Posted on 03/25/2006 5:47:46 PM PST by blam
Afghan court resists Karzai's overture to spare Christian's life
By Tom Coghlan in Kabul
(Filed: 26/03/2006)
The ultra-Conservative supreme court of Afghanistan is threatening to resist President Hamid Karzai's attempts to spare a man who faces execution for converting to Christianity.
In a move that could scupper Mr Karzai's efforts to resolve the crisis, the judge handling the case said he would brook neither presidential interference nor objections from Kabul's Western backers.
Abdul Rahman: Converted
"We [the judiciary] have nothing to do with diplomatic issues," Judge Ansarullah Mawlawizada told the Sunday Telegraph. "We will do our job independently."
The judge's comments came after Mr Karzai's officials hinted that Abdul Rahman, 41, could be freed within the next two days in an effort to end the international outcry over his prosecution. Mr Karzai has assured world leaders, who have telephoned to protest at the possible death penalty, that Rahman will be spared.
An official who attended a top-level crisis meeting between Mr Karzai, his cabinet and local religious leaders yesterday said: "The President said that he will deal with the issue himself."
Rahman was prosecuted under anti-apostasy edicts enshrined in Afghanistan's sharia law, which makes it a crime punishable by death for any Muslim to renounce their faith. Despite the risk, however, up to 10,000 Afghans have secretly converted to Christianity in recent years, disillusioned with what they see as Islam's overzealous involvement in politics.
The case has highlighted tensions between the West's vision of Afghanistan as a liberal democracy and the orthodoxy of the country's powerful Islamic judiciary, whose outlook is shared by much of the population. Yesterday, Downing Street became caught up in the row, after criticism that no senior minister had joined the international condemnation of the case.
President George W Bush, said he was "deeply troubled" by it; the Australian prime minister, John Howard, said it as "appalling" and the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, spoke to Mr Karzai personally.
In Britain it was left to a junior Foreign Office minister, Kim Howells, to echo President Bush's words. Critics contrast Mr Straw's silence on the issue with his speedy condemnation of the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, and accuse him of double standards.
Graham Brady, a shadow foreign minister, said: "It is time for Tony Blair and Jack Straw to end their silence on this important issue. It is patently unacceptable for Abdul Rahman to be punished in this way for his religious beliefs, and it is time the British Government took proper steps - from the very top."
Yet amid the increasingly charged atmosphere that Rahman's case has generated, evidence has emerged of a hidden community of Afghan Christians.
The Sunday Telegraph tracked down one such Christian yesterday in Kabul, who described a network stretching across the country and gathering an ever increasing number of adherents.
The middle-aged man, who cannot be named for fear of reprisals, embraced Christianity 20 years ago. Unlike Rahman, who converted while working for a charity in Pakistan, where there is a Christian minority numbering several million, he has never left Afghanistan.
"We have churches here in Kabul and all the cities of the country, and links to Christians abroad," he said. "There have always been Christians in this country. Some families have been Christian for generations, but most have been converted in recent years."
Although his business card carries an Islamic name, in private he uses the name of one of Christ's disciples. He described himself as a patriot and a former fighter against the 1980s Russian invasion.
"Of course we are threatened," he said. "We don't get trouble from ordinary people, but extremist religious groups will try to kill or kidnap us, to mount grenade attacks."
Judge Mawlawizada said that while Afghanistan was grateful for aid from other countries, that did not entitle them to interfere in its laws. "In the United States men can be married in a gay marriage," he said. "That is irrational, illegal and against nature, but here in Afghanistan we are not talking about those cases."
Rahman is being held in a Kabul prison after a court appearance last week. The Afghan authorities say they suspect he is mentally ill, and so may be unfit to stand trial - which would allow the supreme court to dismiss the case without loss of face.
But in Kabul's mosques last week, talk about the Rahman case was uncompromising. "Rejecting Islam is insulting God," said Mullah Abdul Raoulf at the large Herati mosque. "Cut off his head!"
The U.S. military ought to bulldoze the Afghan Supreme Court for a start...
Why would they execute the one clearly sane man in Afghanistan?!
I wonder how well this court and its members would do if the Taliban was back in charge?
Islam is the mental disease that keeps on killing.
The one size fits all...Muslim solution.
L
Unfortunately, probably very well.
OTOH, Christians have been through this before. Many times.
I wonder what would have happened if CNN had been around in Roman times...
kabuki dance
If those guys don't straighten up we should invade their country and force democracy on them.
Send them to Abu Ghraib or Gitmo for attitude adjustment.
What a murderous bunch of scum. The frustrating thing here is that "they do not understand that they do not understand." I am angered that a such a worthless bunch of people have the right to breathe the same air that I do.
This is a new piece of information, to me at least. It's very hopeful. It seems as if the only choices for dealing with Muslims is to isolate them, kill them, or convert them. The old solution was to isolate them, but that seems to be breaking down. And I'm not sure that killing a billion people is an option, no matter how bad things get.
Conversion is the optimal solution, if possible. But the Muslim authorities and perhaps the great majority of Muslim people will resist it by killing the converts.
If we are looking for a face-saving out for the Afghans, I propose that we provide them with one.
No Afghan can feel any loss of face if we send a company of marines to take the man by force, and remove him to Bagram base.
If they do, they can save face by getting in the way, and offering themselves as a martyr. There is no loss of dignity in martyrdom by marine.
If we stand by and watch this man executed for his faith, we risk losing everything. The muslims will only see this as further confirmation that their "god" is with them, it will only reinforce their collective insanity.
For those not paying attention, the fact that this man is sitting on death row for being a Christian should be everything we need to know about Islam. There are no doubt muslims who are working behind the scenes to save his life. The fact that they must keep a low profile as they do so, or find their own lives at risk, again tells you everything you need to know about Islam.
Could be if this decision is representative of their views and other decisions.
"Conversion is the optimal solution, if possible. But the Muslim authorities and perhaps the great majority of Muslim people will resist it by killing the converts."
so let me get this straight. isolation isn't working so conversion is the only solution. and if that doesn't work? kill them? you sound just like them. with respect to you, its no solution to turn into your enemy.
FWIW, i defended an afghan on murder charges in kabul and the judge offered to let the guy go on the spot if i would just take his family's passports and get them canadian citizenship. the whole judicial system is corrupt there. and my client was innocent, 2 taliban had killed the man and framed him by stealing his car, we had a number of witnesses. when the court refused to hear from any of them and i refused to take the passports, he was convicted right there with no evidence. welcome to the new democratic and free afghanistan folks, this is what we fought for.
I would think that roughly half the Musliam population (women) would find Christianity an appealing alternative.
That's it??? "Deeply troubled"??? Is that all you have to say, George??? Do you plan to do anything??? Is this what we're fighting for???
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