Christian Refugees Getting Raw Deal

The crime of apostasy, or leaving the faith, carries a death sentence under Islamic law, so it is little wonder that converts to Christianity in countries such as Pakistan and Iran seek asylum in other countries. 

Yet the difficult question of determining an asylum seeker's truly-held beliefs is now a matter of controversy in the UK because Christian's are being turned away for failing what amounts to Bible trivia tests. 

Perhaps you can name all Ten Commandments, rattle off the names of all twelve apostles, remember the details of various books of the Old and New Testament and explain the differences between branches of the Anglican Church, but is it fair to ask this of a recent convert in a country in which he came to Christ through secret missionary meetings, hiding from persecution and even martyrdom?

One asylum seeker from Iran, a recent convert to Christianity, had his application rejected during the interview on the grounds that he was not sufficiently knowledgeable about his new religion. 

He told the BBC that, "One question they asked me was very strange - what color was the cover of the Bible. I knew there were different colors. The one I had was red. They asked me questions I was not able to answer - for example, what are the Ten Commandments. 

I could not name them all from memory." It was ignorance of the Catholic rule of abstinence on Fridays that earned rejection for an asylum seeker from India, despite that fact that this practice is uncommon among Indian and other converts due to other cultural reasons, not to mention that the rule is far from universal across Christendom.

A refugee, according to international law, is an individual who has fled persecution based on such factors as race, religion, nationality, political belief or membership in a certain group. 

What is important for the law is not the level of religious knowledge, but whether the person faces persecution based on his status in his home country and this is a fact that the new rules have overlooked. 

Whereas the intention may be to prevent abuse of the asylum system, the focus on trivia over personal belief not only puts in danger those who are truly persecuted, it also leaves the door open for manipulation by those seeking to game to the system, as one Minister of Parliament has pointed out. 

The Baroness Berridge, who heads the parliamentary report on the controversy, points out that "The problem with those questions is that if you are not genuine you can learn the answers, and if you are genuine, you may not know the answers. 

If you are someone who has become a Christian in Iran, Bibles are not freely available - and you would not necessarily know how many books there are in the Old Testament. You might not know of lent which is not a common concept in Iran." 

Yet not knowing these facts does not lesson the danger faced by Christians in societies where, even in the absence of official laws against apostasy, extrajudicial killings of Christian converts is common. 

If the purpose is to exclude Muslims pretending conversion or dangerous criminals, how difficult would it be for a determined terrorist to memorize just enough facts to pass an interview and slip legally across the border? 

The Home Office's practices are not only dangerous for converts, opponents argue, but they have weakened the integrity of the immigration process itself.

The opponents of this trivia-based system propose a greater focus on testimony of personal conversion stories and accounts of persecution faced rather than a simplistic test of Bible knowledge and religious customs that doesn't take into account culture or lack of formal religious education. 

When journalists asked Mohammed, an Iranian refugee denied admittance, what makes a Christian, he replied that "To know whether someone is a real believer or not, you have to look at the fruit in their lives. 

The fruit is love and humility... when people come here wounded and in fear and trembling, what they most need is to receive love." 

One would hope that officials reviewing asylum petitions will come around to this view before it is too late.