Posted on 09/07/2001 8:36:08 PM PDT by Sir Gawain
Afghans Might Hang Christian Aid Workers
NewsMax.com WiresISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Eight Western aid workers charged with spreading Christianity in Afghanistan might be sentenced to death, an official said Wednesday. Reports emerged of a Taliban offer to exchange the detainees for an unspecified number of Muslim terrorists and other militants imprisoned around the world.
Thursday, Sept. 6, 2001
"We will punish them according to law," said Taliban Chief Justice Maulawi Noor Mohammad Saqib. "If they are found guilty, they will be hanged."
The accused would be allowed to have foreign, non-Muslim lawyers, Saqib said.
The eight Westerners, including four Germans, two Americans and two Australians, were among 24 members of Shelter Now International arrested Aug. 6. The other 16 were Afghans.
Their trial began Tuesday behind closed doors. They face charges of preaching Christianity in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
There was no information on when they would appear in court, but the court was examining Bibles and other material allegedly seized from the homes and offices of the detainees.
Diplomats who sought a meeting with Saqib to clarify legal procedure were turned away. Saqib said they would be contacted if and when necessary.
In a related development, the Taliban proposed to the United States that the aid workers be exchanged for Muslim prisoners, including the World Trade Center bomber, Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, who is in a U.S. prison, Lebanon's al-Mustaqbal newspaper reported Wednesday.
The newspaper quoted a source close to the banned Egyptian Islamic Grouping as saying the Taliban offer was relayed to Washington via a U.S. citizen of Arab descent living in New York. The unnamed mediator said he received the proposal from a hard-line Egyptian leader living in Afghanistan with strong ties to Taliban Supreme Leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.
The newspaper said though the Taliban said it was determined to try the eight Westerners, Islamic sources in Egypt said the movement would be ready for a deal that would secure the release of jailed Arab fundamentalists.
In a statement in Cairo, Abdel Rahman's wife, Aisha, appealed to Mullah Omar and President Bush to go ahead with the deal because of her husband's health.
Mullah Omar was expected to have the last word on the fate of the Westerners. No one has previously been tried for preaching Christianity, and this is the first time the Taliban has put non-Muslims on trial. The Afghan defendants were to be tried at a later date.
A ruling earlier this year said Afghan Muslims converting to another religion would be sentenced to death. But a senior Taliban official said Tuesday that any Afghan convicted of converting to Christianity would be given three days to renounce his faith. He would then be spared the death penalty but would still face other punishments for betraying his religion and traditions.
Heather is a friend of my daughter's and this hits far too close to home.
Besides prayer, I can hardly keep a Christian thought in my head regarding this situation.
The moslum religion sees the world as two halfs, one under their domination and the other as wild until conquered. Radical Islam is currently the greatest threat to world peace and currently accounts for 50% of all conflicts, communist reveloution about 25%....
Russia and the United States have a common bond in dealing the Taliban. The Taliban are pushing the limits of what these two POWERS will tolerate. Look for more war in Afganistan and toppeling of the Taliban in the future. Osama Bin Laden resides there also. If he gets waxed in the process the Saudis will not be so upset, however, he is one of about 400 "royal" family members and blood's thicker-n-water.
The Taliban also persecutes non-Sunni Muslims. The Taliban militia was involved in the persecution and murder of Afghan Shi'a Muslims, most notably during the massacres of thousands of people in the Mazar-i-Sharif in August 1998. Large Sikh and Hindu communities worship at several temples in Kabul, and a lone Jewish rabbi still lives in the capital though most Jews left when the former Soviet Union invaded in 1979. It is also believed that there are as many as 1,000 Christians who have converted from Islam over the last two decades, but they have been driven underground and little is known about them.
The Taliban movement, which controls roughly 90 percent of Afghanistan's territory, is composed largely of Pushtun tribesmen who practice Sunni Islam. They have perpetrated widespread violations of human rights and humanitarian law through years of armed conflict and aggressive imposition of their interpretation of Sharia law. The March 1999 report by the UN Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan cited "deliberate and arbitrary killing, torture including rape, abduction of people for ransom or on grounds of their ethnic identity, religious or political opinions." It appears that the situation is worsening.
Yup. I'm not a fan of the Taliban, but if you're told about the dangers of prosyletizing, and say "I am not afraid to die for my faith" don't be surpised if you do.
This is the equivalent of going into a gang neighborhood and yelling "darkies is ignorant!" You may the right to say that, but no-one will feel sorry for you when you get shot.
Darwin award. Darwin award.
There are over five thousand princes alone, so you were off by more than an order of magnitude. How accurate is the rest of your post?
Maybe. But that's the voice of Reason, and Mullah Omar is not in that chorus. The Pushtoon tribes couldn't care less what the U.S. -- or any other country -- thinks of them. Certainly, the Shi'a and Sunni terrorist groups will be pressing the Taliban to use these eight farangis as hostages to negotiate the release in the West of their own people. But the Taliban Pushtoons are Sunnis, and they don't care what other Sunnis think. Pushtoons, when not fighting outsiders, spend their time fighting each other. Those ancient internecine quarrels, not carpet bombing, will dissolve the Taliban -- sooner rather than later. Whether or not it will be soon enough to save these eight farangis is uncertain. I'm doubtful.
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