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New Zealand: Saudi convert from Islam to Christianity kidnapped by Saudi agents and forcibly flown back to Saudi Arabia

Aug 25, 2014 11:34 am By Robert Spencer

NewZealandflatMuhammad commanded: “Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him” (Bukhari 9.84.57). This is still the position of all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence, both Sunni and Shi’ite. Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the most renowned and prominent Muslim cleric in the world, has stated: “The Muslim jurists are unanimous that apostates must be punished, yet they differ as to determining the kind of punishment to be inflicted upon them. The majority of them, including the four main schools of jurisprudence (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi`i, and Hanbali) as well as the other four schools of jurisprudence (the four Shiite schools of Az-Zaidiyyah, Al-Ithna-`ashriyyah, Al-Ja`fariyyah, and Az-Zaheriyyah) agree that apostates must be executed.” There is only disagreement over whether the law applies only to men, or to women also – some authorities hold that apostate women should not be killed, but only imprisoned in their houses until death. This father clearly believes that a female apostate should be killed.

“Fears for Saudi christian converts,” by Tony Wall and Blair Ensor, Stuff.co.nz, August 24, 2014:

Two Saudi Arabian asylum seekers at opposite ends of the country have suddenly flown home, and friends are convinced they have been forcibly repatriated because they’d turned their backs on Islam. Tony Wall and Blair Ensor investigate.

A half-eaten chop rots in a frying pan on a stove. Packaged food spills out of a pantry. Elsewhere: electrical appliances, spartan furniture, towels, clothing.

Someone has left this council flat in the Christchurch suburb of Redwood in a hurry.

No-one has seen or heard from the tenant, Saudi refugee Khalid Muidh Alzahrani, known as Daniel, for three weeks, and the council has applied for an abandonment order for the property.

Alzahrani, 42, suffered polio as a child, uses a walking stick and a wheelchair, and has other serious health problems.

He arrived in Christchurch about five years ago on a Saudi Government scholarship to study English, moved to Dunedin after the earthquakes and then returned to Christchurch, converting to Christianity and applying for asylum. He was granted refugee status on the grounds that he would be persecuted in Saudi Arabia, and told friends he was terrified he would be kidnapped and forced to return.

The Saudi ambassador to New Zealand told the Sunday Star-Times Alzahrani had “insisted” on returning home to visit his mother and the consulate had paid for his air ticket. But his friends don’t believe it – they say he was last seen in the company of two strange Arab men and believe he was taken out of the country under duress, possibly by agents of the state or family members.

Police state that they are not treating the case as a kidnapping at this stage but have reached out via Interpol to make sure that Alzahrani is OK.

People who convert from Islam to Christianity are known as MBBs – Muslim Background Believers – and some members of the MBB community in Christchurch have gone into hiding, fearing they too will be targeted.

One source said Saudi government agents were planted among the thousands of students who came to New Zealand each year to study, to ensure their behaviour did not bring “shame” on the Kingdom or their families.

In Saudi Arabia it is against the law for Muslims to abandon their faith, and Christians and other religious minorities are subjected to discrimination, harassment, detention and in rare cases torture and death.

There have been numerous documented cases of Saudi nationals being uplifted from foreign countries. In 2012, columnist Hamza Kashgari, who’d been accused of insulting the prophet Mohammad on Twitter, tried to seek asylum in New Zealand but was intercepted in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, sent home and jailed without trial.

In May last year, a young Saudi Christian who had arrived in Auckland two months earlier and claimed asylum was snatched off the street by three men just three days before his refugee interview and was flown back to Saudi Arabia, where it is believed he spent time in prison and was tortured. His lawyer, Roger Chambers, said the man had managed to secretly make contact with his friends in Auckland.

“He has had a dreadful time in Saudi Arabia,” Chambers said. “[He was told] more than once if he did not renounce his Christianity that he could expect to be beheaded.”

In Christchurch, an elderly neighbour said the last time he saw Alzahrani was about three weeks ago, leaving in a white, four-door car with two men “who weren’t New Zealanders”.

Alzahrani’s GP alerted police when he failed to turn up to a medical appointment. Immigration New Zealand confirmed that Alzahrani left the country on July 31 but refused to say if he was travelling alone.

Police said they were satisfied he had left voluntarily.

In the middle of dinner, without even disposing of his half-eaten meal.

“However, due to Mr Alzahrani’s ongoing health issues, police have made a request … to the Saudi Arabian authorities to enquire as to his welfare,” they said in a statement.

Saudi Ambassador Ahmed Al-Johani said in a statement Alzahrani had “insisted” he wanted to return home, “so we provided him with a ticket as he requested”. He left New Zealand on a Cathay Pacific flight via Hong Kong and had “safely arrived to his family”.

