In the West, there is a mistaken tendency to view Christianity as a religion that persecutes, rather than one that is persecuted. It may be for this reason that the reality is often overlooked: one in seven Christians are persecuted worldwide – in the Muslim world, Africa and Asia.
Christianity has almost been extinguished in the land of its birth – the Middle East. Thousands of Christians have been murdered in Nigeria for their faith.
Just this week, a pastor and his family were murdered in Nigeria – a three-month-old baby received a machete wound to the head and was left to die.
Some years ago, I made a documentary on a Christian couple from Pakistan who were sentenced to death for blasphemy. Luckily, with the help of Alliance for Defending Freedom International, they managed to flee to Europe.
The situation in Pakistan is particularly dire, as Christians live under a constant threat of violence and discrimination, with women and girls facing abduction, rape, forced marriage and forced conversion. Yet these Christians may flee to Britain and face more of the same.
Nissar Hussain’s story blasts to smithereens any delusion that Britain can provide a safe haven for apostates who convert from Islam to Christianity.
Apostasy in Islam is punishable by death, and in Hussain’s case, the authorities were not willing to do what it takes to protect his right to freedom of religion from the violence of the mob. He had his family spend almost a decade under police protection, fearing for their lives.
Now, he has had to flee to the United States, where he is warning of the ‘steady progress of sharia-supremacism’ that is already running rampant in some parts of Britain.
Politicians, the police, and the Church of England were not willing to put their own necks on the line to protect him. ‘Not one’ of the bishops he went to for help 'was willing to stand for Christendom in support of an individual who had risked everything' to follow Jesus.
It is a disgrace, not just as a supposedly rights-protecting liberal democracy. It is an insult to Christians past and present who were, and remain, willing to be martyred for their faith.
The apostles died in the most gruesome ways. The flag of Scotland is emblazoned with the X-shaped cross on which St Andrew was crucified.
The apostle James was beheaded, Thomas was speared in India, and Peter was crucified upside down. St Stephen, the first martyr, was stoned to death. In their footsteps, courageous Christians around the globe are murdered, imprisoned and persecuted every day.
This ex-Muslim's horror story shatters the delusion that Britain is a safe haven for apostates - Emma Trimble | Getty Images
My contrast, for most British Christians, so little is demanded of them – for now, at least. They do not face the threats that daily blight the lives of their brothers and sisters around the world.
Those in authority – in a historically Christian country – close their eyes and ears to people like Hussain, because they don’t want the trouble of being called Islamophobic.
They don’t want to risk their lives and livelihoods doing what is right. But their cowardice will come back to bite them too, eventually. In some cases, the authorities are nigh on complicit.
Greater Manchester police effectively doxxed a man arrested for burning a Quran by releasing his details to the public.
Even after Hamit Coskun won his appeal against his conviction for burning a Quran, the Crown Prosecution Service has continued to go after him.
Equality before the law is a mirage in multicultural Britain. Authorities are not willing to do what it takes to protect the freedom of religion and speech of those who are threatened with violence from some in the Muslim community.
Every second that the government refuses to take the hardest line possible in defence of people like Hussain, and kowtows to the prospect of violence and disorder, our freedoms are eroded.
The mob who chased the teacher from Batley into hiding should have been prosecuted. Anyone who sent death threats to the children for scuffing a Quran at school should have been prosecuted.
Anyone who so much as harasses someone for converting to Christianity should be prosecuted. They should see jail time.
No suspended sentences, as in the case of the man who attacked Coskun with a knife while shouting, “I’m going to kill you”.
The only way to protect people like Hussain, and ultimately all of us, is to break the chokehold that some Muslim communities seem to have over the rights and freedoms of their own members.
Islamic strictures are already affecting what we can do and say. If we don’t act now to reverse this, we can kiss our ancient English freedoms goodbye.
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