From Times OnlineDecember 5, 2007

British imam's daughter under police protection after converting to ChristianityRuth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent of The Times
A British imam's daughter is living in fear of her life under police protection after she received death threats from her family for converting to Christianity.

The young woman, aged 32, whose father is a Muslim imam in the north of England, has moved house 45 times to escape detection by her family since she became a Christian 15 years ago.

Hannah, who uses a pseudonym to hide her identity, told The Times how she became a Christian after she ran away from home at 16 to escape an arranged marriage.

The threats against her became more serious a month ago, prompting police to offer her protection in case of an attempt on her life.

She was speaking on the eve of the launch of a new charity in London today to promote greater religious awareness. Muslims in Britain who wish to convert to Christianity are living in fear of their lives because of Islamic apostasy laws, a senior Church of England bishop will warn at the invitaton-only launch in west London.

The Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, will claim "freedom to believe" is under threat in Britain because of Islamic hostility to conversion.

Hannah, now employed in multi-faith youth work and who gives talks to churches on Islam, is the daughter of a Lancashire imam whose seven other children are demanding she return to Islam. She has been in hiding,

since her home was attacked by a group of men armed with knives, axes and hammers, in 1994. She will describe today how she is in fear of her life after the death threats against her were recently renewed.

She said: "I left home and I had nowhere to go. My religious education teacher gave me somewhere to live. Even though she tried to make me stay at home on Sundays, I am quite rebellious by nature and I started to go to church with her out of curiosity."

She said she had been in hiding, on and off, ever since, and has now been given a telephone number she can call for an instant response by police should she need help. The latest threat was a text message from one of her brothers, warning he could not be responsible for his actions if she did not return to Islam.

Hannah said she was looking forward to getting married so she could change her name and escape detection by her family. Not all Muslims in Britain are this extreme, she believes.

"It is representative of some Muslims. 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."

Earlier this year, a Policy Exchange study found that 36 per cent of British Muslims aged between 16 and 24 believed those who converted to another religion should be punished by death.

Dr Nazir-Ali will speak out on behalf of Hannah and others suffering persecution for their beliefs in the UK at today's launch of Lapido Media, a new charity which is seeking to promote "religious literacy" in world affairs.

The Bishop is expected to describe how sharia law in many countries, including parts of Britain, punishes apostasy with death and is viewed as treason by theocratic governments. Dr Nazir-Ali will call on society to offer greater protection, by increasing understanding of what makes people vulnerable.

Pakistan-born Dr Nazir-Ali, who has a Christian and Muslim background, is patron of Lapido Media, funded by donations and trusts including the Jerusalem Trust. The word ‘lapido’ means ‘to speak up for’ in the Acholi language of Northern Uganda. The charity has been named in honour of the courage of Acholi church leaders who campaigned for an end to a little-reported 20-year war there, involving the abduction of 25,000 children.

It's an absolute disgrace that this is happening in Britain.




I hope this horrible and dangerous brother is being prosecuted.



This is a worryingly high % .....but with the way things are going here...not all that surprising.

very sad. but there isn't any religion that isn't backwards in it's thinking somewhere either.

Well, the family was doing what the Koran says, literally. But I don't think that we should just kill them. I think by "killing them" it means to let them life on themselves and we only help them as we can. However, I think the family act rather on pride than on religious purpose, you know, a daughter of an Imam. Imagine a brother of an Archbishop convert into Islam or other religion. I guess their family and friends might do the same.

That's where you are WRONG. It's convenient to say it, to make it seem like any religious group might kill someone for converting, but it's just NOT true that Christians will kill a family member that converts to another religion. And whether you want to believe it or not, in America or Europe, I don't think you could find a single Christian that would even think of doing that, unlike Islam which encourages it and even requires it. It's barbaric. I'll say it again...Islam is no worse that Christianity, it's just that it's a thousand years behind the times. It's like a bronze-age religion trying to cope with a silicon-age society.

