Several months ago, I reviewed Derya Little’s book From Islam to Christ. Little is Turkish and she goes through the struggles that she had being a Christian in a Muslim country like Turkey. In her book she references another book which contains a conversion story. The book is The Price to Pay by Joseph Fadelle. Little mentions that after reading this book, she was thankful that she was from a more liberal Muslim country. Joseph Fadelle is from Iraq. While in Turkey you’ll only face social consequences for conversion, Iraq is a whole new ball game.
Born into the well known Musawi family, Fadelle had a Christian roommate while he served in the Iraqi army when Iraq was at war with Iran. Fadelle tried to convert the Christian and while the Christian didn’t preach to Fadelle, he simply told him to study the Quran. A little odd for a Christian telling a Muslim to study his own holy book. Fadelle then goes to a Shiite cleric to study the Quran. The cleric then tells Fadelle that he can’t fully understand the Quran without studying the life of Muhammad. Naturally Fadelle turns his studies to the life of Muhammad and as one would expect, that was the end of his Islamic faith.
In addition to providing a powerful conversion story, The Price to Pay shows how it is to live as a Christian in the heart of the Muslim world. Fadelle has to go to the Christian areas of town to attend church. Many churches wanted nothing to do with him. If they were caught baptizing a Muslim, their community would be put in serious danger. After constant rejection, he finally finds a priest who lets him and his wife(who had also converted at this point) attend church. Eventually a monk tells him that he has to leave the country if he wants to be Christian.
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
– Matthew 16:24
For most Christians the above verse is known as the wonderful words of the Lord Jesus Christ. For someone like Joseph Fadelle, it’s a very real situation. Iraq is in the heart of the Muslim world and is not a friendly place for a Christian, let alone a Muslim apostate to Christianity.
The book gives us an insight into life in Iraq under Saddam Hussein’s regime. Iraq has a Shia Muslim majority and a Sunni Muslim minority. Hussein was a Sunni and the book points out the Sunni minority occupied positions of power such as the civil courts. There is a lot of Sunni-Shia strife in Iraq as well. When Fadelle is in jail for apostasy, he overhears fellow prisoners debating Sunni and Shia Islam. I suppose Iraq is the Northen Ireland of the Islamic world.
Throughout the book, Fadelle is captivated by the bread of life discourse in John 6. His goal is baptism. Once he attains baptism he knows that he’ll be able to receive the bread of life spoken of by Jesus Christ. Does he leave Iraq? Does he receive baptism? Does he receive the bread of life? Read the book to find out!
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