Al-Johani released health records from two-and-a-half years ago when Alzahrani had sought help from the consulate because he could not afford his medical bills. “We offered Mr Alzahrani all the help and support he needed.”

The Star-Times understands that was before Alzahrani sought asylum. Al-Johani ignored other questions about Saudi Arabia’s stance on Christian converts.

Members of the Christian community in Christchurch who were providing Alzahrani with financial support to supplement his invalid’s benefit are upset with the police response to their complaint. They have tried repeatedly to reach Alzahrani, without success.

They said his dream was to bring his two young daughters to New Zealand. It was out of character for him to disappear without telling his friends, they said.

“Daniel made it very clear that he would never return to the Middle East as it was too dangerous for him as a Christian,” a friend said.

“He shared many times that he was fearful of abduction.”

A source said Alzahrani’s brother had visited Christchurch a few months ago and given him an air ticket to return to Saudi. He had refused to take it.

“The fear of his brother visiting caused him to have very bad nightmares about being killed in his flat.” the source said. “He felt in a very dark place and was irrational at times. Why would a man like this want to go back into the lion’s den?”

A source familiar with Saudi asylum-seekers said that when a family member converted, “religious police” would visit the family and give them a deadline to sort it out themselves.

“Often the oldest son will be sent to get them and bring them home and re-indoctrinate them.”

In the Auckland case, it is believed one of the three men who snatched the asylum-seeker was his brother. A source said the other two were travelling on diplomatic passports and were captured on CCTV footage at Auckland airport.

Chambers said his client had been so worried about the possibility of being kidnapped and forcibly returned home that he changed his name by deed poll and applied for asylum on religious persecution grounds.

His conversion had “outraged” his family.

The Star-Times has been told he was married to a member of the wealthy, influential bin Laden construction family.

After he disappeared his friends searched his flat in Grafton, central Auckland, and found all his clothes and belongings still there, including credit cards.

Chambers said New Zealand officials met the man when his plane landed in Hong Kong, but he indicated he was returning voluntarily and was allowed to proceed.

“There was considerable doubt as to whether that was a voluntary statement. The evidence suggests he was kidnapped … and we suspect they were agents of the state, but there may have been a family involvement.”…

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Filed Under: Apostasy, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia Tagged With: featured


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Comments

  1. John C. Barile says

    Aug 25, 2014 at 11:43 am

    I can’t even begin to express my outrage and contempt for all of Islamy!

    • Jay Boo says

      Aug 25, 2014 at 11:47 am

      Can you be a bit more specific?

      • John C. Barile says

        Aug 25, 2014 at 9:47 pm

        You jest.

    • enwhitenment says

      Aug 25, 2014 at 11:18 pm

      Oil is not the only thing that Saudi Arabia draws from the bowels of earth,
      It kills all life it covers , it is dark and slimy and it stinks and it is the product of death.
      It is Islam.

  2. Jay Boo says

    Aug 25, 2014 at 11:46 am

    “In Saudi Arabia it is against the law for Muslims to abandon their faith”
    The UN needs to impose a resolution against this backward religion

    Was Muhammad even a prophet?
    Brave Young Muslim Woman Leaves Islam And Tells The Truth About Mohammed

    Islam uses merry-go-round circular logic
    to pretend that Muhammad is a prophet.

  3. Salah says

    Aug 25, 2014 at 11:54 am

    Most Muslims are still Muslims out of fear, many out of ignorance, some out of perversion and wickedness.
    No sane, well informed person would freely choose embracing such an evil and pervert ideology invented by an evil and pervert 7th century bedouin.

    http://crossmuslims.blogspot.com/2010/12/perfect-man-of-islam.html

    • Crystal says

      Sep 7, 2014 at 12:02 am

      White bedouin, my friend. Actually, white skinned Arabl

  4. Chabuco says

    Aug 25, 2014 at 12:17 pm

    Casus belli, simply as that.

    How many other cases like this have happened all around the world without anyone knowing? Family member ratting them out… it’s just like the mafia or communism, like it happened with the Stasi and the KGB back in the USSR. And happens daily in Belarus, North Korea, Cuba… etc.