My step nephew converted to Islam. My sister in-law, a Christian woman, didn't want to kill him for that, fluking out of college yes, but not for converting to Islam. It is sad these people value their pride and their religion than their own children. Children don't really belong to us they belong to themselves and should be free to make their own choices whether we like it or not.
I think this is a time for Britain to take a stand on religious freedom and start putting people who threaten people lives because they exercise the right to religious freedom in jail. If these people want to live under Islamic law there are places like Iran where they can do that Britian is not one of them. We who live in secular nations like Britian don't live under religious law, like it or lump it.

Interesting way to put it egg. I hope we will see more and more Islamic religious leaders speak out against these types of actions, and I hope we will see more and more Muslims seek the more loving, less bloody interpretation of those Scriptures.

I've been saying this for the longest time, since before I ever knew about UM, back in the early 90's. It's like integrating the Laotians into America back in the 70's. The poor folks had no idea how "modern" society operated. They didn't understand plumbing, refrigerators, ovens, you name it. Sometimes it was funny, and they even laughed about it years later. But they just had no concept.

I see it the same with so much of the middle east, and even African countries. These people have automatic weapons and drive Mercedes Benz's, yet they still believe a wizard can curse them to get shingles and will murder witches in the streets. It's like the middle ages with palm-pilots.

I agree. It is pretty sad. It's almost like their idea of reality is totally different from ours.

gee what a wonderful non repressive religion islam is. And look even the brother says "he is not responsible for 'his' actions if she doesn't return". Well isn't that convenient, no wonder so many losers flock to this religion. If you join you get to be a complete tool and blame your actions on the scriptures. This is a religion for those who don't have the benefit of being able to read. Once you've read a few books you get to realize the entirety of the world. This religion promotes cave man type thinking. Its for those who don't have the sens ein their head god gave a knat.

I don't know much about Islam... so, I'd like to know if killing a convert to another religion is the standard procedure... just wondering

There's an interesting Wikipedia article about it.

In a nutshell, it suggests that there is no direct commandment to kill apostates in the Koran (the direct recitations of Mohammed), but that there ARE in the Hadiths'. (books written by Mohammeds companions, describing what the prophet did or said). Apparantly, however, it is generaly accepted under Sharia law that apostates must be executed.

This is a bit of a bummer, because although the Koran states "there is no compulsion in religion", it is also an Islamic tradition that anyone born a muslim is ALSO automaticly a Muslim, wether they like it or not.

Meow Purr.

What's really bizarre to me is that they both believe in God. It's not like she converted to Satanism or some other deity. And they wonder why there are so many people are starting to turn their backs on all religions.

Ooooooh you don't want to be doing that Glorybebe. Under Sharia, atheism is ALSO punishable by death

Meow Purr.

That's OK, I'm not an athiest...I am a well...not sure what I am! LOL! Oh, well, I will still be a target!

Unfortunately many educated moderate Muslims fear to comment on their own religion due to the threats that many receive! I do believe that religions can help many people but only if they evolve to incorporate the current social, political structures of the world today. I have many friends who are converts from Islam living in Britain and the fact that they live in fear in the 21st century is frankly utterly disgusting!

thanks ships-cat, it doesn't seem right that if you're born into Islam you're automatically a Muslim... no free will

Isn't that one of the fundamental points of Islam total submission to Allah?

Well said. I think the Hadiths (if I got the spelling right) are just another corruption of the truth of Islam and the Prophet, much like certain other books and people corrupted the truth of Christ. However, I have no ill will towards Muslims or Christians. People of faith do not offend me, and I support them fully. People of faith that have no brains and let a tin-pot preacher decide their morals for them, while cloaked in the sanctity of any religious text...they piss me off.

Unfortunately far too many people let this happen without speaking out!

I want protection too! Just kidding, The unconditional love of God goes against most mainstream religions who think God Hates some while loving others.
This love I speak of could get ones head chopped off.

I have 8 hand picked angels watching over my Family and I , so I'm not worried ,

I hope this girl makes a specticl of herself and wins a blow for freewill and love.

Love Omnaka

This is so true . Unfortunately .

