Evangelical Alliance Responds to Dispatches' Persecution Programme

The Evangelical Alliance has responded to last week's Dispatches programme on Channel 4 which claimed to have uncovered evidence of the "violence and intimidation facing Muslims who convert to Christianity in Britain".

In the programme, Dispatches reporter Antony Barnett met former Muslims who said they were living under the threat of reprisals from their former communities, including a family which has been driven out of its home and a convert whose brother was beaten close to death.

The investigation uncovered a network of churches supporting converts from Islam who have to worship under a veil of secrecy.

The programme estimated there are as many as 3,000 Muslims who have converted to Christianity living in Britain.

The Evangelical Alliance, which claims to represent more than a million evangelicals across the UK, was mentioned in the programme for its recently published report 'Alltogether for Asylum Justice'.

The EA responded by saying that the report looked specifically at the issue of conversion and persecution of asylum seekers. It added that the Alliance is committed to ensuring that asylum seekers are not sent back to countries where they could suffer serious religious persecution.

"The report is clear that the Alliance is only interested in genuine cases of conversion. Genuineness can only be assured with a review of Home Office questioning, which we currently believe to be inconsistent and often poorly informed," a statement released by the EA reads.

In the documentary the Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Dr Michael Nazir-Ali said that people should all uphold civil liberties and the right for people to believe what they want to believe.

David Muir, Public Policy Director of the Evangelical Alliance, said: "As the Bishop of Rochester made clear; religion is a matter of choice. Freedom of speech and freedom of religion are two sides of the same coin."