UK Judge Recognizes Grave Threat Posed to Converts from Islam to Christianity
| More news stories on Britain |
|---|
Jay Sekulow, Beliefnet, October 1, 2008
We recently received word of a landmark victory for religious freedom in a case we’re handling in the United Kingdom. We represent a Syrian married couple who are both former Muslims who became evangelical Christians. The husband was training to be a radical Muslim imam, but in 2003, he became a Christian and informed his family of his conversion. His family members told him that, if he did not return to Islam, they would “wash their shame,” meaning that he would be put to death. He left Syria for the United Arab Emirates and hid from his family out of fear that he might be found and harmed.
The couple received threats after beginning to share their Christian faith with Muslims on the Internet, including receiving a video of a beheading. The husband learned that his father and other people upset over his conversion to Christianity were looking for him and that his father had obtained a Syrian court order to the police to locate him. Due to the risk of death they both faced, the couple traveled to the United Kingdom, with the support of their local church, and sought asylum. They have continued to share their Christian faith during their time in the U.K.
If they were to be deported to Syria, they would face a clear risk of death under Sharia law due to their conversion to Christianity. Many converts from Islam to Christianity face great risk to their well being, including death, for accepting Christ and sharing their faith because apostasy—changing one’s religion from Islam to another faith—is a crime punishable by death under Sharia law. In addition, the United States Department of State has documented the Syrian government’s long and uninterrupted history of engaging in gross human rights violations including arbitrary arrest, forced disappearance, incommunicado detention, torture, and death.
We worked in conjunction with our international affiliate in defending the couple. In what is believed to be the first decision of its kind, an immigration court of appeals in the U.K. granted the couple asylum and noted the particular danger that Muslims who become evangelical Christians and share their faith in Muslim countries face. The court considered testimony on the fact that Muslim converts who become evangelical Christians face particular harm in Syria:
[W]hilst the Syrian Government may allow those who are already Christians to practise their religion, albeit within harsh and restricted guidelines, the condition of the Muslim convert to Christianity is one of life and death. Muslim converts are immediately disowned by their families and subsequently subject to a death threat issued by the local mosque. . . . [N]ot only would Syrian Muslims who had converted to Christianity be murdered for forsaking Islam but their murderers would go unpunished. Evangelising in Syria is permitted under the Constitution [but] is found to have the effect of “disturbing the public order.” The practise is highly discouraged and subjected to prosecution.The court determined that the couple would be “at risk” of harm from their family and the authorities because they became evangelical Christians. The judge concluded: “In my judgment the evidence points in the direction of the Appellant’s contention that were he to return to Syria he not only could not practise his religion but he would also be in fear of his life.”
This case will serve as a powerful precedent to defend the lives and well-being of Muslim converts to Christianity around the world in future cases. At the same time, however, converts from Islam to other faiths continue to face grave danger. It has been reported that Iran’s parliament has approved a law that would require the death penalty for anyone convicted of apostasy. According to the report, under current Iranian law, apostasy is punishable by death, but the final decision rests with a judge. The report also states: “The new law is being debated in the Majlis of Iran (that nation’s parliament) and would mandate the death penalty for apostasy. . . . Only days before the vote, two Christian men were charged with apostasy and are still in custody. Iran is listed as a ‘country of particular concern’ by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, and is ranked third on Open Doors’ ‘World Watch List’ for countries with the worst persecution of Christians.”
Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “[e]veryone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief. . . .”
However, Iran and other extremist Muslim countries have placed adherence to Sharia law above the recognition of universal human rights.
Barry, I’m sure you would agree that all governments—including Muslim governments—have a moral and legal obligation to respect the freedoms of speech and religion, including the right to change one’s religion and share one’s religious faith with others, right?
(Posted on October 3, 2008)
Comments
Well, I don’t know why this guy thinks the UK is his refuge, the British seem bound and determined to enact Sharia law there as well. He could very well meet his end on an English street as he could in Syria at the hands of his own relatives. It wouldn’t surprise me either if England doesn’t grant this mans jihadist relatives “asylum” as well so they can “wash their shame”.
Posted by RHG at 8:40 PM on October 3
The greatest threat overall for Western nations are the PC radicals on the left.
But the biggest physical threat to the West are those who are governed by Sharia law. If they aren’t murdering anybody for converting to another religion, or stoning someone to death for a domestic infraction, or cutting off a hand or a foot for pilfering something, or cutting out a tongue for uttering blasphemous remarks, or beheading someone just to show they mean business, then they’re practicing in jihadist camps on how to be a more effective terrorist in order to murder as many innocent civilians as possible. And these incidents, as we all know, are numerous and occur often.
Yet the radical left is strangely silent about the threat these people pose. In fact they never complain at all about them, no matter if they’ve just blown up a bus in London, or murdered a daughter for being a slut, because she wore lipstick once.
But these same leftist crazies shreik hysterically, if a Christian inadvertendly includes God in one of his statements about appealing for help from a higher power. They also solemnly warn about the destruction of everything good if it looks like a Christian politician might be elected.
While the jihadists are a grave threat to peace, they’re mere pikers compared to the leftist nut cases, who have caused more harm to the West than thousands of bombings. It’s vitally important that we somehow make these people irrelevant by any means necessary, because they’re the greatest enemies we have.
Posted by Robert Kelly at 9:48 PM on October 3
Oh great! Now any Muslim who wants to move to Britain can claim to be a Christian and get asylum? I’ll bet there is no penalty for continuing to attend Mosque or even convert back to Islam, right? The flood gates will open.
