Politics, environment, farming and more in your new free Western Morning News newsletter - direct to your inbox every day Sign up Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

The Home Office has highlighted passages from the Bible to prove that Christianity is a violent religion in order to reject a converts application to stay in the UK.

The unnamed Iranian man applied for asylum in the UK saying he had converted to Christianity from Islam.

But an immigration caseworker has shared a letter sent to the man by the Home Office which picks out 'bloodthirsty' Bible passages to counter the man's argument that Christianity is a religion of peace.

The letter includes Old Testament quotes from Leviticus and Apocalyptic texts from Revelations, reports The Mirror .

It then says: "These examples are inconsistent with your claim that you converted to Christianity after discovering it is a 'peaceful' religion, as opposed to Islam which contains rage and revenge."

Caseworker Nathan Stevens wrote on Twitter : "I’ve seen a lot over the years, but even I was genuinely shocked to read this unbelievably offensive diatribe being used to justify a refusal of asylum."

He continued: "Whatever your views on faith, how can a government official arbitrarily pick bits out of a holy book and then use them to trash someone’s heartfelt reason for coming to a personal decision to follow another faith?"

Giving examples of violence in the Bible, the Home Office letter describes the Book of Revelation as "filled with imagery of revenge, destruction, death and violence."

(Image: @nathestevens/Twitter)

In his application for asylum, the Iranian man had written: "In Islam there is violence, rage and revenge.

"In Christianity in the contrary it is talking about peace, forgiveness and kindness."

Christian converts are routinely arrested in Iran and accused of trying to bring others into the faith.

Zoe Smith, head of advocacy at Open Doors, said: “This spike in arrests is highly concerning. It follows an established trend of the Iranian government – as the number of converts to Christianity increase, so the authorities place greater restrictions on churches."

Legal expert Conor James McKinney, from website Free Movement, told The Independent : "You can see from the text of the letter that the writer is trying to pick holes in the asylum seeker’s account of their conversion to Christianity and using the Bible verses as a tool to do that.

“The Home Office is notorious for coming up with any reason they can to refuse asylum and this looks like a particularly creative example, but not necessarily a systemic outbreak of anti-Christian sentiment in the department.”

A spokesman from the Home Office said: "This letter is not in accordance with our policy approach to claims based on religious persecution, including conversions to a particular faith.

"We continue to work closely with key partners, including the APPG on International Freedom of Religion and a range of faith groups, to improve our policy guidance and training provided to asylum decision-makers so that we approach claims involving religious conversion in the appropriate way."