  5. Michael Copeland says

    Aug 25, 2014 at 1:08 pm

    “APOSTASY FROM ISLAM (RIDDA)
    It is obligatory for the caliph (A. or his representative) to ask him to repent and return to Islam. If he does it is accepted from him, but if he refuses he is immediately killed.”
    Manual of Islamic Law, “Reliance of the Traveller”, o8.2. Free download at:
    http://www.islamicbulletin.org/free_downloads/resources/reliance2_complete.pdf

  6. Liam1304 says

    Aug 25, 2014 at 3:34 pm

    Immigration NZ refused to say if he was travelling alone. It’s a privacy issue you see, they can’t tell us this as it’s nobodies business. Though the man was plainly kidnapped. Somebody once talked about “straining out a gnat and swallowing a Camel”. Good grief. Yes, its perfectly normal to leave for the other side of the planet on the most dangerous journey possible – one that you’ve had nightmares about doing – without doing the dishes first, or arranging for rent payments or telling any of your friends.

    Our Police are showing themselves to be just as politically compromised as any Western law enforcement agency.

    I am disgusted & appalled.

    • enwhitenment says

      Aug 25, 2014 at 11:26 pm

      Liam relax , the sauds will pay for another mosque to be built and drown a few pollies in gifts to show they are really just nice and loving and just wanted to help a friend get home.

      • Tom Davis says

        Aug 26, 2014 at 11:18 am

        Are the Saudis funding any university chairs in NZ? That’s a proven way to buy public opinion in the US.

    • Crystal says

      Sep 7, 2014 at 12:04 am

      Hear hear! Can’t stand the fundies myself!

      From a fellow Kiwi

  7. gravenimage says

    Aug 25, 2014 at 3:35 pm

    New Zealand: Saudi convert from Islam to Christianity kidnapped by Saudi agents and forcibly flown back to Saudi Arabia
    …………………………………..

    I actually had to read that headline twice to realize what it portends: that apostates have been snatched off the streets of the civilized West and forcibly dragged back to Dar-al-Islam.

    More:

    One source said Saudi government agents were planted among the thousands of students who came to New Zealand each year to study, to ensure their behaviour did not bring “shame” on the Kingdom or their families.
    …………………………………..

    The usual—leaving the foul creed of Islam brings “shame”, but spying, threatening, kidnapping, imprisonment, torture, and murder are perfectly Halal. *Ugh*.

    More:

    In May last year, a young Saudi Christian who had arrived in Auckland two months earlier and claimed asylum was snatched off the street by three men just three days before his refugee interview and was flown back to Saudi Arabia, where it is believed he spent time in prison and was tortured.time in Saudi Arabia,” Chambers said.
    …………………………………..

    I knew that this had happened with victims kidnapped from other parts of the Muslim world, including “moderate” places like Malayasia—but I hadn’t realized that victims had been kidnapped from the civilized West.

    More:

    “[He was told] more than once if he did not renounce his Christianity that he could expect to be beheaded.”
    …………………………………..

    This horror is mainstream Islam…

    More:

    Alzahrani’s GP alerted police when he failed to turn up to a medical appointment. Immigration New Zealand confirmed that Alzahrani left the country on July 31 but refused to say if he was travelling alone.

    Police said they were satisfied he had left voluntarily…
    …………………………………..

    Uh—right. Especially given his fear of being abducted…

    More:

    A source said Alzahrani’s brother had visited Christchurch a few months ago and given him an air ticket to return to Saudi. He had refused to take it…

    “Often the oldest son will be sent to get them and bring them home and re-indoctrinate them.”
    …………………………………..

    This is what Islam does—it gets the whole family involved in such abductions, whether independent “Honor Killings” or Islamic state savagery, as here.

    And if his brother tried to force a ticket on him just a couple of months ago, does it make sense that he would now be demanding one from the Saudi government? Of course not.

    More:

    Chambers said New Zealand officials met the man when his plane landed in Hong Kong, but he indicated he was returning voluntarily and was allowed to proceed.
    …………………………………..

    Well, it’s heartening to hear that New Zealand officials made this kind of effort—or it would be, if they had interviewed the man *alone*. To interview him *while he was in the custody of his abductors* is nothing short of madness. Of course he isn’t going to be able to speak freely.

    More:

    “There was considerable doubt as to whether that was a voluntary statement. The evidence suggests he was kidnapped … and we suspect they were agents of the state, but there may have been a family involvement.”…
    …………………………………..

    Yes.

    More:

    Saudi Ambassador Ahmed Al-Johani said in a statement Alzahrani had “insisted” he wanted to return home, “so we provided him with a ticket as he requested”. He left New Zealand on a Cathay Pacific flight via Hong Kong and had “safely arrived to his family”.

    Al-Johani released health records from two-and-a-half years ago when Alzahrani had sought help from the consulate because he could not afford his medical bills. “We offered Mr Alzahrani all the help and support he needed.”
    …………………………………..

