You can imagine among the discussion on boats carrying illegal migrants over the Channel, cannot you? “Look, my friend, things are tightening up over there, but when we go along to the closest church once we have landed and ‘convert’ to Christianity, we’ll have a significantly better probability of getting asylum!” Certainly, with reports that 40 of the 300 residents currently aboard the Bibby Stockholm now apparently looking for baptism, one has an unwelcome suspicion that this is strictly the variety of conversation that has been going down
And yes, I do know this may increasingly sound overly cynical, but we perhaps do well to keep in mind that ‘taqiyya’ or dissimulation to advance the explanation for Islam, and/or to attain one’s own ends, is actively encouraged in Sharia law (see, for instance, Surah 3:28, “Let believers not take for friends and allies infidels as an alternative of believers. Whoever does this shall don’t have any relationship left with Allah – unless you but guard yourselves against them, taking precautions.”).
At the identical time, real conversion from Islam is condemned as apostasy and in some places carries the death penalty – as we see all too regularly still carried out in Muslim countries today. Which signifies that no Muslim will surrender his or her faith flippantly. But illegal migrants know that conversion, carrying with it the specter of dire retribution, will immeasurably help with the asylum application and, if Allah approves, well then ….
To our shame, many human rights activists, eager to preserve the fantasy that so-called Western liberal democracy is humanity’s supreme achievement, with which all must agree once they experience it for themselves, collude with this deceit. How could anyone not need to convert, they are saying! But this isn’t adequate, and as Christians we’ve an obligation to uphold the reality. Yes, we’re called to make disciples of all nations, but at the identical time we’re called to exercise discernment and caution, and we must defend our faith against covert attack. As exhorted in 1 John 4, we must not ‘imagine every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether or not they are from God…’
In the newest horrific case of the acid attack in Clapham, allegedly carried out by Abdul Ezedi, it’s reported that Ezedi, a convicted sex offender here within the UK, was granted asylum only after purportedly converting to Christianity. Two prior appeals, we hear, had already failed, and the immigration tribunal judge on the last occasion was apparently persuaded only by the testimony of a neighborhood priest, who testified that Ezedi was ‘wholly committed’ to his recent faith, and vouched 100 per cent for his conversion.
Yet friends of Ezedi, back in Newcastle, apparently described him as ‘a superb Muslim’, who bought Halal meat and avoided alcohol, and intended in some unspecified time in the future to return ‘home’ to seek out an acceptable wife. One might justifiably feel a little bit confused here. Asylum, in any case, is the granting of refuge to someone who cannot safely remain to their very own country for fear of persecution, torture and death. Yet if the reports are true, Ezedi appears to have had no such fears, because on the testimony of his friends, he was desiring to return ‘home’ and find himself a wife, after which bring her back with him to enjoy life within the UK.
This, I fear, is the truth of many asylum claims today, that they’re indeed bogus and are being deliberately bolstered by fake claims of conversion to Christianity. And I fear that a lot of those applying for asylum are really ‘economic migrants’ simply on the lookout for a greater life.
Certainly some are hostile to our values, and their aim is nothing lower than to take over, replacing Western democracy with their very own belief system, and ultimately imposing absolute control. The rise in anti-Semitism is indeed each testimony and warning of this, and have to be resisted.
The conversion of a couple of migrants will doubtless be real and, where that’s the case, such converts have to be protected. But there have to be evidence that they fully embrace Christian belief and practice, and we must not be gulled by those of dishonest or malign intent, whose goal is to abuse or destroy.
In the last sixty or so years, the face of society has modified radically – indeed, the world order has modified radically – and the perhaps unpalatable truth is that our culture, founded because it is upon Christian tradition and belief, is now under major attack. Which, increasingly, we seem unable to withstand. We have been complacent, but allow us to not now be silly.
Suella Braverman has accused churches of ‘facilitating industrial-scale bogus asylum claims by their spurious claims to be converting migrants’. There has been pushback against this claim by the Church but I feel that, alas, she is correct – and the issue runs deeper. Over the last century, the UK Church has abandoned its call to uphold Christian truth and defend the flock, preferring as an alternative a half-baked mantra of multicultural, multifaith diversity, that, in the present climate, won’t cause offence. This must change. The Church must recuperate its voice, and we must once more act to guard our borders and lifestyle.
Despite ideological pressure, the UK stays a Christian country. Our established Church stays the Church of England, and our traditions and laws are all founded on Christian belief. For our nation now to have any hope of preserving the values we hold dear, that faith must once more turn into reality, and we will need to have the courage to arise for it. The Church have to be faithful to its call and shine light into the darkness. It must uphold truth, and defend the people of God.
Rev Lynda Rose is founding father of Voice for Justice UK, a gaggle which works to uphold the moral values of the Bible in society.
