In 2017, N. Lewis and I co-researched and co-wrote ‘Hate Crimes in the UK against ex-Muslims: Experiences, Effects & Recommendations’ . The full report is enclosed at the bottom of the page.
Given recent attacks in France and ongoing, divisive violence, I wanted to draw attention to religious and other minorities silently suffering in communities where heterodoxy is not encouraged. In times of terror, the world has a tendency to become tribal and individuals are guilty by association. We often forget about those who live in fear that members of their own family, religious groups and communities could kill them for not wanting to stay within the remit of inherited circumstances.
Padma (Pseudonym, although willing to give real name, Iranian background)
Summary: Padma came to the Christian faith by way of supernatural healing and encounters with angels in an Iranian hospital, but only came to faith after deep depression in the UK, through the love of a Christian woman at Speakers Corner. However, she has experienced abuse as a convert, both verbal and psychological intimidation at various locations, including at Speakers Corner, and the vandalizing of her car at her home. She says the verbal abuse is getting worse, and has on occasion been spat on for her conversion. Her father shunned her after he visited her in the UK, slapping her face and spitting in her face, but eventually was reconciled to her and her faith before he died.
Padma is an Iranian Christian convert from Shia Islam. Originally from Iran, she belonged to a committed Muslim family, known for their political activism. She fainted during a hot shower, leading to severe scalding. The hospital staff gave up on her, placing her a ward specifically reserved for people who would inevitably die. It was here that Padma had an experience of angels who told her to get up and leave Iran. After being effectively raised from the dead, she eventually left Iran in {mid 80’s} and came to Britain.
‘When I arrived, I felt very lonely in Britain, homesick and homeless. I didn’t cope, I really didn’t want to live anymore, even though the Angels had touched me and I was a special person for God. I had lost interest in God, I had lost my identity, my land. ‘
She felt the desire to kill herself and she walked throughout the streets of London, until she reached the River Thames. She started to jump.
‘I felt that hand on my shoulder, I turned to look but I saw nobody. It was the hand of God but I was frightened so I started to run until I found myself in Hyde Park – watching people shouting in Speakers’ Corner’.
She started to shout and cry amidst the other screams and shouts – venting her pain and frustrations about her personal situation, about the political state of Iran. This time she felt a human hand – ‘ the love this woman showed me, it was an unbelievable love. She asked for my address and that friendship grew, she helped me with my English, found a college for me and helped me with English culture’.
It was through this friendship that Padma started to encounter Christians, compelled to investigate where this love this lady showed her came from. Through Christian meetings, Padma underwent an irrevocable change:
‘I felt the power of the Holy Spirit, the power of God. I found Jesus.’
Padma soon discovered the obvious difference between her former beliefs and her walk with Christ, ‘Christianity is not a religion, it’s a relationship between me and the living God. Islam for me was dead, it was one sided, all about fear, hatred, deeds, doing good and all the stuff which I had done but I still had an empty feeling in my heart, in my life. When I became a Christian , I met my God, my living God and then I believed. We are not religious, I don’t have to do any good thing to get to heaven. I know I’m going to heaven tomorrow morning, that’s it for sure – and not inshallah as the Iranians and Arabs say – for sure I will go.’
Since becoming a Christian, Padma has endured verbal abuse and physical damage to her vehicle. Initially, she would endure verbal abuse from neighbours, as she picked up her children from school. ‘Since I became a Christian which was over 30 years ago, I had verbal abuse and now it’s much more. Where I currently live, most people are foreign.’
She cites a particular example:
‘For the past one and half year I’ve been to the gym, steam and sauna which is supposed to help me with my health condition. I started a friendship with a wonderful Sudanese lady, got close to her by sharing my life. I didn’t tell her I was a Christian convert in the first meetings, she knew I was a Christian. Eventually we built a trust and she really loved me. When I did tell her I was an ex Muslim convert, she was very nice and respectful. I had showed her the moral standard of a Christian. Then one day when we were swimming, she suggested we go to the sauna. We sat in the sauna and we were joined by two Arab women my Sudanese friend knew. They greeted my friend ‘salaam alaikum’ and I greeted those women in Arabic also. They looked at me. First of all I don’t look Arab, second I wasn’t wearing a scarf; ‘So how does she speak Arabic?’ They asked me where I came from, so I told them I’m Iranian, living here for 30 years with an English husband. They asked if I was a Muslim and I told them I was a Muslim convert. As soon as I said that, one of them got up and said ‘’Astrafullah you are a Haramzadi’’ (God Forbid you are a bastard). The woman spat on the floor, saying ‘That is you, you are a Kaffir (infidel)’ and both left the sauna.’
