British Christian receives police protection from Muslim death threats

A woman who goes by the name "Hannah" has been placed under police protection after receving death threats from her familiy for becoming a Christian.

Hannah, 32, is the daughter of a British Muslim imam in Lancashire. Since converting to Christianity 15 years ago she has been forced to move house 45 times in order to escape her family, reports Times Online.

When she was 16 she ran away from home in order to escape from an arranged marriage and subsequently became a Christian. Last month the threats being made against her started to become more serious leading the police to give her protection.

She was speaking the evening before the opening of Lapido Media, a charity aiming to promote "religious literacy" in world affairs.

Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, Bishop of Rochester, who himself had to flee religious persecution in Pakistan, will say at the charity event that Muslims wishing to convert to Christianity in Britain live in fear for their lives due to Muslim apostasy laws.

The bishop claimes that the "freedom to believe" is threatened by negative Islamic attitudes to conversion. He is also going to urge society to give greater protection by increasing understanding of the things that make people more vulnerable, reports Times Online.

Hannah was forced to go into hiding after her house was attacked by men armed with knives axes and hammers in 1994. One of her brothers recently sent her a text message saying that he could not be responsible for his actions should she fail to convert back to Islam. She now gives talks to churches on Islam.

She said, "I know the Koran says that anyone who goes away from Islam should be killed as an apostate so in some ways my family are following the Koran. They are following Islam to the word. But I do not think every Muslim would actually act on that," according to Times Online

A Policy Exchange study discovered earlier this year that 36 per cent of 16-24 year old Muslims believed that converting from Islam should be punished by death.