No comments about dragging people kicking and screaming into the 15th century, please. After all, they're not gonna torture the guy, so fair dos.
Afghan faces death penalty for Christian faith
Times Online
March 20, 2006
An Afghan who has renounced his Islamic faith for Christianity faces the death penalty under Afghan law in a throwback to the brutal Taleban regime. Abdul Rahman, 41, is being prosecuted for an "attack on Islam", for which the punishment under Afghanistan's draft constitution, is death by hanging. The charge comes as Britain prepares to send 3,300 nominally Christian paratroopers to stabilise the troubled south of the country.
Mr Rahman converted to Christianity over 14 years ago, but his situation was bought to the attention of the authorities after he tried to gain custody of his daughters who had been living with their grandparents. His parents then denounced him as a convert and on arrest he was found to be carrying a Bible."The Attorney General is emphasising he should be hung. It is a crime to convert to Christianity from Islam. He is teasing and insulating his family by converting," Judge Alhaj Ansarullah Mawlawy Zada, who will be trying his case, told The Times.
"He was a Muslim for 25 years more than he has been a Christian. We will request him to become a Muslim again. In your country two women can marry I think that is very strange. In this country we have the perfect constitution, it is Islamic law and it is illegal to be a Christian and it should be punished," said the judge.
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Afghan's openness about his Christianity went too far
March 20, 2006
Chicago Tribune
Abdul Rahman told his family he was a Christian. He told the neighbors, bringing shame upon his home. But then he told the police, and he could no longer be ignored.Now, in a major test of Afghanistan's fledgling court system, Rahman, 42, faces the death penalty for abandoning Islam for Christianity. Prosecutors say he should die. So do his family, his jailers, even the judge. Rahman has no lawyer. Jail officials refused to let anyone see Rahman on Monday, despite permission granted by the country's justice minister."We will cut him into little pieces," said Hosnia Wafayosofi, who works at the jail. "There's no need to see him."
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Afghan convert 'may be released'
BBC News
24 March 2006
An Afghan man facing execution for converting to Christianity "could be released soon", a senior Afghan government official has said. The official told the BBC a special government meeting on the case of Abdul Rahman would be held on Saturday. Mr Rahman is on trial charged with rejecting Islam. He could be executed under Sharia law unless he reconverts.
Many world leaders, including those with troops in Afghanistan, have expressed concern about the trial. Australian Prime Minister John Howard said on Friday: "This is appalling. When I saw the report about this I felt sick, literally." On Thursday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice phoned Afghan President Hamid Karzai seeking a "favourable resolution" to the case.
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The Afghan government says it is up to the judiciary to decide Abdul Rahman's fate. But, the Afghan judiciary is dominated by religious conservatives, and many feel it will be difficult for the president and the government to confront the judiciary, the BBC's Sanjoy Majumder in Kabul says.
The bigger problem confronting the president, however, may be that an overwhelming number of ordinary Afghans appear to believe Mr Rahman has erred and deserves to be executed, he says.
Charles Moore in The Telegraph wonders why Jack Straw is so quiet on this case (unlike the Danish Cartoons):
Jack is a man of straw when Muslims talk of killing converts
Charles Moore
Telegraph
Afghan Convert set to be freed.
Afghan man charged with converting to Christianity is set to be released from Jail while his case is reviewed.
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