UK-Born Father-Of-Six, Who Converted from Islam to Christianity, Attacked with Pickaxe in Brutal Unprovoked Assault

UK-Born Father-Of-Six, Who Converted from Islam to Christianity, Attacked with Pickaxe in Brutal Unprovoked Assault

Now, charges have been dropped against this UK “apostate,” targeted in “premeditated attempt to discredit his reported hate abuse”

By Dan Wooding, Founder of ASSIST News Service

BRADFORD, UK (ANS – July 8, 2016) – Several weeks ago, the British Pakistani Christian Association (BPCA) received letters from Karen Bradley MP, the UK Home Office Minster for Preventing Abuse, Exploitation and Crime, concerning the case of Nissar Hussain, a UK-born man living in Bradford, who has been the subject of a vicious November hate attack for quitting Islam.

The shocking incident took place on November 17, 2015, when Hussain, 49, a Christian father-of-six, was brutally set upon by hooded thugs with a pickaxe handle who targeted him as a “blasphemer” because he had converted from Islam.

During the attack, Mr. Hussain had suffered a shattered knee cap and broken hand when two hooded thugs battered him with a pickaxe handle outside his home.

In a CCTV video located outside his home, he can be seen being repeatedly hit with the weapon, punched and kicked by the attackers who leapt from a car as he left his home in Bradford, an industrial city on the edge of the moors of the Britain's West Yorkshire Pennines and in the heart ofBronte Country -- where theBronte sisterswere born and lived and wrote theirclassic novels.

But this was not fiction for Nissar Hussain who says he has been leaving in fear for years since converting from Islam to Christianity.

Britain’s Daily Mirror says that Mr. Hussain converted to Christianity in 1996 and said that his problems started after he and his family appeared in a 2008 Channel 4 TV documentary about the mistreatment of Muslim converts in the UK.

Mr. Hussain, his wife Kubra, 45, and their six children - Issar, 23, Anniesa, 21, Sarah, 19, Miriam, 17, Leena, 14 and Isaaq, seven -- then moved to the new home from another part of Bradford, claiming they were driven out by hardline Muslim residents.

But since then, Hussain, a trained nurse, says they have effectively become “prisoners in their own home.”

He said: “The Muslim community are largely decent people but, because of the taboo of converting to Christianity, we are classed by them as scum and second-class citizens. Over the years our lives have been subjugated and stripped of any dignity.

“Our lives have been jeopardized and subjugated; we have been forced to live under a climate of fear, this is not England. I grew up in a free and decent country, accepting British values and the British rule of law.”

At the time of the attack, Mr. Hussain spoke about the attack from his hospital bed.

He said: “I took a couple of steps into the road and suddenly a car pulled up in an abrupt manner - two guys got out and I immediately saw the pickaxe handle. They had gone to crack me on the head, so naturally I lifted my arm up to protect myself and the blow has stopped by my hand. I started backpedaling and my heel caught the kerb, I then fell back and me head cracked off a low garden wall.

“That was it then that I was a lame target. They started pummeling me with the pickaxe handle, raining blows on my upper body and then moving to my legs - it was then I felt my knee explode. Thankfully one of my neighbors came over and the thugs went on their way.

“The only thing was going through my mind was I need to stay alive, to protect my head, and to stay alive.”

Media reports said that his attackers were both wearing hooded tops and tracksuit bottoms and only stopped attacking him when Polish neighbors heard the commotion and chased them off.

He turned to God for help

According to Premier Christian Radio, Nissar said that in the moments of the brutal attack, he turned to God for help, saying, “I felt the Lord’s presence so intimately and the Lord has come through for me in miraculous ways that I could never have imagined.

“Despite the recent brutal attack outside my home, I have no doubt whatsoever that the Lord was watching over me and preserved my life as it could have been fatal. I felt His warm and glowing presence throughout the ordeal and its aftermath.”

Has forgiven his attackers

Mr Hussain continued: “Over the years we [as a family] have been called to re-exercise our faith and, deep in faith, we have forgiven our attackers. This is what the Lord requires of us as He forgave - while He was hung on a cross He forgave those who persecuted Him.”

Now, according to the British Pakistani Christian Association (BPCA), charges, which were strangely levelled against Mr. Hussain, have been dropped against him, and the BPCA states that he was “targeted” in a “premeditated attempt to discredit his reported hate abuse.”

