Afghan Christian Convert

[spurster]

I surprised I haven't seen anything here on how the freedom-loving Afghan peoples want to kill a Christian convert. Anyway, here's the latest AP story.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/inte...n-Convert.html

March 24, 2006
Afghan Clerics Demand Death for Christian Convert
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 12:36 p.m. ET

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- The chief judge trying an Afghan man who faces a possible death sentence for converting from Islam to Christianity defended the court's autonomy Friday as international pressure grew against the case.

Senior clerics in the Afghan capital have voiced strong support for the prosecution of Abdul Rahman and again warned Friday they would incite people to kill him unless he reverted to Islam.

Australia's Prime Minister John Howard, meanwhile, joined the chorus of Western leaders expressing outrage over the prosecution and said he would protest personally to President Hamid Karzai.

''This is appalling. When I saw the report about this I felt sick literally,'' Howard told an Australian radio network on Friday. ''The idea that a person could be punished because of their religious belief and the idea they might be executed is just beyond belief.''

Rahman, 41, faces the death penalty under Afghanistan's Islamic laws for converting 16 years ago while working as a medical aid worker for an international Christian group helping Afghan refugees in Pakistan.

Ansarullah Mawlavi Zada, the chief among three judges trying the case, asserted the autonomy of the court.

''We a have cons ution and law here. Nobody has the right to put pressure on us,'' he told The Associated Press.

Karzai's office has declined to comment on the case, which has put the Afghan leader in an awkward position.

Karzai took power after the ouster of the hard-line Taliban regime in a U.S.-led war in late 2001 and relies on international forces to maintain his still-shaky grip on the country.

But he would be reluctant to offend Islamic sensibilities at home, or alienate religious conservatives who wield considerable power.

Diplomats have said the Afghan government is searching for a way to drop the case. On Wednesday, authorities said Rahman is suspected of being mentally ill and would undergo psychological examinations to see whether he is fit to stand trial.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice phoned Karzai Thursday, seeking a ''favorable resolution'' of the case. She said Washington looked forward to that ''in the very near future.''

Senior clerics condemned Rahman as an apostate.

Rahman had ''committed the greatest sin'' by converting to Christianity and deserved to be killed, cleric Abdul Raoulf said in a sermon Friday at Herati Mosque.

''God's way is the right way, and this man whose name is Abdul Rahman is an apostate,'' he told about 150 worshippers.

Another cleric, Ayatullah Asife Muhseni, told a gathering of preachers and intellectuals at a Kabul hotel that the Afghan president had no right to overturn the punishment of an apostate.

He also demanded that clerics be able to question Rahman in jail to discover why he had converted to Christianity. He suggested it could have been the result of a conspiracy by Western nations or Jews.

At a fruit market in Kabul, many ordinary Afghans said they supported the death penalty, but some wanted more investigation before meting out the punishment.

''In the past 30 years, so many Afghans have been killed in name of communism, Taliban and politics or for robbery. It's enough Afghans killed,'' said Ghulam Mohammed, 45, a former army officer. Clerics should talk to him (Rahman) and bring him to the right way.''

[101A]

I surprised I haven't seen anything here on how the freedom-loving Afghan peoples want to kill a Christian convert. Anyway, here's the latest AP story.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/inte...n-Convert.html

...
He also demanded that clerics be able to question Rahman in jail to discover why he had converted to Christianity. He suggested it could have been the result of a conspiracy by Western nations or Jews.

...

That statement right there shows me that this is simply about hate, and not about ANY reasonable interpretation of any writings or religious texts anywhere. Just wants to mention Jews - without any any explanation as to why a jew would want to convert another person to Christianity.

Anyway, it's about time to scrap this whole democracy in the middle east b.s. - I've always felt that imperialism got a bad shake. Let's just conquer the lot of 'em - divy it up among the Western and Eastern powers, then they become citizens of our respective countries, and if they do anything we don't like, execute them as traitors.

[Yonivore]

Eh, they're working out the kinks in their cons ution...sounds like now he's going to be released.

[DarkReign]

Start on one side...end on the other. Put it on a bill, I would vote for it.

[Extra Stout]

Genocide sounds better and better every day.

[boutons_]

Rice Presses Karzai on Convert's Life

Associated Press
Friday, March 24, 2006; A14

KABUL, Afghanistan, March 23 -- Senior Muslim clerics demanded Thursday that an Afghan man on trial for converting from Islam to Christianity be executed, warning that if the government caves in to Western pressure and frees him, they will incite people to "pull him into pieces."

In an unusual move, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice telephoned President Hamid Karzai on Thursday seeking what she called a "satisfactory outcome" of the case of Abdul Rahman. The 41-year-old former medical aid worker faces the death penalty under Afghanistan's Islamic laws for becoming a Christian.

His trial has fired passions in this conservative Muslim nation and highlighted a conflict of values between Afghanistan and its Western backers.

"Rejecting Islam is insulting God. We will not allow God to be humiliated. This man must die," said cleric Abdul Raoulf, who is considered a moderate and was jailed three times for opposing the Taliban before the hard-line regime was ousted in 2001.

