Death To The Convert: Daughter of Brit Imam Threatened With Death

Imagine being on the run for more than ten long years. Being forced to move 45 times because you feared for your life; not from strangers, but from your very own family. And simply for choosing to convert to a different religion. That is exactly what happened, a decade ago, to a young British-born Pakistani woman after her father showed up at her doorstep accompanied by her uncle and 40 other men in tow, all "clutching axes, hammers, knives and bits of wood", threatening to kill her because she chose to convert from Islam to Christianity.

"My dad was shouting through the letter box, "I'm going to kill you", while the others smashed on the window and beat the door. "They were shouting, 'We're going to kill you' and 'Traitor'

Calling herself "Hannah" now, for her own protection, the 31-year-old says that she ran away at the age of 16 to avoid an arranged marriage. She was

taken in by a religious education teacher and decided to convert to the Christian faith.

Her parents seemed to tolerate her decision, assuming she would grow out of it eventually. However, the death threats started after they discovered that Hannah, while a student at Manchester University, had been baptized. She's been on the run ever since.

Although she has managed to keep her head intact for that amount of time, she recently asked for police protection after her brother sent a text message to her indicating that

he would not be held responsible for his actions if she failed to return to Islam.

Hmm. It seems that Muslim men have an extremely challenging time taking responsibility for their actions.

Now, I could understand if they were recent immigrants from some Sharia-run country like Iran. They might be ignorant of local laws. But if Hannah was born in Lancashire, that means they've been living in the U.K. for at least 31 years, and there is absolutely no excuse for that kind of barbaric behaviour. If you refuse to adhere to the laws of your host country, then move.

That's what Hannah seems to believe:

"If you make the choice to come to this country, as my parents did from Pakistan, you have to abide by the laws of this country and that means respecting the freedoms of other people."

She goes on to say that

"I know the Koran says 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 act on that."

Maybe not all, but even one is one too many. It's ironic that a religion that purports to be a religion of peace obsesses so much on death.

And one would expect a parent to love and care for their children regardless of the choices they make in life, obviously not if you're Muslim.