Taliban puts aid workers on trial for their lives

EIGHT western aid workers who face a possible death sentence for preaching Christianity appeared for the first time in a packed Kabul courtroom yesterday to protest their innocence.

The accused - two Americans, two Australians and four Germans - looked exhausted as heavily armed soldiers led them before a bank of bearded, white-turbaned judges.

One of the six women wore the head-to-toe burqa that Afghan women have to wear in public. The others covered their heads with veils.

It was the first time any of the eight, who worked for the German-based Christian relief agency Shelter Now International, had been seen in public since they were arrested with 16 Afghan staff five weeks ago.

Addressing the court, Georg Taubmann, Shelter Now's Afghanistan director, said he was shocked by claims he and his colleagues had been trying to spread Christianity.

Under the law of the Taliban, the country's fundamentalist rulers, the punishment for any Afghan Muslim who converts to another religion or preaches it is death. The Taliban has issued an edict calling for foreigners caught proselytising to be jailed and expelled. But Noor Mohammad Saqib, the chief justice, said last week: "If the crime is worthy of hanging, they will be hanged."

Taubmann insisted in court that he and his colleagues had never converted anybody. "During the investigation we were accused of many things that were not true," he said.

Turning to Saqib, he declared: "We have never been informed of the charges against us or why we have been detained. What have we done? Why haven't we been given access to the outside world? We haven't been allowed to get in touch with our families."

One of the six women complained that she could not understand an Afghan-language form she had been asked to complete. "My future may depend on what I write on this piece of paper, but I can't read it," she said. Saqib told her to find an interpreter.

The proceedings, which lasted an hour, were held in the stark office of the chief justice, its walls adorned with verses from the Koran, swords and a leather strap used by the Taliban for public beatings.

The accused were forbidden to talk to journalists or to any of their relatives who had travelled to Kabul. As Dana Curry, 29, one of the two American women, left the court, she mouthed "I love you" to her mother, who sat behind her. The other American, Heather Mercer, 24, clutched her father's hand for most of the proceedings.

The trial, believed to have begun on Tuesday, has been shrouded in secrecy. The judges sifted through boxes of evidence of alleged proselytising, including Christian literature translated into local languages. The Taliban's religious police claim they confiscated the material from Shelter Now's office in Kabul.

Diplomats who were allowed to attend court said they expected a long trial. The verdict is expected to be presented to Mullah Mohammad Omar, the Taliban's one-eyed leader, for a final decision. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This was posted two hours ago by Pokey78 without any comment. I thought it was worthy enough of another post to see if any of you out there has an interest in Christian persecution. Do you? This is barbarism at it's worst. Where's our state dept? Write you congressman and ask where is the justice for these two women?? I wonder if any Afghanistan had anyone at the Durban conference on racism accusing Israel of racism? What do you bet?

This action by the Tailiban thugs is reprehensible. Our Christian brethren help! Write your congressmen snail mail. They don't read or pay attention to email. Now is the time to act.

My concordance is a piece of garbage so I was unable to find the exact passage but I do remember an account of Paul in danger of losing his life. He was lowered over the city wall at night in a basket so he could flee. Spreading the word of God is one thing, ending that calling needlessly is another.

I just looked for the "shake the dust from your feet" passage. Couldn't find the location of that one either. Time for a copy of Strong's edition.

EIGHT western aid workers who face a possible death sentence for preaching Christianity appeared for the first time in a packed Kabul courtroom yesterday to protest their innocence

That'l teach these bible thumping wierdo's (a.k.a. CIA spy's) to go "spreading the faith" where they are clearly not welcome .

Fat lot of good christianity did to the "converted" tribes in the Amazon or anyhwere for that matter once they are "set free" to the big city where the get quickly ground up and wind up begging in filthy street and scrouging dumpsters for a living while the big oil companies or mining consortiums move in and start pumping and digging where the natives once lived

And when many days had elapsed, the Jews plotted together to do away with him,

but their plot became known to Saul. And they were also watching the gates day and night so that they might put him to death;

but his disciples took him by night, and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a large basket.

Acts 9:23-25

MAT 10:14 "And whoever does not receive you, nor heed your words, as you go out of that house or that city, shake off the dust of your feet.

MAR 6:11 "And any place that does not receive you or listen to you, as you go out from there, shake off the dust from the soles of your feet for a testimony against them."

LUK 9:5 "And as for those who do not receive you, as you go out from that city, shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them."

LUK 10:11 'Even the dust of your city which clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you; yet be sure of this, that the kingdom of God has come near.'

ACT 13:51 But they shook off the dust of their feet in protest against them and went to Iconium.

Are you saying that the Christians in Afghanistan are being put on trial for their lives because some tribes from the Amazon have moved to the big city where life is hard? Or is it because big oil or mining companies are pumping or digging in the Amazon region where the tribes used to live?

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