Malkin: A Christian on Trial (Faces Death in Afghanistan for rejecting Islam)

MichelleMalkin.com ^ | 3-19-06 | Michelle Malkin

[cgk]

A CHRISTIAN ON TRIAL

By

Michelle Malkin

  ·   March 19, 2006 09:47 AM

This story deserves much more attention than it's getting. Via VOA News (hat tip: Doug at Below the Beltway):

An Afghan man who recently admitted he converted to Christianity faces the death penalty under the country's strict Islamic legal system. The trial is a critical test of Afghanistan's new constitution and democratic government.

The case is attracting widespread attention in Afghanistan, where local media are closely monitoring the landmark proceedings.

Abdul Rahman, 40, was arrested last month, accused of converting to Christianity. Under Afghanistan's new constitution, minority religious rights are protected but Muslims are still subject to strict Islamic laws. And so, officially, Muslim-born Rahman is charged with rejecting Islam and not for practicing Christianity.

Appearing in court earlier this week Rahman insisted he should not be considered an infidel, but admitted he is a Christian. He says he still believes in the almighty Allah, but cannot say for sure who God really is. "I am," he says, "a Christian and I believe in Jesus Christ."

Rahman reportedly converted more than 16 years ago after spending time working in Germany. Officials say his family, who remain observant Muslims, turned him over to the authorities. On Thursday the prosecution told the court Rahman has rejected numerous offers to embrace Islam. Prosecuting attorney Abdul Wasi told the judge that the punishment should fit the crime.

He says Rahman is a traitor to Islam and is like a cancer inside Afghanistan. Under Islamic law and under the Afghan constitution, he says, the defendant should be executed. The court has ordered a delay in the proceedings to give Rahman time to hire an attorney. Under Afghan law, once a verdict is given, the case can be appealed twice to higher courts.

This is the first case in which the defendant has admitted to converting and is refusing to back down, even while facing the death penalty.

Here, via the Middle East Times, is the "evidence" against Rahman that may lead to his execution:

Supreme court judge Mawlavizada on March 19 holds a Bible that belongs to Abdul Rahman, who converted from Islam to Christianity. (REUTERS)

What do Afghan President Hamid Karzai and President Bush have to say about the monstrous possibility that Rahman may be executed for professing faith in Jesus Christ and possessing a Bible?

So far, nothing.

[cgk]

"We are not against any particular religion in the world. But in Afghanistan, this sort of thing is against the law," the judge said. "It is an attack on Islam. ... The prosecutor is asking for the death penalty."

[cgk]

Malkin ping!

Please FReepmail me if you would like to be added to, or removed from, the Michelle Malkin ping list...

[cgk]

"How do you solve a problem like... Shariah?"

[FreedomNeocon]

This is the 3rd or 4th thread on the SAME STORY but different source

Posting here what I posted in the others...

---

The Afghan Foreign Minister, Abdullah Abdullah, was on C-SPAN this morning and a caller asked about this.

He seemed to not have heard about it, but did state that this isn't the case and their Constitution protects freedom of Religion.

He said if there is some regional or tribal law that is in conflict, it will have to be resolved, but until that time he cannot comment because it has not come up and been dealt with.

---

Note to some who are REAL TOUGH with other peoples lives:
Don't be so willing to ignore our military strategy, by trying to make every arab and muslim on the planet an active enemy combatant.

[EagleUSA]

Life really is a two-way street, except in Washington, DC. If we simply made it a capital felony to be caught with a Koran in the U.S. and hung the scumbags, the attitude toward Christians would be far for realistic.

But this country has a real hard time standing up for itself in this kind of situation. Between the PC crowd, and limp, slimey politicians, we are easy targets for this type of unilateral treatment.

[iluvlucy]

Okay Mr Bush tell me again about how all this is better than the Taliban?



Cause from here this just looks like a case of "he's a B@$*@%& but he is our B@$*@%&."

[Kolokotronis]

"What do Afghan President Hamid Karzai and President Bush have to say about the monstrous possibility that Rahman may be executed for professing faith in Jesus Christ and possessing a Bible?

So far, nothing."

