Posted on 03/21/2006 2:47:29 PM PST by Cboldt
ABDUL RAHMAN, a 41-year-old Afghan, was a Muslim for 25 years before he began working for an international Christian group helping his fellow countrymen in Pakistan. Within a couple of years he had converted to Christianity.
Fourteen years later, the decision may cost him his life.
After four years in Peshawar Mr Rahman spent the next nine in Germany. His problems began when he returned to Afghanistan in 2002 and tried to recover his two daughters, now aged 13 and 14, who were living with his parents in Kabul.
His parents refused to return them. The matter went to the police, with the parents complaining that their son had become violent. Mr Rahman's father then denounced him as a convert. Mr Rahman was promptly arrested, and found to possess a Bible. He now languishes in Kabul central prison and will, if convicted of an "attack on Islam", face the death penalty under Afghanistan's new constitution.
Mr Rahman's case is shaping up as a trial of strength between Afghanistan's religious conservatives and reformers. "The constitution says Islam is the religion of Afghanistan, yet it also mentions the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Article 18 specifically forbids this kind of recourse," one human rights expert said in Kabul last night. "It really highlights the problem the judiciary faces."
News of his plight is likely to cause outrage in predominantly Christian countries such as Britain and America, whose troops are fighting to free Afghanistan from the religious zealotry of the Taleban.
The Bishop of Rochester, the Right Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, who leads the Church of England's dialogue with Islam, told The Times: "I'm amazed that the constitution that has been agreed in post-Taleban Aghanistan under the very eyes of the international community should allow this kind of thing to take place -- for a person to be arrested for having been converted 14 years ago and to be threatened with execution simply for his beliefs. "The British Army in Afghanistan is losing soldiers there through injury and death. Is the Army there to uphold this kind of thing? I thought we were there to promote democracy and freedom."
Alan Simpson, Labour MP for Nottingham South, told The Times: "We are asked to believe that in Afghanistan we are defending a more secular and democratic state when in fact the likes of Abdul Rahman face the death penalty. What sort of democracy are we defending? All reports suggest that the Taleban are coming in through the back door and their views through the front door. Hamid Karzai (the Afghan President) needs to be told that this absurdity must stop."
Nick Harvey, the Liberal Democrats' defence spokesman, said: "This is a horrifying situation and it makes a mockery of the efforts we are making to bring Afghanistan back into the international community. We have committed many soldiers to the situation in Afghanistan, many of whom will be committed Christians; we have spent huge amounts of money and committed resources and so I think we can take a strong moral position on this and explain to the Afghan authorities that to prosecute or even kill someone for having a different faith is unacceptable."
Mr Rahman is being prosecuted for an attack on Islam, the punishment for which, under the draft constitution established in 2004, is death.
"The Attorney-General is emphasising he should be hung," Judge Alhaj Ansarullah Mawlawy Zada, who will be trying his case, told The Times. "It is a crime to convert to Christianity from Islam. He is teasing and insulting his family by converting. In your country (Britain) two women can marry; that is very strange. In this country we have the perfect constitution, it is Islamic law and it is illegal to be a Christian and it should be punished."
The prosecutor, Abdul Wasi, has said that he would drop charges if Mr Rahman converted back to Islam, but he has so far refused to do so.
"He would be forgiven if he changed back, but he said he was a Christian and would always remain one . . . We are Muslims and becoming a Christian is against our laws. He must get the death penalty." In the first hearing of Mr Rahman's case, Judge Zada, the head of the Primary Court, said that a verdict would be reached within two months.
If the judge imposes the death penalty, Mr Rahman will still have two avenues of appeal under Afghan law -- the Provincial Court and the Supreme Court. The death penalty has to be ratified by President Karzai.
Prison authorities refused repeated requests for Mr Rahman to be interviewed, but a cellmate, Sayad Miakhel, told The Times: "He is standing by his words; he will not become a Muslim again. He has been a Christian for over 14 years. It is what he believes in . . . " Mr Miakhel, 30, said that conditions in the prison were basic, with 50 men to a cell built for 15. "Most prisoners have food brought to them by their families, but none of Abdul's family have been to visit. I'm not sure how he is eating.
"He seems depressed. He keeps looking up to the sky, to God," said Mr Miakhel.
The Bishop of Rochester, the Right Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, who leads the Church of England's dialogue with Islam, told The Times: "I'm amazed that the constitution that has been agreed in post-Taleban Aghanistan under the very eyes of the international community should allow this kind of thing to take place -- for a person to be arrested for having been converted 14 years ago and to be threatened with execution simply for his beliefs. "The British Army in Afghanistan is losing soldiers there through injury and death. Is the Army there to uphold this kind of thing? I thought we were there to promote democracy and freedom."
