A Muslim who converted to Christianity was threatened with having his home burned to the ground.
In a hate campaign Islamist fanatics also hurled bricks through the family’s sitting room windows terrorising their five children, all under 10.
His wife was also held hostage inside their home for two hours by a mob who later daubed graffiti on his walls and windows branding him a “Christian bastard”.
But when the hospital nurse complained to police, he said an officer told him: “Stop being a crusader.”
The arson threat was made by a man in 2001. Despite the father fearing for their lives, the officer told him such threats were rarely carried out.
He added that if he was so concerned, he should sell up and move away. Just a few days later the unoccupied house next door to their home in Bradford, West Yorks, was set alight.
The man, Nissar Hussein, 43, was born and raised in Britain by his Pakistani parents - devout Muslims. But in 1996 he and his wife Qubra decided that they wanted to convert to Christianity. In Muslim countries which use sharia law the death penalty can still be applied to apostates - or converts. Living in Britain, the Hussein family thought they’d be safe from such extremism. But their car windows were regularly smashed and the vehicle was even set alight.
Whenever Mr Hussein and his family dared to venture out of their house they would be jostled, abused, attacked and death threats hurled at them. He was at work when his wife was trapped in the house by a mob.
He claims West Yorkshire Police dismissed his concerns out of hand instead of taking action against those responsible. The family’s torment is revealed in a new report by pressure group Christian Solidarity Worldwide into the daily abuses suffered by apostates.
The report, No Place To Call Home, by commentator and apostate Ziya Meral, claims converts “are subject to gross and wide-ranging human rights abuses”.
They include extra-judicial killings by state-related agents or mobs, honour killings by family members, lack of access to services and day-to-day discrimination.
Mr Meral interviewed 28 apostates in various countries for the report, including Mr Hussein. The attacks on the family home and property continued until July 2006 when they finally moved to another part of the city. Mr Hussein said he felt the police had wilfully failed to arrest and charge the attackers, saying it was “not in the public interest”.
The report concludes that apostates suffer a host of serious abuses from their families, communities and nations because of traditional Islamic beliefs, increasing radicalism within Islam, the roles of shame and honour and the belief that converting to another religion is a betrayal of Islam. Mr Meral says: “This report is not about Islam, nor is it written to be used as a critical attack on Islam. It is designed to highlight the immense suffering of these individuals and analyses of the factors contributing to their persecution.”
West Yorkshire Police said it could not comment on the claims made by Mr Hussein in the report.
