Image of Nissar Hussain After he was brutally attacked by Muslim hate gang in November last year (click here).
As the fall out from the revelations about anti-semitic social media messages from Bradford MP Naz Shah and her senior aide Mohammed Shabbir (effectively
demanding benign ethnic cleansing of Jews from Israel on the one hand, and calling Jews by the racist term Zios on the other) continues, the British
Pakistani Christian Association (BPCA) heard from a Pakistani Christian in Bradford about his encounters with both.
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As the row extends within the Labour party, including the suspension of former London Mayor Ken Livingstone for remarks including apparently saying
Hitler was a Zionist, Nissar Hussain told of his encounters with both Naz Shah and Mohammed Shabbir. He pointed out that Mr Shabbir had an influential
position under former Bradford MP George Galloway (Respect Party), but had now managed to get a similar position under new MP Naz Shah (Labour) until
he was forced to resign, and she was suspended from the Labour party. Naz Shah had been voted in in the most recent election promising that she would
be a total change in style and approach to George Galloway. That’s not how it looks to Mr Hussain.
Mr Hussain and his wife are both converts to Christianity from Islam, but for most of the last three decades they have faced persecution including
ongoing intimidation and harassment, false accusations and slanders to the police and violence, including a vicious attack outside the family home
last November that left Mr Hussain with a number of broken bones. For the last good few years the main instigators are a family several doors down
from him, who started their campaign after he appeared on a TV documentary about the plight of converts such as himself in the UK. He says that local
police and local councillors (primarily Muslim in this Asian area) have conspired to present this as merely a ‘neighbourly dispute’ and suppress the
reality that the ongoing campaign is founded on religious hatred. After an arson attempt in his last Bradford home, a local police sergeant told him
‘stop being a Crusader and move out’.
Mr Hussain had already told the BPCA about his encounters with the same Mr Shabbir who has been a focus of national media attention. Mr Shabbir was
(and as far as we know still is) a local Councillor in Bradford, but not of the ward in question. Mr Hussain says that in April or May in the run-up
to last year’s general election, a mutual friend called in Councillor Shabbir over the ongoing dispute, who presented himself as attempting to be an
objective mediator or intervener. He first talked to the family who have been behind the ongoing hate campaign against the Hussain family, before talking
to Nissar Hussain. Hussain recalls being suspicious at the time that in fact Mr Shabbir was not even remotely an independent adjudicator but in fact
was well known to at least some of the other family, working with them on local committees and in charity work, and that Mr Shabbir openly stated positive
opinions of his attackers. This is not just Mr Hussain’s say so. He provided an email from Mr Shabbir to two local policeman which said he had to remain
professionally impartial and objective, and appeared to give equal credibility and concern around Mr Hussain’s account (with CCTV evidence to support
it) and the other families false claims that Mr Hussain assaulted their elderly mother. Nevertheless the difference in how he treats them is there
– firstly, he openly stated that he told Mr Hussain that he has long known several members of the other family ‘from their work in Bradford and that
I have found them always engaged in promoting community building work.’ This was shortly after Mr Shabbir had joined the Labour Party just as Naz Shah
(Labour) was about to be elected. Did he know which way the wind was blowing or was he part of the blowing? Was this part of the ‘block vote’ system
that is used in many Asian areas where community leaders instruct the whole community to vote in one particular way?
Regardless, Mr Hussain says this is an example of the way a closely knit Muslim community based on honour-shame culture conspires together, with a
network of closely linked Councillors, charity trustees and community leaders all working to the same end, and putting pressure on police and other
bodies to toe the line. When Mr Hussain was viciously assaulted in November 2015, one local paper broke ranks to correctly call this a religious hate
crime, apparently much to the anger of the local police who were then forced to at least go through the motions of treating it as such, rather than
a ‘neighbourly dispute’, which is the party line it seems.
Having had problems with the last MP, George Galloway, Mr Hussain contacted Naz Shah as soon as she was elected, and also laying out some of the way
he had been treated and asking to meet up with her. At first she agreed and offered a meeting that week, but she then put it off to the next week,
citing time constraints. Then she put it off another week, saying she was ‘waiting on some further information’ (this was early on Friday 22nd of May). 6 days later Mr Shabbir, Naz Shah’s new aid emailed his comments about his earlier visit to the local police. After that, Naz Shah suddenly
went silent and would not talk to Mr Hussain any more. The timing suggests co-incidence is the least likely explanation. That Naz Shah was co-opted
or manipulated by the local ‘Mirpuri Mafia’, as Mr Hussain calls it, seems a rather more likely explanation. After Mr Hussain was brutally assaulted,
Naz Shah went on local ITV news to say that this was one of the most vicious assaults she had seen, claiming ‘support’ had been given to the Hussain
family and calling for witnesses to come forward, but at the same time signalling the party line, that it was a ‘neighbourly dispute’. She also claimed
that ‘The acts of a few, led by mindless hatred and intolerance, is not the Bradford I know, and most importantly is not something we will allow Bradford
to become. Bradford is, and will always be, a city which is proud of its diversity and its culture of welcoming those fleeing persecution as a City
of Sanctuary and which I am proud to call home.’ That is not at all the Hussain’s experience for the last several decades.
Most of the Hussain children are now young adults, with one writing a blog largely about their experiences. She recalls being called ‘Jew-dogs’ in
the playground and all sorts of other abuse and discrimination that deeply scarred their childhood, as well as decrying what she called the ‘existing
framework of Bradford’s corrupt political system’. When asked about the current crisis involving the same Naz Shah and Mr Shabbir, Mr Hussain talked
in terms of ‘chickens coming home to roost’, with the real nature of these individuals becoming more publicly exposed. Unsurprisingly, the Hussain
family just want to get out of Bradford with the death threats, and the oppressive environment and political elite. Watch this space.
Wilson Chowdhry, Chairman of the BPCA, said:
"Only in City of Bradford could such extremist views and practices be acceptable, which should be seen internationally as a blight on the reputation of Britain as a country. That victims such as Nissar could be persecuted in such fashion and ignored by statutory authorities can only be described as debilitating, but worse still the fact that any democratic party could allow such extremist ideology to manifest so evidently highlights poor governance."
He added:
"The Muslim convert crises in the UK is reaching a nadir, victims are having to flee their homes and go into hiding in entirely new neighbourhoods, often without any support networks. Often it is the families of victims or former friends that have become the main aggressors as Britain continues to ignore the extremist ideology pervading through UK mosques and madrassers. Sadly maddrassers are often unlicensed and not required to be inspected by the 'Office for Standards in Education' (Ofsted), meaning unchecked establishments continue to inculcate vulnerable young minds with hate concepts. Is it therefore surprising that Muslim communities in the UK are evidencing increasing polarisation and hatred towards minorities a phenomenon that reciprocates division."
We will continue to do all we can to help Nissar Hussain and his family to escape this life of shocking persecution in the UK, but we can't do it without you. Please pray and give what you can to enable them move to on to a life free from harrassment and religious hatred.
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With your support we hope to change the lives of millions of Pakistani Christians.