THE BIG DIFFERENCE is the love OF CHRIST. A brother of an Archbishop? he can convert into induisms, or into whatever religion he wants to. And Chirst our Lord do not call for us to kill that person. ISLAM is dead wrong and antihuman, doing this. Is amazing people have to stay in a religion because if you dont do it, they may kill you. How wonderful is CHrist. He is the only God who die for you the other religions and gods that we know, you have to die for them. Did you ever thougth about that? Merry Christmas...

Hadiths is also one of the main source of Islamic law. However, it is less known that Hadiths is actually like a wikipedia, it's an open source. That's why I think it can be rather dangerous, should one person interprete something different or extremely different with the KORAN. I'll talk more about it later, really sorry I gotta go now.

You dont believe everything you read do you, i live in the Uk and near in te north of england, and i can tell you, its not real.Media likes to spin things all the time.. This is england, if she was commiting apostacy in an islamic state, then her punishment would be death, but guess what, there is no islamic state in the world today, muslims countries, yes, but secular in nature with a mix of islam, not a real islamic state. So no one could touch her if you converted to christianity. Its a rarety that a muslim converts from islam, and the ones that normally do, when you quiz them on what they really knew about islam, its normally very little. Regardless of whether the father is an imam or not. So dont believe everything you read, you cant murder poeple in england that easily, its not like the US, we dont have killing at that sort of rate.

Hadith is a science and its not open like wiki, where anyone can post their opinion, and its not even edited or seriously looked at by professional or academics. Yet people still use it as a reliable source. Hadith are saying and actions of muhammed (pbuh), he is the only man in history who's every word, action etc has been recorded. Now you have authentic hadith and weak hadith. The latter dont even make it, only the authentic ones, its quite technical to explain how it works and the chain of narrators.

Now islam say kill the apostate, only within an islamic state tho, because they reject the truth for falsehood and reject One true god and his last messenger. but in todays time in england it would not happen, firstly its not an islamic state, secondly, its a rarity that poeple do convert to any other religion once they accept islam. For example, if yu find that a christian converst to islam, he will never go back to his former religion, or you will rarely get an imam converting from islam to anything else. However, sometimes, those poeple born into islam, do leave it, this is usaully because they have always took the religion for granted and never really study it for themselves, to udnerstand what they believe, and islam actually recommends them to question it and research it, but they dont. So born in to islam, in a western country can lead some poeple away from the relgion, but if they understand it, they never make the switch.

The qurans says, there is no compulsion in religion, you cant force people to accept islam, this does not apply once they have accepted it, because islam says enter in full submission to the will if god or dont at all. So once you bear witness to the truth and then reject it, the punishment death or exile.

Honor Killings do happen here in the UK

Honour killing happen, i agree, and they wrong and have no islamic background at all, they are cultural beliefs and always have been and highly condenmed by muslims. People that practise islam properly and not just muslims by name, dont do such acts.

Infact what is a honour killing, its when one feels his honour has been ridiculed and in most cases, they see their daughter as their honour, which they are, but one cannot kill anyone unless its for a just puropse, like death sentence for a murderer etc. So its a killing when ones honour is under threat inthe public light, the same as a man killing his cheating wife and her lover, they threatened his honour and his wife was his honour, you see it happens even among non muslims and aethiests. They just call it something different when its them.

What! You have little knowledge of religion and politics in Britain if you think that....if that happened (Archbishop's brother's conversion
to Islam) politicians and religious leaders would be over-the-multicultural-moon. We'd never hear the end of it. It would be USED night
and day to help hold off civil war.




And British Muslims (like you?) are in denial when it comes to 'bad publicity' regarding Islam.




Yes they do....and why 'Ozi' would try and pretend they don't.....is a mystery.

Oh... I see you do admit that honour killings happen....but.....you don't think it's got aything to do with religion.

No the mystery bee is this, you cant understand english. I said there are honour killings, but it is not a teaching of islam, its cultural. Where is the mystery in that, and i showed you that honour killings are done quite regular inthe US, revenge killing s etc, their all in the name of ones honour are they not. So where is the mystery.

