A wave of outrage is developing in response to a snarky letter from the U.K. Home Office denying a request for asylum from a Muslim-turned-Christian because officials said Christianity is not a peaceful religion and the convert didn’t really believe in it anyway.
The case developed, the Express newspaper of London reported, when an Iranian national was rejected for asylum.
An appeal is being pursued, and a wide range of officials and experts are blasting the action.
Nathan Stevens, an immigration caseworker, publicized the case on Twitter.
The Home Office worker who dispatched the rejection listed six passages from the Bible, including from Revelation, and said, “These examples are inconsistent with your claim that you converted to Christianity after discovering it is a peaceful religion, as opposed to Islam which contains violence, rage and revenge.”
Further, the unidentified worker who sent the letter then acted as an expert in theology, stating: “You affirmed in your [application] that Jesus is your savior, but then claimed that He would not be able to save you from the Iranian regime. It is therefore considered that you have no conviction in your faith and your belief in Jesus is half-hearted.”
Stevens wrote, “I’ve seen a lot over the years, but even I was genuinely shocked to read this unbelievably offensive diatribe being used to justify a refusal of asylum.”
He added, “Whatever your views on faith, how can a government official arbitrarily pick bits out of a holy book and then use them to trash someone’s heartfelt reason for coming to a personal decision to follow another faith.”
Stevens revealed the applicant is appealing the ruling, submitting a complaint to the Home Office.
At the Shariah-watching Jihad Watch website was comment from Christine Douglass-Williams who said of the Home Office’s claims: “Nice try, but Revelation is a prophetic account, not a call to violence; also, there is no global problem with Christians and Jews citing violent verses from Revelation or the Old Testament and acting upon them. Jihadists, however, are citing the Quran to justify their violence, and doing so repeatedly and openly.”
She also pointed out that the U.K. government “continues to allow in the worst jihadist hate preachers, who further the jihad against its own people.”
“Over 100 jihadist hate speakers were invited in and hosted at British universities during the academic year of 2016 and 2017.”
Among the speakers was Syed Muzaffar Shah Qadri, who preached “hatred and jihad violence” and was banned from preaching in Pakistan.
Further, there was the admission of Shaykh Hamza Sodagar despite his advocacy for killing homosexuals.
He said: “If there’s homosexual men, the punishment is one of five things. One – the easiest one maybe – chop their head off, that’s the easiest. Second – burn them to death. Third – throw ’em off a cliff. Fourth – tear down a wall on them so they due under that. Fifth – a combination of the above.”
The report said, “Legal expert Donor James McKinney stated, ‘This case seems to be an extreme example of an individual official manufacturing a reason to refuse an asylum claim, and the Home Office acknowledges that it was out of line.'”
The Express reported Stephen Evans of the National Secular Society charged the government was using “theological justifications for refusing asylum applications.”
“Decisions on the merits of an asylum appeal should be based on an assessment of the facts at hand – and not on the state’s interpretation of any given religion,” he said. “It’s not the role of the Home Office to play theologian.”
