The government agency charged with overseeing immigration and passports in the United Kingdom has denied asylum to an Iranian Christian convert from Islam, explaining its verdict is based on its assessment that Christianity is not a “peaceful” religion.
The decision by the Home Office puts the Iranian national’s life in grave danger, as apostasy is punishable by death in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The applicant’s claim he converted to Christianity because it’s a “peaceful” religion, as opposed to Islam, is “inconsistent” with the violent themes and rhetoric that appear in the Bible, British officials told the asylum-seeker.
Leviticus, Exodus, Matthew, and Book of Revelation are “filled with imagery of revenge, destruction, death and violence,” the Home Office explained in its rejection letter, adding Leviticus says specifically, “You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you.”
The letter adds, “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.”
Excerpt from a home office reasons for refusal letter for a convert to Christianity. 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. pic.twitter.com/R1wA1HMNwH
— Nathan Stevens (@nathestevens) March 19, 2019
The man’s application, which was entered at around the same time the Iranian national converted to Christianity (he knows his own country’s laws), was denied Tuesday.
The rejection notice is not “in accordance” with the department’s usual approach to asylum claims based on religious persecution, a spokesperson for the Home Office told the Independent. Legal expert Conor James McKinney also suggested the decision is more likely a case of anti-asylum fervor than a case of anti-Christian zeal.
The U.K. immigration agency tends to “come up with any reason they can to refuse asylum,” he told the Independent. “The Home Office is notorious for coming up with any reason they can to refuse asylum and this looks like a particularly creative example, but not necessarily a systemic outbreak of anti-Christian sentiment in the department.”
The number of asylum applications granted by the British government last year dropped by 26 percent, the New York Times reports.
But even if this is just a story of an overzealous bureaucrat looking for any excuse to deny an asylum request, it’s hard not to notice a trend in the U.K. of government officials taking explicitly anti-Christian positions.
The same week this Iranian national had his petition denied, British newsrooms revealed law enforcement officials are investigating a Roman Catholic reporter for “misgendering” a transgendered person. This all comes after the Alfie Evans tragedy, where the state forcibly blocked Catholic parents from removing their dying infant son from a British hospital so that they could seek alternative, life-saving methods elsewhere. The child died later after the hospital took him off life support, against the express wishes of his parents. A similar story played out one year earlier when the state denied yet another Catholic family the opportunity to remove their dying infant son, Charlie Gard, from a British hospital to seek life-saving treatment overseas. The child later died in the hospital, his parents’ final request that he be allowed to spend his final moments in his home also denied.
What I’m trying to say is: If you’re a Christian living in the U.K., now might be a really good time to think about emigrating to the land of the free and the home of the brave, where the biggest nuisance for people of faith is an overabundance of options for worship.
