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 October 1, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Mr. Sekulow, it is wonderful to see you turning to the Universal Declaration on Human Rights as a source of authority in this case. I hope that marks the beginning of a positive trend for your organization, which has a history of avoiding the document like the plague.
posted October 1, 2008 at 5:04 pm
Actually we have had several cases at the European Court of Human Rights. We have invoked the Declaration and Charter regularly.
posted October 1, 2008 at 7:58 pm
As an atheist but also a regular listener to Jay’s show, I almost always disagree with the stance ACLJ takes on issues. Not always though and this case is a prime example of the ACLJ doing something I’m completely supportive of. Another more important issue points up why I am a regular listener to this show. This is this defamation of religion act that is under some kind of consideration in the UN. I wouldn’t know anything about this at all if Jay Sekulow hadn’t mentioned this thing on the air. Again of course, I completely support anything ACLJ can do to rid our world of this horrible atrocity in the making. I’m flabbergasted that the mainstream media not to mention the rest of the Christian media doesn’t even seem to be aware of this defamation of religion act. What’s up with that may I ask?
posted October 1, 2008 at 10:03 pm
Boris- We actually have a team in New York City tonight working on the Defamation of Religion issue. Last week our ECLJ Director testified before the UN on the issue. Go to eclj.org for more information. Thanks for listening to the radio broadcast.
posted October 2, 2008 at 8:50 am
Dear Mr. Sekulow,
Thanks for taking on this most important human rights issue of our era: the threat of orthodox Islamic Law–Shari’a–to the Western concept of freedom of conscience. But it is tragic that the individual most suited to take on this transcendant issue–Barack Obama has responded with silence—and worse, as I described at length in an essay published 9/111/08 http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/09/obama_911_and_freedom_of_consc.html
My conclusion compares Barack Obama’s silence and shrill accusations to the words and deeds of my dear colleague and “apostate” (what an absurd term in the year 2008!) from Islam, the great scholar, Ibn Warraq:
Ibn Warraq’s formal childhood experience of Islam mirrored Barack Obama’s — it was no more extensive. Yet despite copious evidence to the contrary, Barack Obama has gone to great lengths to deny even a nominal childhood Muslim upbringing. These repeated, often shrill and accusatory denials are accompanied by a disturbing, if predictable silence: not once has Senator Obama celebrated the remarkable freedom of conscience he had here in America to decide in his mid to late 20s that he would practice Christianity openly, and devotedly, absent any consideration of his childhood Muslim background.
Mr. Obama has thus far squandered the unparalleled opportunity to highlight and extol a profoundly important virtue of this flawed, but still great country of ours, personified by his life story: America’s singular, unwavering support for true freedom of conscience.
Surely if Obama is to live up to his followers (and his own) pretensions of being a “transformative” figure, then he should be ready to elucidate, frankly, the utter lack of freedom of conscience in the Muslim world, relative to the US; why his own life trajectory demonstrates this difference; and how the fight against global jihadism is, at its core, about the protection of this most profoundly important Western ideal. Let us hope that Obama’s involvement with the 7th annual commemoration of September 11, 2001 will give him pause to reflect upon these matters, and discuss them, becoming a true “agent of change.” And should Senator Obama need any further inspiration, I suggest he have a long conversation with Ibn Warraq.
Sincerely,
Andrew G. Bostom, MD, MS
http://www.andrewbostom.org
posted October 7, 2008 at 2:26 am
How do you know they will be safe in England? Their are radicals there too.
posted September 10, 2009 at 7:40 pm
I am glad that this case will serve as precedent for those who seek religious asylum from Sharia law. I am appalled that Syrian Muslims, as well as others from around the globe, hold Sharia law over their commitment made to adhere to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. All people should be free to worship and express their religious values without fear of retaliation as long as their acts do not hurt others.
posted September 23, 2009 at 5:29 am
This is a very interesting case, indeed. Is it possible to have its reference?
posted October 23, 2009 at 9:48 am
my name is fakhar, iam from pakistan,Now iam living in UAE as Emplyee i face the difficulties about my faith, i cant understand
to what to do. when i was in pakistan my relatives
were upset with me to not did something like them.
i know i born a muslim but why cannot i change my faith.
my heart tell me that i have another faith and i cannot speak
any body about it.if i says something about my faith then
my ralatives does not accept me as a christian even they murdered me.
i love to stay in Church and say something with closing eyes.
(God, make me brave for life: oh, braver than this.
Let me straighten after pain, as a tree straightens after the rain,
Shining and lovely again.
God, make me brave for life; much braver than this.
As the blown grass lifts, let me rise
From sorrow with quiet eyes,
Knowing Thy way is wise.
God, make me brave, life brings
Such blinding things.
Help me to keep my sight;
Help me to see aright
That out of dark comes light)
(Fakhar)
posted October 23, 2009 at 9:50 am
my name is fakhar, iam from pakistan,Now iam living in UAE as Emplyee i face the difficulties about my faith, i cant understand
to what to do. when i was in pakistan my relatives
were upset with me to not did something like them.
i know i born a muslim but why cannot i change my faith.
my heart tell me that i have another faith and i cannot speak
any body about it.if i says something about my faith then
my ralatives does not accept me as a christian even they murdered me.
i love to stay in Church and say something with closing eyes.
(God, make me brave for life: oh, braver than this.
Let me straighten after pain, as a tree straightens after the rain,
Shining and lovely again.
God, make me brave for life; much braver than this.
As the blown grass lifts, let me rise
From sorrow with quiet eyes,
Knowing Thy way is wise.
God, make me brave, life brings
Such blinding things.
Help me to keep my sight;
Help me to see aright
That out of dark comes light)
(Fakhar)
posted October 25, 2009 at 1:31 am
Fakhar this is the United States. We’re all way too self absorbed to care about your problems. By the way Jesus Christ never existed so you might as well forget the religion nonsense.
posted November 10, 2009 at 8:02 pm
Boris, clearly you have never met the presence of God, or felt his abounding love personally or his loving embrace. In reality, Fahkar is far better off with his problems than you are with denying the existence of Jesus Christ. First, close your eyes and say, “Jesus, if you’re really real, show me.” You are loved Boris.
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