Padma’s passionate and emboldened campaign for Christ cost her more than verbal abuse. She is a pioneer of the Iranian Church and has gone on to establish many Churches across Britain. As part of her evangelical effort she would visit Speakers Corner.
‘One day I went to Speakers’ Corner as usual and there were lots of Arab, Pakistani Muslims and even English converts. I didn’t want to go to the platform – or the stool as they say – because I thought I wasn’t ready academically to answer the questions. They can burn you with their questions and when you don’t know you feel terrible, you feel you lost, that you failed Jesus. So I never wanted to go up but I was on the ground as usual talking.
Then I spoke to this man, who firstly insulted me because I was wearing make-up. They insulted me saying I looked like a prostitute but I didn’t say anything and I smiled. You have to be calm and smile, if we show anger that is the first step of losing. So then I smiled and said, you can insult me as much as you like, but I know who I am, I am a child of God. And then they continued and laughed at me so I told them that I’ve been in their place, but they said no, you’ve lost your identity, you are actually foreign to us. I told them that I could be foreign to them but I am in the Kingdom of God which they don’t have. Then he spat on me. I held my Bible high above my head to say ‘’magnified are those who are insulted for the name of Christ, they will see the Kingdom of God and be called the children of God’’ and he looked at me and told me I was mad. This continued and he spat again on the floor and moved. ‘
Another person came along, with an apparent interest in what she was saying, leading Padma to hand out her contact card which enclosed her address. She told this man to contact her as her husband could provide answers to any questions he may have about Christianity. Yet it wasn’t until 3am Monday morning, half a day after she handed out her address details did Padma come to regret dealing with this so-called interested man. Her car was broken into and damaged with stones, resulting in the police being called and cameras being installed for their safety in the future. Padma knew instinctively that this attack was a direct result of her evangelical preaching and discussions amongst Muslims in Speakers Corner.
However, her most painful experience regarding her conversion to Christianity would come from her father. Padma remains unable to return to Iran, as the regime are not only aware of her familial political activism but her faith in Christianity and her unashamed stance on Islam.
‘Two of my brothers were executed by the Iranian regime, they were political prisoners for eight years , they were communists and were against the regime and were killed five years apart from each other. My third brother who was in the same group as me -the Muhajadeen- spent nine years in prison and tortured. He is now disabled and a drug addict and he has no life. He lives in Iran and cannot leave. I am exiled from my country, I haven’t seen Iran for 31 years, more than half of my life I’ve been in Britain. This is my country but my heart always belongs to Iran. I very much hope one day I will be able to go and see my land, my people.’
Due to her inability to return to Iran, five years after she became a Christian, married with two children, she invited her father to her home.
‘I invited him and he came and I respected him, loved him and cared for him. A bout 2 weeks after his arrival he said to me – I will never forget – he stood up in the middle of the room and in front of my husband and said ‘’you are going to love Allah first, then love me, then love your children, then love your husband who is a foreigner and not our blood. ‘’ I said ‘’Baba you know how much I love you and respect you, but my God is called Jesus Christ and first I would love and give my life for Jesus Christ who is my God, not a prophet . Second I love my husband, third I love my children , fourth I love you and I respect you forever.’’ I was 34 years old then. He slapped my face, and spat at my face and said ‘’you are haram (forbidden), you are not my child, I am ashamed of you , you are haramzadi (bastard) . You’re not the same daughter that I knew from Iran.’’ That was the most painful for me because I loved my father. I was always a highly moral girl’
However, after years of crying out to God for her father he would contact his daughter after years of no contact:
‘He said to me, ‘’you are the only child from my seven children who is a holy woman of God and I love your God. Can you pray to your God that I be able to come and ask you to forgive me?’
Her father would return to Britain to eventually ask Padma in person to forgive him. He would go on to have a heart attack some years later, succumbing to the excruciating pain of losing his two sons, the disabled state of his third son and the exile of his daughter.
In spite of their suffering, Padma and her family continue to practise their Christian faith.
Radical Within Reason 