The trial, which began last week, has caused an international outcry. President Bush has said he is "deeply troubled" by the case and expects the country to "honor the universal principle of freedom."

Rice told reporters in Washington on Thursday the case was "a very deeply concerning development" and she had "raised it in the strongest possible terms" with Karzai. "There is no more fundamental issue for the United States than freedom of religion and religious conscience," she said. "This country was founded on that basis, and it is at the heart of democracy."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters she had received assurances from Karzai in a telephone call that Rahman would not be sentenced to death.

"I have the impression that he has a firm willingness" to abide by human rights requirements, Merkel said of Karzai as she headed to pre-European Union summit talks. "I hope we will be able to resolve this."

© 2006 The Washington Post Company

=======================

Sounds like if the govt doesn't kill him, Muslims will. But who give a about Afghanistan? The Taliban got their payback for suportting Quaida. The Repugs didn't lie about or promise anything about Afghanistan before attacking. Afghanisatan is more backward and primitive than Iraq, and we see how far back Iraq is. Afghanistan's only chance was if the dubya didn't invade Iraq. With dubya failing in Iraq as the main consumer of military resources and money, Afghanistan doesn't stand a chance.

[E20]

Well there goes Islams there is no compulsion in religon rule.

[Vashner]

It's going to take a long time. Once we get beer and porn in there system we can mix it with some of there prime heroin and there road to Amerikkan corruption will be complete...

[Oh, Gee!!]

Don't do the crime, if you can't deal with the punishment.

[Sec24Row7]

Genocide sounds better and better every day.

Watch out with that statement.

Anywho.. it just shows how intolerant they are.

We always look through our western ideology rosey colored glasses at the world and examples like this just show how stupid some of the arguments that pop up in this country about dealings over there are when put in context.

To them, it is an outrage that this guy has converted to (don't want to make any presumptions here) OUR religion and he deserves to die for it. If you aren't christian or jewish(and I don't mean this in a bible thumping sort of way) and are a free thinker (like me) or non believer this should be even more appaling.

They protest to such a magnitude that probably 1500 people die over the cartoons.


People complain about OUR religious fanatics! 95% of the muslim world is so religiously conservative that it makes the 700 club look like the playboy channel.

I don't care one way or the other about them, because if the roles were reversed, I wouldn't have any freedom. Freedom is a foreign concept to these people.

Islam. I'm glad I wasn't born there. It would be like living in America 200 years ago.

[Extra Stout]

Watch out with that statement.

Call me a pessimist, but I'm rapidly losing hope that our societies can coexist.

I think if we "democratize" them, they'll keep electing terrorist governments.

[Sec24Row7]

You want to wipe out the population of Oregon because of the Oklahoma City bombing?

Total war is a last resort.

Extermination of civilians is not an option.

[Extra Stout]

You want to wipe out the population of Oregon because of the Oklahoma City bombing?

Total war is a last resort.

Extermination of civilians is not an option.

This is how I see it playing out.

1) The Middle East becomes "democratized."

2) Muslims democratically elect Islamist governments.

3) Islamist governments kill hundreds of thousands of Americans and other Westerners, not to mention of course Israelis through nuclear terrorist attacks.

4) United States and/or other Western countries declare war on attacking country.

5) Other Muslim countries declare war on United States.

6) World War III commences.

And I favor Churchill's strategy over Roosevelt's, especially since we won't be dealing with dictatorships.

[Yonivore]

Case dismissed. Maybe the Afghanis get it.

[Guru of Nothing]

It's as if Christians had a 600-year head start!

[ChumpDumper]

Yeah, they would've been stupid to go through with this while their country is still occupied.

But that guy should get out of Afghanistan now. Write a book, make some bank, stay alive....

[mookie2001]

just to be safe, I would use "the" quickness in a's stead.

[ChumpDumper]

Yeah, I shouldn't have used it at all - I'm way outside the demographic.

I'll fix it.

[DarkReign]

This is how I see it playing out.

1) The Middle East becomes "democratized."

2) Muslims democratically elect Islamist governments.

3) Islamist governments kill hundreds of thousands of Americans and other Westerners, not to mention of course Israelis through nuclear terrorist attacks.

4) United States and/or other Western countries declare war on attacking country.

5) Other Muslim countries declare war on United States.

6) World War III commences.

And I favor Churchill's strategy over Roosevelt's, especially since we won't be dealing with dictatorships.

You know, maybe those NeoCons arent so stupid afterall!

My God! It makes sense now!

Give them democracy (ie 'the rope'), let them elect their terrorist government (ie 'hang themselves'), ala Palestine, and now we Americans finally have a REAL target to kill.

I have found it frustrating, as I am sure most Americans have, that the enemy has no color or country. But damn, give these religious zealots a chance to run a country you just...*ahem*liberated, and they crawl out of the foxholes looking for a vote!

Vanity, my favorite sin.
-Pacino, as the Devil.