The chairman of the BPCA, Pakistan-born Wilson Chowdhry, along with Nissar Hussain met with Karen Bradley to discuss the situation of converts, and Nissar told her about his 16 years of persecution in Bradford, a city with a large Muslim population, for converting from Islam to Christianity.

A case was then put forward for apostasy hatred to be included within the Race and Religious Hatred Act 2006, and for the government policy on hate crime and referred to policing guidelines.

“BPCA believe that ambiguity led to West Bradford Police not recognizing the attacks on Nissar Hussain as hate crimes as other Christians were not targeted - failing to understand the animosity converts from Islam face,” said a spokesperson for the London-based group.

“In both the meeting and the letters, the minister reaffirmed the government’s commitment to dealing with hate crimes and recording them properly. She also wrote to Mark Bums-Williamson OBE, the Police and Crime Commissioner for West Bradford about Nissar’s case, questioning why most incidents against him were not recorded as hate crimes

“She said that the police force in question claimed they had been recorded as hate crimes, but she wanted to know more about how cases were handled, and the situation in Bradford.”

Nissar Hussain said: “Yes, they recorded the most brutal attack on me -- which was actually attempted murder -- as a religious hate crime, but only after the local media named it as such.

“But in all of the years beforehand, the police force has been downplaying our abuse as a ‘neighborly dispute.’ Since the meeting with Karen Bradley and her intervention I am pleased to see a visible change in the pro-activeness of local police and have met a local sergeant willing to cooperate with our family.”

Hussain added: “Actually, a year or so ago, there was one officer who responded to our complaint and, after talking with one of the perpetrators for several hours, stated that we were suffering from religious hatred, but in the charges that followed; the religious hate crime aspect got dropped on the day of the court case. The CPS had said something like, ‘they didn’t have a file on a religious hate crime’ and that was it.’”

Referring to charges that had been laid against Nissar and his son Issar Hussain [who recently qualified as a doctor] Nissar Hussain said: “Now, my son and I have been farcically charged with ‘Public Order’ offences, following a premeditated incident by our perpetrators whereby my son was assaulted and spat upon in the face.’”

The BPCA spokesperson said, “As best we can make out, this is an accurate account of what has led to them yet again facing false charges. After the most recent assault in November last year, Nissar was hospitalized for 11 days, and has barely recovered from his physical injuries, but not from the ongoing trauma.

“Even before the attack, he has been unable to work due to PTSD from the campaign of hate against his family, and he lost his job as a nurse. However, a few days after he left hospital, the BPCA helped organize a protest vigil in the centre of Bradford.”

According to the BPCA, Mr Hussain’s son was targeted in a “premeditated event” after returning home from university to attend the vigil.

“He was provoked, intimidated and assaulted by being shoved and spat upon in the face,” added the BPCA spokesperson. “Police ignored the history of the families suffering to insinuate that the Hussain's were the perpetrators in the subsequent interviews, despite police calls being made to the police prior to the incident of harassment and intimidating behavior. The Hussain's feel that the police force made spurious charges to appease the perpetrating family in a case of ‘mob rule’ and also to discredit the Hussain's themselves.

“Other visitors coming for the protest also reported similar intimidation, with reports being made to the police. For many years when visiting his father, Issar has been using precaution to avoid the perpetrating family.”

For more information, please go to http://www.britishpakistanichristians.org/

Photo captions: 1) Nissar Hussain pictured at the Bradford hospital after the assault. 2) Nissar Hussain, 49, with his wife Kubra, 45, pictured at their home in Bradford. 3) CCTV captured the brutal attack on Mr. Hussain. 4) Finally progress as Wilson Chowdhry Chairman of the BPCA and Nissar Hussain met with Karen Bradley Under Secretary of State for the Home Office. 5) British Muslims let extreme views be known. 6)  Inside a Bradford Mosque. 7) Dan Wooding with his special award from the British Pakistani Christian Association.

About the writer: Dan Wooding, 75, is an award-winning winning author, broadcaster and journalist who was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, and is now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for some 53 years. They have two sons, Andrew and Peter, and six grandchildren who all live in the UK. Dan is the founder and international director of the ASSIST News Service (ANS), and is also the author of some 45 books. In addition, Dan has a radio program and two TV shows all based in Southern California. He has received a special award from the British Pakistani Christian Association (BPCA) for his reporting on the persecution of Pakistani Christians.

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