Riots in Kenya left four people dead and a Christian church damaged on Friday following the murder of a Muslim cleric the night before, the Los Angeles Times reported.
According to the Kenya Red Cross Society, another seven people were left injured from the incident.
After Friday prayers, Muslim protesters flooded the streets of Mombasa causing schools and businesses the close down as violence began.
Last month's attack at Westgate Mall in Nairobi, carried out by Somali terrorist group Al Shabaab, caused religious and ethnic tension to erupt between Kenya and the neighboring Somalia, both of which have split populations of Christians and Muslims.
Although political leaders have called for peace and unity, many Kenyans have physically and verbally expressed that they want the Somalis out. Even police forces have been accused of interrogating Somalis in Kenya for being associated with the terrorist attack simply for their ethnic background.
On Thursday evening, Sheik Ibrahim Rogo Omar and three others were shot and killed by unidentified gunmen on their way home from Masjid Musa mosque, where Rogo was preaching. The mosque is known for promoting a radical sect of Islam.
Muslim protesters in Mombasa accused the government's Anti-terrorism Police Unit for Thursday's killings.
"The ATPU were here. Why have they run way? What are we going to do next? And why are they killing us? We have not killed any one but the police are killing innocent Muslims," said a Mombasa cleric, Sheik Abubakar Sheriff, also known as Makaburi, according to Kenya's Daily Nation. He also said claimed the killing was an assassination in revenge for the mall attack.
Makaburi added that the United States, Israel, and other Western governments influenced Rogo's murder because they "do not want Muslims to talk about jihad."
According to a recent report by the United Nations, Makaburi was connected to a terror threat in East Africa for allegedly providing guidance to terror groups, although he denies this claim. He is under U.N. sanction for being "a leading facilitator and recruiter of young Kenyan Muslims for violent militant activity in Somalia."