Bush say something? Not on your life...unless it is to remind us about TROP! Yup, my friends, that's what our young people are dying for, the right of a group of demonic savages to execute Christians! :(

[georgia2006]

Michelle Malkin is quickly turning into a shrill conservative, who like Ann COulter, will just marginalize herself....the fact that Abdullah Abdullah was unaware of the case, should tell us something

[cgk]

The Supreme Court judge apparently disagrees with the Afghan Foreign Minister about what Afghanistan's Constitution says. Here is his quote:

---

"Yes that's true, a man has converted to Christianity. He's being tried in one of our courts," Supreme Court judge Ansarullah Mawlavizada said, adding that his trial began early last week.

He said the man could face the death penalty if he refused to revert to Islam as Sharia law proposes capital punishment for any Muslim who converts to another religion. Afghanistan's constitution states: "No law can be contrary to the sacred religion of Islam."

[georgia2006]

""Okay Mr Bush tell me again about how all this is better than the Taliban?"


I suggest you look at some photos of those who jumped off the WTC, then ask yourself that question again.

[georgia2006]

This is the typical FR response...cut and run because we dont like their policies...no middle ground at all.

[JCEccles]

Michelle Malkin is quickly turning into a shrill conservative, who like Ann COulter

You don't like "uppity" conservative women who fearlessly speak their minds, I take it?

[svcw]

I do not think Ann Coulter is shrill, I think she says what allot of people think but do not have the guts to actually say.
If Michelle Malkin is becoming more like Ann than I say yahoo, we need more conservatives who are not afraid to say what needs to be said. They are fabulous.

[Eagles6]

How is her commentary on this story "shrill"?

[Cicero]

This case raises all sorts of issues.

Christian martyrs have died for their faith in the past. It has been said that more Christian martyrs died in the twentieth century than ine the proceeding nineteen centuries, mainly under persecution by two anti-Christian regimes, Communism and Islam.

If the law under which he lives is Sharia, then he appears to have freely chosen to go back to Afghanistan as a Christian, knowing the penalties. If the law now permits conversion, then that will be put to the test.

It seems to me that the only solution to the massive problem of Islam, short of nuking a billion people, is to convert them. Conversion may, and probably will, involve the sacrifice of martyrs as well as the work of political and religious teachers.

Islam is, IMHO, basically a perverse religion from its very roots. Muhammed was a scum, not a holy prophet. The more you look at his life, the less possible it is to think that he was a good man ignorant of Christ like, let us say, Buddha.

Islam is not just a mistaken religion but a heretical religion, built upon the Bible but fundamentally twisted. It is a religion of violence, bullying, and enslavement. We see that here, where the fundamental teaching of Islam is exposed: submit or die, and never mind what your personal beliefs and conscience might say.

Conversion of Muslims to Christianity seems to be the only favorable solution to the problem, and it won't be easy. If it ever comes about, most likely it will be watered by the blood of many more martyrs.

[CROSSHIGHWAYMAN]

"How do you solve a problem like... Shariah?"

"Clobber every Muslim.....till you find your dream"

[iluvlucy]

You are reading wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy more into my post then is merited. But then that raises yet another typical FR response does it not?


I hope none of this is over your head.

[cgk]

Do you think Abdullah Abdullah is aware he is being shuffled out of the cabinet along with many others?

[cgk]

:)

[georgia2006]

Michele Malkin often takes stories like the little racist 7 year old's poem and blows them up in to big national cases. He was extremely shrill on the Dubai Ports issue.

My suggestion is that she takes a story and runs with it without knowing all the facts. She is a bigot against Muslims and allows her prejudices to get teh best of her without the full facts.

There seems to be so confusion if this is occuring in a tribal area, what the afghan constitution says etc.


My other criticism is that the typical FR repsose is thta the entire afghan war is lost and a wast of time if this story is true and the Karzi govt is no better than the taliban...thisis nonesense. There are diplomatic actions that can be taken to prevent christians being persecuted that are well short of cutting off our own pen^s and pull out of Afghanistan that would only be interespted as an American defeat and would lead to the taliban taking over the country and comitting another 911.