WASHINGTON (ABP) — The plight of an Afghan man who could face the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity has united a broad array of religious, human-rights and advocacy groups that often find themselves ideologically opposed to each other.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reportedly telephoned Afghan President Hamid Karzai March 23 to press for the rights of Abdul Rahman, 41. Rahman has been jailed, an Afghan judge announced March 19, for violating Islamic law by rejecting that faith.
According to the United States Commission for Cooperation and Security in Europe, Rahman converted to Christianity while working for a Christian aid group in Pakistan more than 14 years ago. He was only recently jailed because his faith emerged in court during a custody dispute between Rahman and his ex-wife over their children.
Since his imprisonment made headlines, groups from multiple faiths, continents and political ideologies have decried the Afghan judicial system for the situation. Conservative Christian groups and impartial human-rights watchdog organizations in the United States first called attention to the situation but have been joined by international human-rights groups, the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the New York Times editorial board.
Questioned about the situation during a visit to West Virginia March 22, President Bush said he was “deeply troubled” over Rahman's predicament.
Bush had been pushed by some of his closest allies who excoriated the Afghan government for allowing the situation to develop. The allies also criticized the administration for not guaranteeing that religious freedom was adequately protected in the new Afghan government that followed the fall of the theocratic Taliban regime.
“That there should even be such a trial is an outrage. How can we congratulate ourselves for liberating Afghanistan from the rule of jihadists only to be ruled by radical Islamists who kill Christians?” asked Tony Perkins, head of the conservative Family Research Council, in a March 22 statement on the situation. An FRC spokesperson said Perkins had sent a letter to Bush and Rice, as well as the Republican chairmen of the two congressional foreign-relations committees.
“The decision to topple the Taliban from power was just, and American and allied forces have died to achieve that goal,” Perkins wrote. “We are fighting now to defeat state-sponsored terrorism, and surely that must mean we oppose state-practiced terrorism against its own citizens.”
The New York Times, in a March 23 staff editorial, condemned the Afghan government.
“Afghanistan is not the only American ally that enforces cruel religious laws. But this is a country that was liberated from the Taliban by American troops and whose tenuous peace is enforced by those troops,” the editors said. “If Afghanistan wants to return to the Taliban days, it can do so without the help of the United States.”
And the Council on American-Islamic Relations — which Perkins had criticized just a day before for not having issued a condemnation of the Afghan government — did so on March 22. Citing several verses from Islamic holy writings, the statement said conversion should be a matter of individual choice under Islam, not governmental compulsion.
“Islam advocates both freedom of religion and freedom of conscience,” the statement read.
CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said the statement was vetted for theological accuracy by a group of Muslim scholars known as the Fiqh Council of North America.
Several human-rights groups have noted the tension in the Afghan Constitution between religious freedom guarantees and a provision that no law shall contradict Islam. Members of the non-partisan U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom have repeatedly warned that the tension gives the nation's judiciary the power to enforce Islamic law on non-Muslims, such as Rahman.
In a letter to Bush released March 22, commission Chairman Michael Cromartie said, “With no guarantee of the right to religious freedom for all individuals, together with a judicial system instructed to enforce Islamic principles and Islamic law, the door is open for a harsh, unfair, or even abusive interpretation of religious orthodoxy to be officially imposed, violating numerous human rights and stifling political dissent for Muslims and non-Muslims alike.”
The Afghan Embassy in Washington released a statement to reporters following Bush's comments March 22, saying they were responding to multiple inquiries from Americans concerned about Rahman's situation.
“It is too early to draw any conclusion about the punishment, and we appreciate public understanding of the sensitivity of religious issues,” the statement said. “[W]e kindly request that the judicial process be given time to resolve Mr. Rahman's case.”
It concluded: “The Constitution of Afghanistan provides protection for freedom of religion. The government of Afghanistan will ensure that the constitutional rights of its citizens, international principles, and the due judicial process are respected and implemented.”
But the AP reported March 23 that senior Afghan clerics — even moderate ones — were calling for Rahman's head.
“Cut off his head!” said Abdul Raoulf, one of the nation's most prominent clerics. Raoulf was arrested three times for opposing the Taliban prior to their 2001 ouster.
“Rejecting Islam is insulting God. We will not allow God to be humiliated. This man must die,” he told AP, adding that, should Rahman be acquitted, “We will call on the people to pull him into pieces so there's nothing left.”
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