In a disgraceful, profanity-laced tirade that has unveiled apostacy hatred to the non-Muslim British public a Muslim taxi driver from Preston threatened to sodomise any convert from Islam to Christianity. The man is unsure but suspects he has also upset some Muslims stating ‘I think I’ve upset a few Muslims as well’.
British Pakistani Christian Association submitted a report on hatred towards apostates (those who quit Islam) to a UK Hate Crime Inquiry in 2017 with recommendations on how to stem the growing social malaise. However, the report was never analysed despite the bravery of many converts from Islam who shared testimonies hoping to bring an end to the dangers they face.
See video of the the vile rant in the embedded video or click (here)
To sign our petition STOP APOSTASY ABUSE IN THE UK (CLICK HERE)
41 year-old, till now respected follower of Islam, Zaheer Hussain launched this tirade after he viewed a convert’s video of his Baptism in a bath on Facebook. So disgusted was he with the man’s quitting of Islam for the Christian faith that he recorded his rant on video and shared it on Facebook. He can be heard saying: ‘Any motherf***er who wants to convert to Christianity we are going to f**k you up the A**e’. Many worse threats are made while the man of Pakistani origin sprays vehement expletives in both Urdu and English in what can only be characterised as a vile attack on Christian converts.
Lancashire Police have initiated an investigation and arrested Zaheer on suspicion of racially aggravated harassment, and local people have initiated an online petition calling for revocation of Zaheer’s licence as a taxi-driver (click here).
In his defence despite the very obvious hatred exhibited in his video which his colleague who is driving the vehicle failed to dis-encourage, he has now apologised for his behaviour.
In the Sun Newspaper, Zaheer Hussain said the video was meant to be ‘banter between mates’.
He said: “I’ve come to realise that I made several obnoxious, crude comments which I shouldn’t have made.”
“I’m really sorry for the offence caused.”
“I’ve got nothing against Christians. I’ve got a lot of Christian friends. I was brought up with Christians.”
“I went to school with Christian friends and I play football with them on a regular basis.”
“They will vouch for me, that I’ve never done anything like this before.”
“I sincerely apologise. I’ve always tried to be good to all people. I know some of you won’t see it that way but I do ask for forgiveness.”
“I take all the comments back. Every single one of them. Forgiveness from all Christians for a start.”
“I think I’ve upset a few Muslims as well. And I apologise for that from the bottom of my heart.”
“People who know me know that I’m a happy chappy and I think my comments have gone out of context.”
“I will not be making this mistake again. I apologise to everybody who has been affected by this.”
He added: “I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.”
Upsetting as this video is it comes as no surprise to the British Pakistani Christian Association (“BPCA”) who have long spoken out against the intolerance exhibited by a growing number of radicalised Muslims in the UK.
Examples of this include Nissar Hussain who openly declared his conversion and suffered 17 years of persecution in Bradford, during which an empty home next door to him was set ablaze in hope his home would also catch fire, an incident that required him to escape a smoke-filled house with his wife and young children. He later moved and suffered eggs and fireworks being thrown at his home, several Halloween scares, his car being smashed at least 6 times a year on average and a pummelling for Nissar (click here for video footage) resulting in him being hospitalised for 14 days (click here). The police initially took the advice of MP Naz Shah and a cartel of Muslim Councillors (who allegedly) aggravated the situation by joining threatening street parties across the road from Nissar and minimalised the attack when they listed the crime as merely a neighbourhood dispute. BPCA were given a two week deadline to help Nissar vacate his home after the local Police Inspector advised BPCA Chairman Wilson Chowdhry that they could not protect Nissar Hussain as his life was under imminent threat of death. After helping him move a 4 vehicle entourage with 16 armed police officers escorted Wilson Chowdhry and Nissar as they collected a box from Nissar’s former home. View ITV footage of police escort (click here)
In Derby, last year in November Tajamal Amar was beaten to unconsciousness after he was spotted by ‘bearded Muslims’ as he calls them, who took offence for the two large poppies on the front of his car and the cross dangling from his rear-view mirror. BPCA believe he was mistaken to be a convert to Christianity which resulted in the animosity towards him, although the prevalent hatred towards British soldiers that has led to annual ‘Hate for Heroes’ marches in Luton where poppies are burnt in defiance to UK armed forces and the attack on Lee Rigby that shocked the globe, would suggest that the poppies exacerbated the hatred towards innocent Tajamal. (click here)
But this hatred of apostates (those who quit Islam) is not restricted to areas in the North and BPCA helped reveal a similar hatred in London, when reporting on Faisal Bashir, who quit Islam and became an atheist after hearing hate-filled messages in his local mosque. He was forced to flee his home after members of a mosque next to BPCA headquarters threatened his family daily. (click here)
BPCA worked with over a dozen apostates who bravely gave testimonies against the hatred they experience when leaving Islam for a UK Home Office study, some of them chose to be anonymous but many exposed their true identity, filled with a passion to see Britain tackle the abject hatred they face when their new belief status is revealed.
The report was submitted on time and is still present on the UK Hate Crime Inquiry submission’s page (click here), however when Theresa May initiated her failed snap-election a temporary halt was placed on the Inquiry. A short report was uploaded which did not include any analysis of our report and we waited for the Fuller Review. To our chagrin and horror despite the great sacrifice of many brave victims UK Home Office for no apparent reason ignored the report. When Wilson Chowdhry met with Senior Home Office officials he was advised that the Home Office can be very random with their research and does not have to incorporate findings from every report submitted. It was expressed to him that on a whim the Home office could choose what to include and what to ignore without any recourse to scrutiny. A position we find extremely appalling and one that fails to satisfy democratic process. Read article about our report (here).
