UK Therapist Suspended for Sharing Christianity with Muslim Co-Worker Loses Appeal
ICC Note: As previously reported, an occupational therapist in the UK, Victoria Wasteney, was suspended from her position at London’s St. John Howard Center for nine months after sharing her faith with a coworker. Wasteney and her Muslim coworker, Enya Nawaz, had engaged in many conversations about their faith until she heard that Nawaz had filed a complaint against her for allegedly trying to convert her. Following her suspension, Wasteney then appealed to an employment tribunal over the matter; however, the tribunal upheld the initial decision.
By Heather Clark
04/07/2016 United Kingdom (Christian News Network) – An occupational therapist who was suspended from her job for nine months after her Muslim co-worker alleged that she was trying to convert her to Christianity has lost her appeal before an employment tribunal.
As previously reported, Victoria Wasteney, now 39, had developed a friendship with her colleague Enya Nawaz, now 28, as they worked at the St. John Howard Center in London. The two had discussed Islam and Christianity, and Wasteney had talked to Nawaz about her church’s efforts to fight human trafficking.
“The whole basis of our conversations around faith started with her telling me that she’d had an encounter with God, that she felt she had been brought to London for a particular reason,” Wasteney told reporters.
“We were both interested in what one another were involved in,” she said. “It was part of the normal process of building a relationship with someone, to talk about primarily things we were interested in outside of work.”
In 2013, after Nawaz told Wasteney about her personal health concerns on a lunch break, Wasteney offered to pray for her. Nawaz replied, “Okay,” and Wasteney laid hands on her and prayed that God would give her “peace and healing.”
Wastney also invited her co-worker to church and gave her a copy of the book “I Dared to Call Him Father,” which is about a Muslim woman who converted to Christianity. Wasteney said that she had never read the book, but that it had been recommended by a friend.
“Because we had had these conversations, it did not seem abnormal,” she explained.