[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 25]
[House]
[Page 33654]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     BELIEF UNDER SIEGE IN BRITAIN

  (Mr. POE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. POE. Mr. Speaker, the freedom of religion is under attack in 
Great Britain.
  Last week British news reported that the daughter of a British Imam, 
we will call her Hannah, is living under police protection after 
receiving death threats from her father and brother because she 
converted to Christianity.
  Hannah was born in Britain to immigrant Pakistani parents. She 
renounced the Muslim faith when she was a teenager and has been in 
hiding for over 10 years.
  After multiple death threats and an attempt on her life by 40 men, 
led by her father, brandishing axes, hammers, and knives, Hannah has 
sought protection from the British Government.
  According to her, her father believes that the Koran teaches that 
anyone who walks away from Islam should be killed. Well, murder is bad 
enough, but murder in the name of religion is worse, and it's legal, at 
least in a free state where all religions are to be tolerated, even 
Christianity.
  Democracy values the freedom of other people's faith; it does not 
restrict it. That is the difference in a democracy and a government 
that is controlled by a religion.
  And that's just the way it is.

                          ____________________