Various recommendations were placed into our report which could have helped with the designing of new practices, policies and laws to help stem the hatred that apostates face in the UK – including listing Kaffirophobia/Christianophobia in the taxonomy of hate crimes ensuring better police investigation. The failure to even review the document suggests Britain has failed to understand the scale of the problem which may relate to in excess of 10,000 people in the UK, though figures are hard to predict due to the reluctance to speak out about the matter, being largely due to the fact the plight of apostates is so often side-lined.
Wilson Chowdhry, Chairman of the British Pakistani Christian Association, said:
“It beggars belief that Britain is willing to review global Christian persecution after Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt commissioned a report, yet we have failed to review very similar persecution within our own realm.”
“Many commentators believe the report is a reaction to the international scorn placed on the UK after they failed to offer asylum to Asia Bibi, mainly due to the fact that Muslim radicalisation in the UK has reached an all time high, despite attempts to curtail the growing social malaise. ”
“The whimpering apology from Zaheer Hussain seems disingenuous under the substantial evidence of hatred for apostates in the UK and the diabolical content of his filmed tirade. After first he states his comments are ‘offensive’ he then employs gaslighting when he says his threats of sodomy ‘have gone out of context’ as if his words could be somehow misunderstood by a naïve listener or are acceptable to say between friends, but clearly in a civilized society in what context would his hateful comments belong? Mr Hussain felt comfortable filming himself and making them public, so what does this communicate about the greater context in which he said them?”
“Our report on apostasy hatred shed light on this two years ago, but has been met by the authorities with scorn and unexplained rejection. Perhaps seeing a demonstration of this societal comfort level towards apostacy hatred will also help them recalibrate their approach. Perhaps now the experiences of the brave victims and the risk they took sharing them will be taken seriously?
“In the case of Nissar Hussain police authorities failed to recognise the sheer hatred that those who quit Islam face from their former Muslim community. The hatred foments as a consequence of a verse in the Islamic Hadith from Sahih Al-Bukhari (9:57), which states: ‘Whoever changes his Islamic religion, kill him’.
Threats of sodomy are used in Pakistani culture to dominate and emasculate other men despite a supposed Islamic ban on homosexuality. (click here) Rape is a known instrument of genocide used by IS militants and sexual abuse is used against religious minority men as well as women in Pakistan. (click here) (click here) (click here) In an honour-based cultural sexual assault is ostensibly deemed the victims fault and the rapist is thought of as hyper-masculine and dominant. Apostates are the targets of this domineering hatred and efforts must be taken to sanction it. Any Christian threatened with these violations regardless of whether they were a convert would have very reason to be concerned.
Mr Chowdhry continued:
“Bradford Police failed to recognise that the animosity that apostates face basing their position on the fact that other local Christians were not being persecuted, they chose to accept the guidance of a local MP and councillors who Nissar Hussain alleges had an Islamic bias, and wrongly referred to the crime as a neighbourhood dispute. This complicit behaviour essentially swept the motive for the attacks under the rug means that real solutions were not being sought. Pakistani origin Christians and converts from Islam fall prey to violence in the UK when authorities ignore the context of marginalisation that they live everyday.”
“Only when the BPCA corrected their faux-pas over the last two years of Nissar’s persecution did they backdate crimes against him as hate crimes. The incorrect labelling of the crime led to investigative error in my opinion that only prolonged the dilemma his innocent family faced.”
“It does not surprise me that Zaheer Hussain is using his relationship with other Christians as his defence. Though mocking Jesus Christ and claiming no disrespect towards the Christians he knows, his tirade was against Christian converts from Islam who according to his statement the community should punished, dominated and humiliated through rape. The thought process was very similar for the haters of Nissar Hussain and I fear that Lancashire Police will fail to understand the specific hatred faced by those who quit Islam.
“The hatred of apostates is normalised when there is no action to hold those perpetuating it accountable. BPCA will be contacting the constabulary to share evidence with them pertaining to this provable hate crime and hope an assertive response can begin a process of social change.
As a result of hate hate-filled post asserting that he would rape converts to Christianity Zaheer Nissar was arrested by police. (click here)
A Change.org petition started by a concerned citizen who was asking Preston Council to have his license revoked and it currently has approximately 1900 signatures to date though the initial goal was said to be 500. (click here) The petition reads as follows:
“‘Zaheer Hussain was the perpetrator of a hate-filled video where the Muslim man from Preston decided to share his views on Muslims who convert to Christianity.
“He is a Taxi Driver and his views carry a severe conflict of interest with potential customers and also put people at risk given the nature of his comments during the video.”
BPCA wrote a letter of concern to Preston Licensing and received a response. Our correspondence read:
“We ask you to admonish and sanction your licensee as an individual who provides a service to the public under the guidelines of Preston and who should rightly provide a safe vehicle space with which to service clients.
“The prospect of calling a cab in the UK and having to get in a car with someone who expresses this level of hate is very concerning especially for those from religious minorities within the taxi driver’s ethnicity. We hope that you will take our concerns seriously and kindly ask you to investigate.”
Licensing Manager Mike Thorpe replied to BPCA in an email correspondence the 2nd of January. He said:
“I confirm receipt of the email you sent to the Council on 30 December 2018 and write to inform you that the licensed hackney carriage driver concerned is currently the subject of a police investigation to which the Council are co-operating with.
“In addition the Council has decided to review the driver’s hackney carriage driver licence and a hearing will take place on 9 January 2019.”
To sign our petition STOP APOSTASY ABUSE IN THE UK
(CLICK HERE)
British Pakistani Christian Association, continues to provide advocacy and humanitarian aid to Christians in Pakistan and the Pak-Christian diaspora. We cannot do it without your help please donate by clicking (here)