Im not in denial about anything, there are bad apples in all religions, i just have the ability not to paint all with the same brush, if some muslims do something bad, dont judge their religion based on their actions, i would not judge christianity, based on hitlers actions, KKK's actions or anybody else for that matter, i would judge it on its source and teachings. Again no mystery, scooby doo.

Well that shows you dint really read anything the first time and then when you did, you realised i did agree, and you right, i dont believe its religious at all. Its cultural.

No, I never deny the news. It's already happened and there is no way I can reverse it. All I did was simply posting my opinion. And I stated that it's a possibility that her brothers and her family was doing so for the proudsake of the dad which is the imam. And what is wrong with standing up for your own religion? I'm being objective too.

Now read carefully, yes, I told you that her family was wrong for doing so. They actually just throw another dirt in the name of Islam.

What a load of b******s.

Absolutely NOT true, though I'm sure you'd love to believe it, as I am sure your Imams' and other "leaders" would love you to believe. You have not a clue, if you think for even a moment, as was posted earlier, that an arc-bishop would call for the murder of his son, daughter, brother, or even third cousin twice removed simply because they converted to another religion. Islam needs to dig itself out of the stone-age.

Well, this is why I'm trying my best to defend Islam, not in the hard way. I'm a moslem since I was a kid. My family let me choose my religion. My parent came from Christian and Moslem cross marriage, as well as my girlfriend. I have a Christian and Catholic family members that stayed in my house. I myself spent 6 years of my elementary school in a Catholic school, and another year at another Catholic school during my high school period. I went homestaying for several months in a Jewish family in Europe, which their very son is fighting the Palestinian (exactly, people of my religion) as an Israeli army. My best friend is a Chinese Buddhist, later converted to Catholic after he decided to. All these years, encountering so many people from various religions and culture and belief, I came into one conclusion that I always hold still: There is no evil religion, only evil people. Speak whatever you want about my statement, but you can ask my friends accross the world , should you want some proof. I just want to let you Islam-haters know that not EVERY single moslem wants to kill you. Some of them would even die for you!

And that ends my post in this thread. I have defined my stance.

My comment about denial wasn't directed at you.



On this we can agree.




This thread is about a family intimidating, threatening and terrorising a female family-member for converting to Christianity.
Your remarks about 'Islam-haters....and not EVERY single moslem wants to kill you'.....is defensive, judgemental and un-necessary.

Honour killings happen quite regularly in germany.

But not all Muslims practice this however,most do not.

We have modern/liberal Muslims and we have the fundies.

It's the fundies that are the problem.

I want them to leave.

If they can't integrate into our society/culture and see women as equals, then they have no business being here !

You are so far from the truth! I can assure you that there are many Muslim converts who live in England constantly living in fear from being "discovered by there Muslim families"!

2 million ethnic Muslims converted to Christianity in Russia.
In Africa, 6 million muslims convert to Christianity every year. English Translation here.
"In every hour, 667 Muslims convert to Christianity. Everyday, 16,000 Muslims convert to Christianity. Ever year, 6 million Muslims convert to Christianity. These numbers are very large indeed".
200,000 UK Muslims Left Islam.
Mullahs and Imams leave Islam and enter Christianity.
50,000 Muslim Teenagers Murtads in Malaysia .
Thousands of Kashmiri Muslims leave Islam !
Thousands of Bangladeshi, North African, Kashmiri, Indian Muslims, Central Asian Muslims leave Islam.
10,000 french muslims converted to Christianity.
Some 35,000 Turks converted from Islam to Christianity last year.


Taken from Hyscience



In West, Islam is growing mainly by immigration, and the high birth rate of muslims. Yes, some gullible people are converting to Islam out of great ignorance. But, that is very very small fraction, almost neglible. Good people who think freely can not maintain peace of heart and mind in Islam. They leave Islam immediately. That's why in US, more than 75% of new converts leave Islam in just a few years.

Listen to this Clip : (A Research by Prof. Ilyas Ba Yunus)