In a miraculous turn of events, a group of Kenyan Christian were saved from imminent death after the bus they were traveling in was accosted by Islamic extremists - thanks to the actions of heroic Muslims.
According to Reuters, the terrorists, thought to belong to the Somali-based Al Shabab militant group, killed two people and wounded four others in the attack in Mandera, in northeast Kenya, before ordering the Muslim passengers separate themselves from the Christians - but the Muslims on board refused to comply.
"We even gave some non-Muslims our religious attire to wear in the bus so that they would not be identified easily. We stuck together tightly," Abdi Mohamud Abdi, a Muslim who was among the passengers in Monday's incident, told Reuters.
"The militants threatened to shoot us but we still refused and protected our brothers and sisters. Finally they gave up and left but warned that they would be back," he said.
"The locals showed a sense of patriotism and belonging to each other," said Roba, the county governor, explaining that the passengers insisted that al-Shabab either "kill them together or leave them alone."
Interior Minister Joseph Nkaisser also confirmed the account, telling the Agence France-Presse, "Militants told passengers to get off the bus...demanding that Muslims separate from Christians, but they refused."
Al Shabab's military spokesman Sheik Abdiasis Abu Musab said the terrorist group took responsibility for the attack, telling Reuters, "Some of the Christian enemies died and others were injured."
Open Doors USA ranks Kenya 19th on its World Watch List of countries where Christians face the most persecution.
"Homegrown radical Muslims and militants crossing the border from Somalia are severely persecuting Christians," reads the report. "The government's approach to pushing for an unbalanced secularist agenda also has an impact on the Kenyan church, as some of the agenda being pushed by the government contradict with the values and principles of Christianity."
Last year, al-Shabab gunmen attacked a bus full of teachers in the same region, pulling 28 non-Muslim passengers from the vehicle and shooting them point blank, according to the Guardian.
The following month, the BBC reported, the militant group did the same to non-Muslim workers at a quarry near the Somali border and violently killed both Muslims and non-Muslims during deadly attacks in Kenya.
This past April, the terrorist group stormed Garissa University College in the same region, gunning down two security guards before singling out Christian students and killing 148 of them.
Speaking to the Agence France-Presse, Nkaisser applauded the Muslim Kenyans for their heroism during these latest attacks and emphasized that "these Muslims sent a very important message of the unity of purpose, that we are all Kenyans and that we are not separated by religion...Everybody can profess their own religion, but we are still one country and one people."
