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Afghan Christian Released – Seeks Asylum through UN

by Hilary White

KABUL, March 27, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Large protests have followed immediately upon the release of Afghani Christian convert Abdul Rahman. Rahman was released on a technicality, reportedly after a personal intervention by President Hamid Karzai and after huge international pressure, but Afghan legal sources say his case is not yet settled.

The Afghan former medical aid worker was facing the death sentence in the fundamentalist Islamic country for having converted 16 years ago to Christianity. Rahman has gone into hiding because leading “moderate” Muslim clerics had called for him to be murdered by the public should he be released by the authorities.

U.N. spokesman Adrian Edwards said today that Rahman has applied for asylum in another country. “Mr. Rahman has asked for asylum outside Afghanistan,” Edwards said. “We expect this will be provided by one of the countries interested in a peaceful solution to this case.”

Rahman had appeared on local television saying that he would refuse to recant his Christianity. Some reports have speculated that Rahman converted to Christianity during his stay in Germany. Afghan Supreme Court Judge Mawlavizada said there was some question that Rahman may be a German citizen and therefore not subject to Afghan law. Rahman’s family has claimed that he suffers from mental instability. Insanity is sometimes considered a mitigating factor in some crimes under Islamic law.

Chanting, “Death to Bush,” protesters have erupted across the country with calls that Rahman be executed. Mohammad Salam, a resident of Kandahar summarized public opinion when he told the French news agency AFP, “If we are Muslims, then we should kill him. If we don't, we have stood against the will of God.”

Public opinion is heavily in favour of Rahman’s execution and some fear repercussions for other covert Christians in the country. Western aid money and military forces are supporting the economic and infrastructure rebuilding of Afghanistan after decades of war and neglect under the violent fundamentalist Taliban regime.

Australia’s Prime Minister John Howard implied in a statement this weekend that the presence of Australian troops in Afghanistan depended upon Rahman’s release.

“I do feel very deeply about this, particularly because there are Australian soldiers risking their lives to fight the Taliban and we're not fighting the Taliban to allow something like this to happen, Howard said.

US Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice, said, “We're going to stand firm for the principle that religious freedom and freedom of religious conscience need to be upheld.”

The western concepts of religious freedom and freedom of conscience, however, have come out of Judeo-Christian notions of the freedom of individual conscience and are not a part of Islamic philosophy.

Although there is nominal toleration for those born into Christianity, and despite the country’s constitutional commitment to international human rights agreements, Islamic Shariah law does not recognize the existence of a right to religious freedom. All four schools of Sunni and Shia uphold Islamic jurisprudence – including the Hanafi school that prevails in Afghanistan – specify death for apostasy.

Read previous LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
“Moderate” Afghan Muslim Clerics call for Mob Execution of Christian Convert
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/mar/06032406.html

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