Convicted Christian Convert Flees From Kuwait

Hussein Qambar Ali, a Christian convert from Islam who was convicted of apostasy in Kuwait earlier this year, fled to the United States last week and is deciding whether to seek religious asylum here.

Hussein, who has taken the Christian name Robert, arrived in the United States last Saturday and was taken to an undisclosed location by representatives of the human rights group Christian Solidarity International-USA, said the organization’s president, Jim Jacobson.

Jacobson said his group helped Hussein obtain the necessary visa and make arrangements to leave Kuwait. “My organization basically responded to a plea for help,” Jacobson said. “Our organization helps persecuted Christians, and we helped get Robert out of harm’s way.”

On May 29, a Shiite religious court in Kuwait found Hussein guilty of apostasy because he had converted to Christianity nearly two years earlier. The court recommended that under Sharia [Islamic law] Hussein “should be killed.”

Since then, Hussein, who received several death threats, had been in hiding.

Hussein, 45, made his conversion public last December when he told Kuwaiti newspapers that his estranged wife had forbidden him to see their two children because of his new faith. After the interviews were widely published throughout Kuwait, three lawyers filed a lawsuit charging Hussein with apostasy for leaving Islam, the majority religion in the Persian Gulf state.

On June 29, Hussein filed an appeal of the apostasy decision, and the court had scheduled the first hearing in the appeal for Sept. 15. This is the first known apostasy case in modern Kuwait, and it is uncertain what will now happen.

Jacobson said his organization has offered to help resettle Hussein in the United States, but he is unsure whether Hussein will accept help.

“Robert is a free man now living in a free country. He can now do what he wants to do,” Jacobson said. “He needs time to collect his thoughts, pray and rest before he makes any decisions about his future.”