Posted on 03/22/2006 2:14:46 AM PST by goldstategop
Abdul Rahman is a man of faith. "I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in Christ. And I am a Christian," he declared this week.
Unfortunately for Rahman, he was originally born a Muslim in Afghanistan and he has been forced to defend his religious conversion in his home country's court, where he now faces the death penalty for turning to Jesus. Despite the defeat of the totalitarian Taliban and the existence of a U.S.-backed "moderate" democratic government, it is a capital crime for Afghans to openly embrace any religion other than Islam. Shariah law, embedded in the Afghan constitution, overrides its human rights provisions.
Rahman's family has denounced him as mentally ill. Afghan officials are thirsting for his blood. "We will cut him into little pieces," jail employee Hosnia Wafayosofi told the Chicago Tribune, as she "made a cutting motion with her hands."
The Tribune reported that prosecutor Abdul Wasi demanded Rahman's repentance and called him a traitor: "He is known as a microbe in society, and he should be cut off and removed from the rest of Muslim society and should be killed." The country's attorney general says Rahman should be hung. The judge handling the case, who has been photographed wielding Rahman's Bible as evidence against him, threatens: "If he doesn't regret his conversion, the punishment will be enforced on him. And the punishment is death."
This is a watershed moment in the post-September 11 world. The Taliban are out of power. And yet today, an innocent man sits in the jail of a "moderate" Muslim nation praying for his life because he owned a Bible and refuses to renounce his Christian faith. Rahman, who converted many years ago while working for a Christian aid agency in Germany, "is standing by his words," fellow jail inmate Sayad Miakel told Canada's Globe and Mail. Another cellmate, Khalylullah Safi, reported: "He keeps looking up to the sky, to God."
As of yesterday afternoon, left-wing Amnesty International had nothing to say about the case. But neither did President Bush, a man of faith and a Christian brother. During his extensive White House press conference on the War on Terror and the defense of freedom overseas, Bush spent plenty of time describing what life was like for Afghans before Operation Enduring Freedom:
"There was no such thing as religious freedom. There was no such thing as being able to express yourself in the public square. There was no such thing as press conferences like this. They were totalitarian in their view. And that would be I'm referring to the Taliban, of course. And that's how they would like to run government. They rule by intimidation and fear, by death and destruction. And the United States of America must take this threat seriously and must not must never forget the natural rights that formed our country."
President Bush, who will defend Abdul Rahman's natural rights from being usurped and terminated by Afghanistan's Islamic executioners?
Tony Perkins at the Family Research Council raises the unpleasant question Bush evaded and no one in the White House press corps bothered to ask: "How can we congratulate ourselves for liberating Afghanistan from the rule of jihadists only to be ruled by Islamists who kill Christians? ... President Bush should immediately send Vice President Cheney or Secretary Rice to Kabul to read [Afghan President] Hamid Karzai's government the riot act. Americans will not give their blood and treasure to prop up new Islamic fundamentalist regimes. Democracy is more than purple thumbs."
Embarrassingly, the governments of Italy and Germany have already stepped forward to make direct appeals to Karzai to save Rahman's life. Karzai has ducked the issue so far. Our feckless State Department is "monitoring" the situation.
If we sit on the sidelines and watch this man "cut into little pieces" for his love of Christ, we do not deserve the legacy of liberty our Founding Fathers left us. How about offering Rahman asylum in the United States? Perhaps Yale University, proud sponsor of former Taliban official Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi, can offer Rahman a scholarship. Where's the Catholic Church, so quick to offer sanctuary to every last illegal alien streaming across the borders? And how about Hollywood, so quick to take up the cause of every last Death Row inmate?
Hello, anyone, hello?
Ping to yesterdays State Dept. Briefing.
How about everyone chipping in a buck or two for a plane ticket out of that islamic hellhole? The original settlers in America escaped oppressive europe for the same reasons.
We fail to recognize that at our peril. Even Muslim "allies" are ultimately strategic enemies.
It would be disastrous for such an atrocity as this to occur in a country we are helping to reform. We must pray for this man.
A petition to save this man's life - BTW---I heard early this morning that there may be way out from executing him: calling him insane.
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/Rahman
Here is the story about characterizing him as insane - only the most insane could possibly consider executing this man:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4832872.stm
Check out this link: http://www.cmseducation.org/wconsts/afghan.html
Article 1
Afghanistan is an Islamic Republic, independent, unitary and indivisible state.
Article 2
The religion of Afghanistan is the sacred religion of Islam.
Followers of other religions are free to perform their religious ceremonies within the limits of the provisions of law.
Article 3
In Afghanistan, no law can be contrary to the sacred religion of Islam and the values of this Constitution.
Ah, yes, mentally ill. Why he'd have to be mentally ill to want to leave Islam... (said with sarcasm)
And they are thinking that 'cutting him into little pieces' will please Allah? Wow, death to those who leave it? How is that not cultish? (rhetorical, really...)
Evidently a cold-blooded calculation has been made that allowing the Afghan government to manage its own affairs unhindered and apparently (to the Muslim world) uninfluenced by the US is more important to the future of the region than the life of one man.
"As of yesterday afternoon, left-wing Amnesty International had nothing to say about the case."
Google search shows that AI did have something to say about several other "Abdul Rahmans", including this one . Guess they find stomach tubes to keep someone alive at Guantanamo more egregious than being cut into little pieces.
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Send jack Bauer over there! He'll take care of this problem!!
Where are the voices of "Moderate Muslims?" Their silence speaks volumes.
"" - only the most insane could possibly consider executing this man:""
You are absolutely correct concerning the insanity of the accusers.
Prayers for this brave Christian man.
President Bush, who will defend Abdul Rahman's natural rights from being usurped and terminated by Afghanistan's Islamic executioners?
Evidently a cold-blooded calculation has been made that allowing the Afghan government to manage its own affairs unhindered and apparently (to the Muslim world) uninfluenced by the US is more important to the future of the region than the life of one man.
President Bush said Wednesday that he is "deeply troubled" that an Afghan man is being tried for converting to Christianity.
Abdul Rahman, 41, faces a possible death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity 16 years ago. He has been charged with rejecting Islam, a crime under this country's Islamic laws. Bush said in a speech that a young democracy is growing in Afghanistan, but he's concerned about the case.
"We expect them to honor the universal principle of freedom," Bush said. "I'm troubled when I hear, deeply troubled when I hear, the fact that a person who converted away from Islam may be held to account. That's not the universal application of the values that I talked about. I look forward to working with the government of that country to make sure that people are protected in their capacity to worship."
Rahman's trial started last week, but a state prosecutor said Wednesday that he may be mentally unfit to stand trial. Moayuddin Baluch, a religious adviser to President Hamid Karzai, said Rahman would undergo a psychological examination and the case will be dropped if he's found mentally unfit.
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