Persecution Blog: Hussein: Locked in Level 11

After 10 days in solitary confinement, Hussein was taken back to the main prison. The paperwork they gave him said he was a “blasphemer of the Holies,” an apostate. One of the guards, seeing the charge, told Hussein, “Only God can help you in here.”

“Yes,” Hussein replied. “He is helping me.”

Hussein was assigned to Level 11, and when he got there he discovered that Level 11 was death row. The guard at the gate to this section argued with the guard who delivered Hussein: “If you bring him here, they will kill him!” But orders were orders. The gate was opened, and Hussein went in with 250 death row inmates. Then the gate closed, and the guard stayed outside. Inside Level 11, the prisoners were in charge and the prison gang made all the decisions.

“I started praying,” Hussein said. “I didn’t know what to do, but I knew that God was going to do something for me.” On his first night, Hussein was told by the gang leader to meet them at midnight in the bathroom. Hussein was frightened of what they would do to him. But instead of threatening him or being violent, they asked for his help.

“Please tell what is going on here [in the prison] to your friends in America,” they said. Hussein wasn’t sure what they meant; he didn’t have friends in America. But he promised to do what he could to help them. The gang leaders showed him to a top bunk bed. Other prisoners had been there five years and were still sleeping on the floor, while Hussein slept on the top bunk his first night on death row.

“I didn’t know how to say thank you to God, lying there on top of that bed,” he said. From his first night on death row, he was accepted as one of the top eight people in the gang. He was given fresh fruit and vegetables, and he had a private shower. He could use the phone every day, and finally he called his family to tell them what had happened. “It was like a hotel to me,” Hussein says. After two days the guard came and offered him a transfer to a “safer” part of the prison. “No way!” Hussein told him. “I’m not moving.”

He was on death row for eight days. Then his family brought the deed to his house to use as collateral, and he was released on bail. Later, at his court hearing, the judge pointed out some mistakes on Hussein’s appeal document. But even in court, God was at work. The judge personally corrected the mistakes and told Hussein where he needed to go to file the documents. Later, he gave Hussein his cellphone number and offered to personally handle his case file. Hussein didn’t even have to come back to court!

Hussein still can’t believe how amazingly God has stepped into his life at so many points. “If I ever die and I am before Christ,” he said, “I will never have any excuses that He was never with me. Look how many doors He opened for me! This is why I want to serve, because I know Christ is with me. I learned that it is not what I would want in a situation but what He wants, because that is so much better.”

A VOM worker asked Hussein how he is preparing himself for the next time he’s called on to suffer for Christ’s sake.

“I think one of two things will happen,” he said calmly. “They will either kill me or there will be another miraculous event like this.”

Then he looked right at our worker, his dark eyes glowing.

“Which one is bad?”

Hussein’s story was featured in a past issue of VOM’s free monthly newsletter. You can sign up to receive VOM’s newsletter here. You can also read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 of Hussein's story. You can also give online to support VOM's work in the Muslim World.