Welcome aboard UK...now if the U.S. will please sign in and let us know its position.
That's the way this sort of thing is handled in civilized countries.
Now, if Karzai himself decides the victim should be executed, Karzai has to remember all the many hundreds of relatives he has left behind in America.
It's not like they are invisible. Their access to credit, among other things, would become very difficult. And the criminals among them would most likely start getting treated like criminals rather than war victims ~ and you'd better believe a lot of Karzai's relatives get in a lot of trouble!
He is teasing and insulting his family by converting.Why do I doubt that a man who is so committed to the Christian faith would tease and insult his family?
The United States, which counts Afghan President Hamid Karzai as a key ally in the region, raised the case with visiting Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, calling on Kabul to uphold Afghan citizens' constitutional right to choose their faith."We hope that the Afghan constitution is going to be upheld and in our view, if it's upheld, then of course he'll be found to be innocent," said Nicholas Burns, the State Department's third-ranked diplomat. ...
"While we understand the complexity of a case like this and we certainly will respect the sovereignty of the Afghan authorities and the Afghan system, from an American point of view, people should be free to choose their own religion," Burns told reporters, flanked by Abdullah.
Abdullah said his government had "nothing to do" with the judicial case, but added: "I hope that through our constitutional process, there will be a satisfactory result."
U.S. and allies press Afghanistan on Christian convert
By Paul Eckert, Asia Correspondent
Thx...I hadn't seen that.
Send in the military, take his daughters, and rescue him. This is disgusting.
It's all a nomadic tribal people have. The religion grew out of extremem insecurity. No way they will back down. The only way Asia will reform is if ahem something like a bird flu pandemic reduces their population by a factor of 40% or so. Otherwise you are asking a people to turn away from a belief that protected them for centuries from outside domination. Well sort of. Definitely a hard culture to crack as it were.
secular government in these tribal regions is good for business and that's about all.
If Bush permits this man to be executed, he should be impeached. And yes, it IS up to us. We were the idiots who permitted any remnant of Sharia Law to remain in that land. If Douglas MacArthur were running running our WOT instead of the pussies who are, they would be lucky to practice Islam at all.
Hmmmm I love the smell of carpet bombing in the morning......
Scenario 1:
Ex-Christian says, "I've decided to convert to Islam. I am now a Muslim! Yes! Score two points for Muhammad!"
Christian Fanatic says, "Dude, Jesus loves you! You're totally lost! Just... whatever get outta here!"
--
Scenario 2:
Ex-Muslim says, "I've decided to convert to Christianity. I am now a Christian! Yes! Score two points for Jesus!"
Muslim Fanatic screams, "I'm going to CUT OFF YOUR HEAD AND DRINK YOUR BLOOD! MUHAMMAD HATES YOU INFIDEL! NOTHING LESS THAN DEATH AND BLOODSHED!!" >Beheads Christian and holds head high and then cuts himself with a knife. Blood is everywhere.<
Now why in the world would anyone want to convert to Christianity?
As Ann Coulter has stated, "Kill all their leaders, then convert them to Christianity".
To think that a lot of great Americans died and we spent a vast sum to free that country-and now this?
Wonder how they'd like it if we said...?
"In this country we have the perfect constitution and Sharia law will never be tolerated. This was founded as a Christian country. It's illegal to be a Muslim Death-Cultist here and it should be punished by execution."
His own parents turned him in! Why don't they just deport him and bar him from their country? Their "laws" are unjust" and satanic - they know not that the GOd of Islam is the great deceiver pretending to be God while slaughtering all who oppose him. A false religion that people have been sucked into all over the world...
He's not the one doing the teasing and the insulting, it's his family who perceives it as being so, and others influencing the family by telling the family that that is what he's doing. IMO.
""While we understand the complexity of a case like this and we certainly will respect the sovereignty of the Afghan authorities and the Afghan system, from an American point of view, people should be free to choose their own religion," Burns told reporters, flanked by Abdullah."
This is soooo typical of this sissy administration. If the Afgans kill this man and Bush and the other Mohammaden loving clowns in the administration do nothing to seriously hurt Karzai and the rest of the thugocracy in Afganistan, I will work my ancient tail off to see to it that no Republican gets re-elected to Congress in the fall without a promise of impeachment for Bush! Damn this makes me mad! We've got young people dying out there so these human maggots can execute Christians and Nicky Burns (who was just about the biggest joke in Athens when he was the ambassador there)can give them assurances we will respect their sovereinty?
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