Mounib finally finds religious freedom - in Jesus
Mounib finally finds religious freedom - in Jesus
Mounib stands with the people he calls my ‘friends, my mentors, my family’ – Salvation Army officers Majors Colin and Karen Elkington.
I was born and grew up in Pakistan, in a Sunni Muslim family. My great-grandfather was of high ranking in our home town, so my family was very well known. I spent my childhood surrounded by my family.
I made a lot of new friends at school and also met some Shia Muslims in our neighbourhood. We also connected and became friends.
I was curious about the conflict between Sunni and Shia Muslims and asked my family, including my great-grandfather, many questions. As I grew older and went to college, I did further research. The questions were always on my mind.
At the end of 2004, after college, I opened a factory that made tailor’s scissors and surgical instruments. This came to an end in 2009 when I discovered my business partner had been deceiving me.
In 2010, I converted to become a Shia Muslim. I only told one person in my family. That same year, I joined a Shia security company that provided services to all religious sites and before long I was the city advisor for them.
In 2011, I got into a political discussion with a childhood friend and told him I had become Shia. Within days I was getting phone calls – death threats – from unknown numbers. A violent and dangerous group sent a letter to my family home, telling my father about my conversion. My dad and his brother were shocked, angry and upset, and worried about the impact on their families. My father convinced the local Imams that I was the only convert in the family.
I left home and moved to another city, but after a few months returned as a security advisor for a major Shia event. I was giving a security guard a break and standing in a doorway, observing the street, when a bullet just missed my head. I saw two men, one on a motorbike, the other aiming a rifle at me. I turned to run, fell, and the bullet hit the door. God saved me.
I knew it was serious now. I moved to a city near Lahore and was always accompanied by an armed guard. Seven months later, I moved to Malaysia. I had no plans to go anywhere else. I didn’t even want a ‘better’ life, but simply a life with freedom of religion.
Through a series of what I can only describe as miracles, I arrived in Australia in 2014. My first few years were spent in detention centres, including in Melbourne, and it was there that I met Major Colin Elkington, a Salvation Army asylum seeker and refugee chaplain, who regularly visited the centre.
After receiving a bridging visa in 2017, I moved to the Melbourne suburb of Brunswick, just across the road from the Salvos Asylum Seeker and Refugee Service. One day, Colin and I saw each other crossing the road. He remembered me and invited me in. Colin and his wife Karen, who manages the service, helped me fill out documents for material aid and other assistance. They quickly became my friends, my mentors, my family.
In January 2019, I joined the Salvos as a volunteer. A few months later, I resigned from my job in a grocery store and started volunteering a few days a week for the Salvos.
Kevin Amiri, who works at the asylum seeker and refugee centre and who also assists Colin at a Farsi-speaking church service at Brunswick Corps, became a close and trusted friend and often talked to me about religion. Kevin gave me a Bible in Urdu (the national language of Pakistan) and I began to read it, often asking him, Colin and Karen many, many questions.
Colin spoke to me about the book of Matthew (in the New Testament) and how we can bring our burdens to Jesus. He told me about the six-week Christianity Explained course, which I did, and I accepted Jesus as my Lord, Saviour and King.
I have found the peace I have been looking for my whole life. I don’t have family around, but I have friends and my Lord Jesus standing in the middle of everything.
The Salvation Army is just like my family, it’s like home, and I am happy to spend my time with them. I will forever be grateful to them.
Desire to serve
Karen recently spoke about Mounib and his connection with the Salvos:
“I first met Mounib in late 2018. He came to the centre to receive assistance and also expressed a strong desire to volunteer with The Salvation Army. I could see immediately that Mounib would be an ideal person to have as part of our team. Aside from valuing diversity, which essentially means we actively recruit people to work here from a range of cultural, linguistic and faith backgrounds, it was obvious that Mounib is a person who deeply respected and cares for all people.
“When Mounib started working with us he was a devout Muslim. We often had discussions about Islam, and Mounib would ask us a lot of questions about Christianity. Our service has an active partnership with a progressive synagogue. When Mounib heard about a Chanukah Shalom Dinner the Jewish community was hosting for people seeking asylum, he was one of the first people to respond. For Mounib, the highlight was seeing the Torah scroll and being able to mix with people of different faith backgrounds.
“We knew Mounib was intensely interested in exploring faith in Jesus when he started having lengthy discussions with Kevin and then agreed to do the Christianity Explained course with Colin. It wasn’t long before Mounib excitedly told me he had decided to put his faith in Jesus.
“In spite of all his difficulties and challenges, Mounib is always positive and has a genuine desire to serve the community and to consider other people’s needs before his own.”
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