Guianese convert from Islam seeks refugee status in Canada

Lamine Yansané, a Muslim convert from Guinea is seeking to stay in Canada after his own father, an imam in his homeland, issued a call for his son’s death during his Friday prayers at the mosque in Boké.  Here is the story from today’s National Post

In Lamine Yansané's hometown of Boké in Guinea, his father is a revered imam who sometimes leads Friday prayers. But after Mr. Yansané married a Catholic woman and abandoned Islam for Christianity, his father disowned him, and Friday prayers have featured a call for his death, the Federal Court heard yesterday.

Mr. Yansané, who has been denied refugee status, is seeking a last-ditch reprieve on the grounds that he faces certain harm if he is deported from Canada. "If you return him to his country, he is going to die," Mr. Yansané's lawyer, Stewart Istvanffy, told the court. He called his client "a victim of radical Islam, who is threatened by the imam of his town, his own father."

Mr. Yansané, 37, arrived in Canada from Guinea in the fall of 2005. He told the Immigration and Refugee Board that he fled the West African nation after his father and uncle tracked him down in the country's capital of Conakry, confronted him about his church attendance and threatened him as a traitor to Islam. His wife and three children remain in Guinea. [read more.…]

At present, his case does not seem to be going well.  Canadian authorities seem to be unwilling to believe that Mr. Yansané’s life would truly be in danger, despite his father’s repeated public threats. In June 2008, the National Post was able to reach the father, El Hadj Aboubacar Yansané, in Boké and he warned his son to stay away: "He knows what will happen. It would be dangerous for him to come back to Boké," he said.

Please pray for Lamine Yansané during these days. Pray that God will guide Justice Michel Shore as he makes the final decision as to whether he will remain in Canada.