Posted by Jill at 11:01 PM on October 3
More of that Muslim love and tolerance we keep reading about in the liberal run mass media. The judge figured it out. When will western civilization figure it out?
Posted by Unemployed WASP at 12:13 AM on October 4
We represent a Syrian married couple who are both former Muslims who became evangelical Christians. The husband was training to be a radical Muslim imam…
In what is believed to be the first decision of its kind, an immigration court of appeals in the U.K. granted the couple asylum and noted the particular danger that Muslims who become evangelical Christians and share their faith in Muslim countries face. The court considered testimony on the fact that Muslim converts who become evangelical Christians face particular harm in Syria.
—————————
The article continually placed an emphasis on “evangelical” Christians. I wonder if this makes a difference. Would other Christians be treated more leniently? That seems to be the implication. No other Christian sects are even mentioned.
Obviously, this couple was searching for something else, something better. But as far as I’m concerned, they’re still barking up the wrong tree. The improvement they’ve found is minimal. How pathetic. But I still support their right to have their opinion.
I note, too, the emphasis here just on Syria and Iran, as menaces to freedom, when in fact there are other Islamic states (eg. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia) that are even worse. I therefore have to wonder if this article is just another piece of neocon agitprop preparing us for war against just certain targeted countries.
Posted by at 4:49 AM on October 4
Christianity is the brand of the white race, and we practice it according to our unique values.
Foreigners may apply to convert, but they’d be better off sticking to a religion to which they have a genuine cultural connection to.
Exclusivity is a strength, not diversity.
Posted by at 6:44 PM on October 4
Since the West seems to be the default dumping ground for the world’s persecuted, we find the West gradually disappearing. Perhaps the West should re-conquer part of Africa and simply designate that area as a refuge for the world’s downtrodden. That way there would be a place for persecuted people to go to and the West would still retain its own identity. Uganda comes to mind…
Posted by jewamongyou at 7:49 PM on October 4
Christianity is the brand of the white race, and we practice it according to our unique values.
Foreigners may apply to convert, but they’d be better off sticking to a religion to which they have a genuine cultural connection to.
———————————-
I have news for you. There was Christianity in Syria long before there was Christianity in Europe. (And long before there was Islam in Syria.)
Posted by at 10:05 PM on October 4
The UK is well on its way to becoming the Unknown Kingdom or Airstrip One. The land of Keats, Dickens, Shakespeare, Lennon and McCartney, and Jagger and Richards is just about extinct.
Posted by at 1:56 PM on October 5
To all Christian posters here, especially Robert Kelly: Please try to realize that in the fight against the imposition of Sharia law in Britain and elsewhere, the atheists are not your enemies. We are on your side! I would refer you to the videos of Pat Condell on YouTube, and many others. Atheists are people who question everything, and though I don’t really know for sure, I would guess that only a small minority of atheists are swallowing this dogma of multiculturalism. It is mostly the wimpy moderate Christians and agnostics who believe in the moral relativism of other cultures, and that everyone has a right to their culture regardless of whatever barbaric practices they espouse. Most atheists have a very strong sense of right and wrong, and we know that Sharia law is just plain wrong. Never mind whether you think that we have any way of justifying that w/o a belief in God, and if you don’t believe me, ask an atheist and you will find that on this subject we are in full agreement with you. So try not to slam people that are some of your strongest, most articulate allies in this fight by ranting about how “these … leftist crazies shreik hysterically, if a Christian inadvertendly includes God in one of his statements…” People who are in favor of the separation of church and state are not automatically “leftist crazies,” and they are not trying to take your religion away from you. Please try to recognize who your allies are, even if you think they make strange bedfellows.
Posted by Paul at 5:44 PM on October 5
Not only are Islamists a threat in the UK, they are also becoming a threat in the USA. Radical Islam has declared war on the entire world & are dead set on World Domination. Either comply & convert or die. Religious Tolerance does not exist. They are making inroads in many States & get “Special Privileges” not afforded to any other Religion. Muslims at Tyson Foods in Tennessee, are allowed to pray twice a day on Company time (in a room for Muslims only. They also have a religious holiday to replace Labor Day. Most are Somali Immigrants (40% of the employees). A Minnisota College has bowed to pressure to allow foot baths & a prayer room for Muslims as well. Christians, Jews & other religions don’t have that option & pretains to Muslims only. The Muslim Lobbyists are aligning themselves with Liberal Left Democrats & would like nothing better than Sharia Law imposed in the USA.
Posted by OldNyFirefighter at 9:47 PM on October 5
More of the usual; anytime the practicioners of the “religion of peace” don’t like something, beheading the source of their irritation is their first inclination.
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 4:09 PM on October 6
“Minnesota College has bowed to pressure to allow foot baths & a prayer room for Muslims as well. Christians, Jews & other religions don’t have that option & pertains to Muslims only.”
I am quite certain that pig feces copiously applied to the Muslim footbaths would have an impact. Also pig feces copiously applied to copies of the Koran and left on the floor of their prayer room would send a clear message to these unwanted, unwelcome Lucifer (Allah) worshiping medieval madmen…
Posted by at 5:12 PM on October 6
Muslim footbaths and bacon grease: an idea who’s time has come.
There isn’t much else one can do with bacon grease, anyway.
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 2:50 PM on October 7