From The Sunday Times September 16, 2007

By Abul Taher
entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/tls_selections/religion/article2461314.ece

Christian converts risk Muslim attack

ONE of Britain’s most senior bishops has warned that a sustained campaign by Muslim extremists to intimidate and attack converts to Christianity risks ending in a murder.

Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, says that the persecution of Christian converts from Islam is so widespread that it may be only a matter of time before there is an “honour killing” of a convert by family or relatives.

He spoke out as the Barnabas Fund, a charity that looks after persecuted Christians around the world, estimated that there are more than a thousand attacks each year against former Muslims across Britain.

Nazir-Ali, speaking on the Channel 4 Dispatches programme to be broadcast tomorrow, said: “We have seen honour killings have happened and there is no reason why this kind of thing cannot happen.” Asked if somebody would be killed soon, he said: “I think it is entirely possible.”

He blamed Muslim leaders for not teaching their followers about the importance of freedom of religion in Britain: “It’s not for me to put words into their mouths [Muslim leaders], but I would look to them to uphold basic civil liberties, including the right for people to believe what they wish to believe and even to change their beliefs if they wish to do so.”

The Barnabas Fund has uncovered widespread abuse against new converts, from being verbally abused and spat at to being assaulted by gangs of men on the street and left for dead. In some cases it believes that women converts were abducted to Pakistan.

Nissar Hussein, 41, a hospital nurse from Bradford, converted to Christianity 10 years ago after the death of his younger brother. Shortly after his conversion he also persuaded his wife Kubra, 37, to convert from Islam.

Since then the Husseins and their five children have been subjected to daily abuse and violence by local Muslims in Bradford. Their windows have been smashed, vandals have daubed “Christian dog” on their front gate and their children have been sworn at and spat at on their way home from school. The family have received death threats.

Hussein says in the programme: “They told me categorically had I been in an Islamic country, ie Pakistan, the Middle East, that they would actually be the first to chop off my head.” The Husseins moved out of their home after six years, fearing they would be killed.

Research by the Barnabas Fund indicates that there are an estimated 3,000 Muslim converts to Christianity in Britain. About 2,000 of them are Iranians, while the rest are from the Indian subcontinent and Afghanistan.

Patrick Sookhdeo, director of the Barnabas Fund, said: “I think the situation is worsening in the UK because we are moving towards parallel communities - I don’t like to use the workd ghettoisation. Muslims feel abandoning their religion is like a betrayal.” He added that attacks on converts was a type of Islamic extremism against a minority group.