and to equate it to a simple Non-Governmental Organization, Cajucam said he thought the point was clearly to render its influence ineffective.
“It’s to cut off the legs of the Catholic Church,” he said. “The Catholic Church is one of the only entities in the country with moral authority, with credibility, it is difficult to be dragged into political whims and of course it becomes a target to shoot down. The goal, for me, is to mutilate the efforts, the actions of the Catholic Church that almost does what the government should do.”
The radio broadcaster then related that over the past decade the country has monetary incentives for Christians to convert to Islam.
“In the last 10 years, hundreds of mosques have been built,” he said. “There is a proliferation of mosques in Guinea-Bissau that are funded by very wealthy Arab countries. There are people in the villages, Christians and non-Christians, who are funded to convert to Islam. We are facing this threat.”
Aid to the Church in Need is an international foundation established after the Second World War by a Dutch Norbertine priest, Fr. Werenfried van Straaten, originally from the Abbey of Tongerlo, who later joined St. Michael’s Abbey in Orange, California. The foundation was originally created to assist German refugees and Christians behind the Iron Curtain and now serves persecuted Christians suffering throughout the world.
In an April 2021 report on religious liberty throughout the world, ACN cited official data of the UN and declared that Guinea-Bissau did not have the resources to face or overcome the “growing threat of terrorism and organized crime.” The report also stated it expected these “threats will increase” and that “terrorist groups and jihadist criminals have taken advantage of the political instability and fragility of the state to enter and leave the country easily,” using the country for logistical and financial purposes.
Cajucam concluded that it was clear that some in government want to turn the nation into an Islamic state, which would prove a further threat to the Catholic Church and Christians living there. “There are politicians who are trying everything to transform Guinea-Bissau, to take it from a secular state to put it as an Islamic state,” he said. “There is that trend and that is a threat.”