U.S. missionaries charged over anti-Muslim pamphlets

U.S. missionaries charged over anti-Muslim pamphlets
Kenya court could sentence Christians to 3 years in jail

Nairobi - A Kenyan court on Thursday charged four Christian missionaries, including two from the United States, with incitement for distributing anti-Muslim pamphlets outside the capital, officials said.

The four, identified as US nationals Andrew Saucier and Paul Garcia and Kenyans Michael Mullei and Patrick Mutinda, pleaded not guilty to the charges in a Nairobi court, they said.

Kibera district magistrate Hellen Wasilwa released them on cash bail of KES20 000 (about R2 000) each and set trial for October 23 in a case that has sparked outrage among local Muslims, the officials said.

If convicted, the missionaries could face three-year jail terms and fines, the officials said.

The four were arrested on Wednesday in Ngong, south of the capital, where they were allegedly distributing pamphlets that read "Prophet Mohammed is not a true prophet" and "Allah had no son", according to court documents.

The leaflets prompted dozens of infuriated Muslims to demonstrate late on Wednesday outside the Calvary Baptist Church where the four pastors worked in Ngong, about 32km from Nairobi.

In February, thousands of Muslims protested in Nairobi against the publication in western media of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed and more recently Kenya's Islamic community has complained of harassment and discrimination by police.

Between 10 and 30 percent of Kenya's population of some 32 million identify themselves as Muslims, according to various surveys and official statistics. The majority of Kenyans identify themselves as Christian.