A Christian nurse claims she was sacked for 'harassment and bullying' after she prayed for a troubled Muslim colleague.
Victoria
Wasteney, 37, a senior occupational health therapist at a mental
hospital in east London, offered support to a fellow nurse when she was
unwell.
Miss
Wasteney says she put her hand on young colleague Enya Nawaz's knee and
asked if she could pray for her, saying:
'God, I trust You will bring
peace and You will bring healing.'
The
pair had been on friendly terms for months, so Miss Wasteney, who
describes herself as a 'born-again Christian', was furious when she was
suspended from work for 'harassing' Miss Nawaz.
East
London NHS Foundation Trust suspended her for nine months on full pay,
gave her a written warning and told her not to discuss her faith with
co-workers.
But
the nurse, from Buckhurst Hill, Essex, will on Tuesday begin a legal
challenge against the trust for discriminating against her for her religion.
Miss Wasteney, who worked at the John Howard Centre - a mental hospital in Homerton, east London - told the Sunday Telegraph:
'I'm not a hard-line evangelical. I'm not anti-Muslim. I believe in
freedom of speech, but I've always believed we should be sensitive to
one another's beliefs and feelings.'
The nurse
had previously invited Miss Nawaz, who had personal and health problems,
to her church and had given her the book I Dared To Call Him Father,
which is about a Muslim woman who converts to Christianity.
They
had a shared interest in the issue of human trafficking, a problem Miss
Wasteney's church was trying to tackle, but now she fears society has
reached a point where colleagues cannot invite each other to events 'for
fear of offending'.
When Miss
Nawaz, 25, came to her Christian colleague in tears as she was due to go
into hospital for treatment, Miss Wasteney said she offered her a
shoulder to cry on.
She
said: 'She was very emotional and tearful and was talking to me about
her fear of dying. I put my hand on her knew to comfort her – asking her
if that was all right – and prayed with her, asking God to heal her.
'It was a natural and open thing for me to do and she didn't object in any way.'
But Miss Wasteney claimed that over the
following weeks Miss Nawaz came under pressure to file a complaint
against her on religious grounds.
In
June 2013 she submitted an eight-page document accusing Miss Wasteney
of trying to convert her to Christianity, telling her she would not
recover from her illness and 'laying hands on her'.
Since
handing in the complaint, Miss Nawaz has left her job and Miss Wasteney
has left the hospital to take up a position at the trust's head
offices.
Miss Wasteney denies all the accusations and says she has been singled out for her strong faith.
In
documents handed to the coming week's tribunal, she said:
'My
professional career has been jeopardised, my reputation damaged,
relations with colleagues ruined and I was subjected to an ordeal of
persecution dressed as "disciplinary action" for an extraordinarily long
time. I was discriminated against because of my faith.'
East London NHS Foundation Trust said it was inappropriate to comment ahead of the tribunal.
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...His grace is made sufficient for u... persecution comes with the package of salvation.. it is well.
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