Release warns of persecution threat against British Muslim converts
Posted: Monday, July 7, 2008, 13:08 (BST)
"Everyone in the local Muslim community knew I was a Christian and didn't want to know me. People would cross the street rather than greet me and often spat in my face. They tried to pressure me to leave town. But I had already been chased out of one town so I was determined not to let them intimidate me."
Yasmin is now working to support other Muslim background believers who are experiencing the same pressures and persecution.
She adds: "One of the most difficult things about becoming a Christian from a Muslim background is losing your family. There are such tight family networks in our communities. If someone becomes a Christian then they are considered to bring shame on the whole family and the only response is to cut them out of the family."
Some Muslim background believers in the UK lose their homes, possessions and even custody of their children - a picture replicated in many nations around the world, where former Muslims may even lose their lives for changing their faith.
Release International's patron, Bishop Michael Nazir Ali has also been under police protection after receiving death-threats for expressing his concerns about some aspects of Islam in Britain. He endured similar threats in his homeland Pakistan, but never expected the same thing to happen in the UK.
Bishop Nazir-Ali said: "The story of the church is a story of persecution. The blood of the martyrs has been, and is, and will be the seed of the church."
Release International's CEO Andy Dipper said: "Release has seen many such cases around the world. Now these things are beginning to happen in the UK.
"Converts from a Muslim background may be traumatised, having faced intense pressure, threats, blackmail and the loss of their families and homes. They often have to cope with either secrecy or intimidation, and may need emotional and spiritual counselling.
"These new Christians may have material needs, such as for shelter, food and clothing. We need to be hands-on in our help and to open the doors of our homes. We also need to equip and train more churches here in Britain in how they can best support new church members from a Muslim background."
Through its international network of missions Release International supports Christians imprisoned for their faith and their families in 30 nations. It supports church workers, pastors and their families, and provides training, Bibles, Christian literature and broadcasts. Release International is a member of the UK organisations Global Connections, the Evangelical Alliance and the Micah Network.
Yasmin's story is in the latest edition of Release International's Witness magazine, available from www.releaseinternational.org
The comments below are readers' personal opinions and are in no way intended to reflect the editorial opinion of Christian Today.
Added: Friday, July 11, 2008, 12:58 (BST)
I am glad that we have the 2nd Amendment in America, here she could protect herself from such savages.
Colt, USA
Added: Wednesday, July 9, 2008, 14:21 (BST)
Chris Maguire
Correction - in the Iranian Parliament they announced that there are 1 million converts to Christianity in Iran - and that there was an exodus from Islam.
They have been seeking the death penalty and imprisonment for those Iranians who have converted from Islam to Christianity.
If government statistics cite 1 million converts - there could likely be 2 - 4 times this amount as most church services are held in secret within people homes.
What is worrying - is that if they start killing Christian en masse - it could amount to a genocide.
Marie, London
Added: Tuesday, July 8, 2008, 18:29 (BST)
Why do people who receive Jesus into their lives continue to remain Christians even after the most dire pressure exerted on them to recant? What is it about Jesus that holds Christians so tightly to Him?
True Christians ought to know the answer, but often we don't even know why we are Christians at all. We forget, or find ourselves in deep, comfortable ruts. And get all screwed up about women priests, or the role of the church buildings in our communities. This story should be posted on all the front doors of all our churches, and be used to shake us out of our complacency. Christianity is being squeezed and denigrated beyond what is reasonable to prick our own sense of pompousness. True Christians need to wake up.
Also, Iran has passed a law to arrest converts to Christianity, from Islam, and taken to prison until they recant. Only God knows what will happen to them to make them do that, or what may happen if they don't. And there are over 60,000 Christians in Iran - what of them?
Does the church in the UK know, or care, about it; will the General Synod, or the Lambeth Conference delegates, discuss the situation and resolve to do something about it; are Christians praying about these things effectively, or are they just relying on the tired old liturgical formularies to cover the situations? We don't know that we are alive. If persecution ever comes to these shores in a big way - you know where it could come from, just read the papers - then we Christians will be in trouble, and no amount of hand-wringing, PC, liberal kow-towing will be enough to stop it - whether the persecution is via statutary means or otherwise!
Christians, PRAY!!
Chris Maguire, Ventnor, IoW
Added: Tuesday, July 8, 2008, 9:22 (BST)
No one wants to see the suppression of human rights and death threats. However are we always aware of the major sociological problems encountered when a Muslim becomes a Christian. I sense that there are issues which need to be examined very closely before blithely talking about conversion.
For many years I was associated with the Cape Malay community in Cape Town. I found their society to be harmonious, and the support of the extended family was deeply valued by them. I am afraid I have to admit that western Christianity has very little to offer in that regard. Quite aside from that there are very good reason why Muslims have an intense hatred for all things Christian. I know many will counter 'ah yes, but that is not true christianity'. Well that may be the case, but that is the way Christians are perceived by Muslims, and we need to change that perception rather than unsettle a society which has a great deal to offer the individual.
GORDON, Haddenham, United Kingdom