    What *bald faced crap*—that they were only concerned about the victim’s health and welfare. The Saudis are laughing at the credulous Kuffar.

    • EYESOPEN says

      Aug 26, 2014 at 5:42 am

      Spot-on on all counts Graven – especially the one about the NZ police being “satisfied that he left voluntarily”. (And as Robert stated above: “In the middle of dinner, without even disposing of his half-eaten meal.”)

  8. Brian Hoff says

    Aug 25, 2014 at 6:03 pm

    Did W. Bush and the godfather VP have the CIA knippnap muslum to have then touch oversea. The hippquit you all are.

    • John C. Barile says

      Aug 25, 2014 at 9:53 pm

      Are Christians–insofar as they are Christian–your enemies, BH? Jihadists, on the other hand, kill for their deen. I hear no protest from you. You must be yet another “aggrieved” Muslim.

    • enwhitenment says

      Aug 26, 2014 at 1:36 am

      Brian try talking without a mouthful of dung and maybe someone will understand.

    • EYESOPEN says

      Aug 26, 2014 at 5:43 am

      Maybe when “Brian Hoff” learns to speak English we won’t need a translator to interpret his gibberish.

  9. Max Publius says

    Aug 25, 2014 at 6:04 pm

    Let’s be very clear — Every businessman, politician, diplomat and vacationer is guilty of being a total scumbag for ever making deals with the Saudis instead of reporting that monstrous, grisly hatehole to the proper authorities (if they still exist).

  10. Brian Tunks says

    Aug 25, 2014 at 6:21 pm

    Yet again the Police do nothing. What? Are they afraid of being named Islamophobic?

  11. eduardo odraude says

    Aug 25, 2014 at 6:58 pm

    Man, the Saudi government and those who support it really have it coming. While we are waiting for someone to turn Saudi Arabia into glass, all Saudi government officials should be barred from New Zealand.

    • enwhitenment says

      Aug 26, 2014 at 1:41 am

      Eduardo until money becomes worthless the evil villains will find support.

    • Tom Davis says

      Aug 26, 2014 at 11:22 am

      “While we are waiting for someone to turn Saudi Arabia into glass…”

      Prediction: that someone is probably sitting in a junior functionary’s office in Tehran right now.

  12. Tommo says

    Aug 26, 2014 at 4:48 am

    Muslim numbers are growing fast in New Zealand and are accommodated with their every need from Halal food, courses in Islam at universities and mosque building. They see no threat in this trend and extend a warm welcome like naive, lefty Kiwis that they are. A new Muslim initiative in NZ is the aligning with Maori nationalism which is bound to result in violent jihad sooner rather than later.

    • EYESOPEN says

      Aug 26, 2014 at 5:37 am

      Tommo said: “A new Muslim initiative in NZ is the aligning with Maori nationalism which is bound to result in violent jihad sooner rather than later.”

      You are absolutely correct, Tommo. Sounds a lot like the izlamic “proselytizing” done in American and U.K. prisons to appeal to the prisoners’ feelings of “victimhood”, as well as their anti-social and psychopathic tendencies.

    • enwhitenment says

      Aug 26, 2014 at 6:23 am

      The same is happening in Australia with the traditional owners.
      Come to Islam , Islam will save you.
      The problem is Australia does have a short and violent history towards the first Australians but much work is being done to fix the problems that have been created in the past and many of the past practices have seen reforms.
      These traditional land owners have a magnificent culture and possibly the longest lasting culture on the planet.
      Islam has seen no reforms in 1400 years.
      If the true Australians allow Islam to invade them then they will lose their identity forever.
      This must not be allowed to happen and we all owe it to them to make sure this does not happen.
      Many people lack education or has grievances from the past but this would be like jumping out of the pot and into the fire.
      The true Australians must protect and revive the magic they have , they must be proud of who they are not who some middle east nutcase wants them to be.

      • Crystal says

        Sep 7, 2014 at 12:07 am

        Please don’t minimise the damage the white Aussies did to the Aborigines. They treated the Aborigines very badly, similar to the way the blacks were treated in the United States. I don’t like racism of any odor but I don’t think the fundies will help them either. There is such a thing as white privilege.

  13. Uncle Vladdi says

    Aug 26, 2014 at 11:44 pm

    Re: (your opening lines): “Muhammad commanded: “Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him” (Bukhari 9.84.57). This is still the position of all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence, both Sunni and Shi’ite. ”

    AGAIN WITH THE HADITHS!

    WHY, ROBERT, WHY?!

    THE “DEATH TO APOSTATES!” BIT IS RIGHT THERE IN THE QUR’AN ITSELF:

    SURA 4:89!!!

    😉

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