Understanding the Reality of Islam

Imran Firasat is a Pakistani ex-Muslim who collaborated with Terry Jones on the movie The Innocent Prophet (watch it here). The Spanish government recently revoked his status as a political refugee in Spain, and he is due to be deported to Pakistan, where he will face the death penalty for blasphemy. There is currently a push to persuade the Canadian government to grant him and his family political asylum.

Mr. Firasat was interviewed recently on Alerta Digital TV. Many thanks to our Spanish correspondent Hermes for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Transcript:

01:07		We feel honored that you are with us, for you represent something that most of our readers
01:13		strive for, and actually share, namely the fight for freedom, but chiefly unveiling
01:19		the real face of one of the most dreadful and murderous ideologies
01:25		that has ever been conceived by men, which is the Islamic ideology, and
01:31		which you denounce. Several death sentences hang over you, and also the threat that the
01:37		Islamophile Spanish Government of Mariano Rajoy may expel you from the country,
01:43		which would entail an unavoidable death sentence for you. — Yes, without doubt.
01:49
02:58		So, Imran Firasat, a Pakistani national living in Spain for 7 years,
03:04		you came to Spain after having been persecuted by the authorities of the Islamic state of
03:10		Pakistan for having committed the ‘terrible crime’ of converting to
03:16		Christianity. These politicians we have here in this old Europe, these treasonous politicians
03:22		who… we’ll soon talk about the support which Islam receives in Spain.
03:28		They still don’t believe that in such countries as Pakistan converting to Christianity carries
03:34		with it the death sentence, right, Imran? — Yes, Islam says clearly that
03:40		those who do not believe in Islam, or not acknowledge Mohammed as a prophet, must be killed,
03:46		must be persecuted till they convert to Islam, and you can’t believe how many Christians
03:52		are being persecuted by Muslims. They are burned alive, they are tortured,
03:58		and if I try to raise my voice for them to live with rights,
04:04		and freedom, then the Spanish Government persecutes me. Well, really…
04:10		well, we’ll talk about this, we have time for all that happened to you and your family.
04:16		You were born in Pakistan, in a traditionally Muslim family,
04:22		you practiced Islam in your childhood, and
04:28		when did you wake up to that which changed your life so extraordinarily,
04:34		which was Christianity, when did you start to change and see that things are different
04:40		from what you had been taught? — I followed Islam until I was 26 years old,
04:46		sincerely and very piously, going to the mosque, fasting during Ramadan,
04:52		reading the Koran, which I could not understand… — you were a devout Muslim,
04:58		yes, a devout Muslim. I also hated infidels, because that was taught to us
05:04		in the mosque, that one has to hate non-Muslims, that is, infidels,
05:10		and I followed this. But at the age of 26, things happened,
05:16		as a result of which I left Islam. I understood that that religion is not a religion…
05:22		but what was it? Because this is exceptional, there are very few cases
05:28		of Muslims converting to Christianity. What changed you so drastically?
05:34		What changed your views in that way? — Yes, it was that I
05:40		fell in love with a Buddhist girl from Indonesia, and I wanted to marry her and live
05:46		together. But I ‘did not ask for permission’ from the Pakistani government nor the mosque
05:52		to fall in love, and it happened, because love is natural, and after that I realized that
05:58		my religion does not allow me to marry a Buddhist, so what to do? Imams told me that
06:04		she must convert to Islam, but she did not want to,
06:10		because she had also been persecuted in her country. — She worked in Pakistan? — Yes,
06:16		so we decided to live together without marrying,
06:22		like a couple, like many others in this world who do not marry, but living together in
06:28		an Islamic society, and on top of that having children, that is something punished
06:34		by death, so we were in a situation in which we could have been killed by
06:40		by Muslims at any time. — Excuse me, a question, while living with this girl,
06:46		you continued your Muslim practices? Going to the mosque, fasting,
06:52		obeying the Koran? — No, not so much, because as I got into trouble with Islamic society
06:58		and the Pakistani police, I realized that this religion which I had faithfully followed for
07:04		26 years does not understand my love and my feelings. I did all they said to me, but
07:10		my religion did not understand my love, that I wanted to live happily with her,
07:16		at that point I gave up Islam. Not suddenly, but gradually, because I had to dissemble,
07:22		I had to go to the mosque, I had to pray, but by force, because it was compulsory,
07:28		but the day arrived when I gave it up entirely…
07:34		Now please let’s pause here, when you leave Islam…
07:37
09:03		We continue with the testimony of Imran Firasat, who
09:09		fell in love with a girl in Pakistan,
09:15		a Buddhist girl. And you began to feel pressure from the authorities in your country,
09:21		who see as a crime that you have relations with somebody who is not
09:27		Muslim. You started living with her, you had a child, and what happened after that?
09:33		I began to be persecuted by society and the police, because an Islamic society is not
09:39		one that leaves you in peace. They want to know everything that happens at your home,
09:45		everything has to be Islam-compliant. So, we nearly died, and it is a long
09:51		story, but we were able to flee Pakistan. We arrived in Europe,
09:57		in Spain, and it was not easy, because… — How did you flee Pakistan, that society
10:03		with a fortified border… — Yes, by paying a lot of money, because they are radicals, but also
10:09		very corrupt… — So the Islamic world as a whole is very corrupt. — Yes, very corrupt.
10:15		So corruption is something genetically encoded in them. — Yes, yes… — The Muslim
10:21		mentality is a corrupt one. — I was lucky that I could pay for saving my life, but
10:27		many have no money, and they die over there. They have no chance.
10:33		In this way we arrived in Europe, and we started a new life, and
10:39		it was not easy, for in the beginning we were denied refugee status on grounds that
10:45		we came through Germany, and we should go back. So I continued living in Spain.
10:51		And after a year or so, after so much suffering, I felt such a hatred towards Islam,
10:57		I began studying the suras of the Koran more deeply, but now I want to point out
11:03		something crucial: the majority of Muslims don’t know what they are reading in the Koran,
11:09		because they are forced to read in Arabic, it is read
11:15		in a compulsory way, but not in order to understand it, and when I translated it into Spanish,
11:21		and I read so many suras about killing, and I remembered they told us in the mosque to kill,
11:27		infidels must be persecuted, killed, one can’t be their friend, discrimination against women,
11:33		all that, so I… — Excuse me, Imran. You began to study the Koran, in order
11:39		to unveil the hidden part that European politicians don’t want to see,
11:45		so what drove you to do this? — My purpose was that I wanted people
11:51		not to suffer as I did, to make them know the reality of Islam,
11:57		to make them understand the reality of Islam. I had already suffered, but I was so
12:03		outraged and upset against this religion, that it was not
12:09		a private matter for me, I wanted to show everybody the real face of Islam, and with
12:15		this purpose I began writing in the media and expressing my opinions, and thanks to the
12:21		Spanish media, who gave me the chance to express my opinions.
12:27		And these opinions earned me another death threat, even from my country,
12:33		and the Spanish Government gave us refugee status on grounds of
12:39		our having these opinions against Islam.
12:42