Posted on 03/21/2006 8:11:32 AM PST by Dark Skies
ROME, March 21 (Reuters) - The Italian government summoned the Afghan ambassador to Rome on Tuesday to express its concern over reports that a man in Afghanistan faces the death penalty because he has converted to Christianity.
Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini said if the reports proved true, Italy would raise the issue with European Union leaders in an effort to save the man.
An Afghan judge said on Sunday police had detained a man, Abdur Rahman, for converting from Islam to Christianity, adding he could face the death penalty if he refused to become a Muslim again.
"If this news is confirmed, Italy will move at the highest level ... to prevent something which is incompatible with the defence of human rights and fundamental freedoms," a Foreign Ministry statement said.
The statement added that the Italian ambassador in Kabul would contact Afghan authorities to seek an explanation and was also in touch with other EU diplomats in the country.
Former Italian President Francesco Cossiga has written an open letter to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi urging him to withdraw Italian troops from Afghanistan if he fails to win assurances from Kabul over Rahman's safety.
"It is not acceptable that our soldiers should put themselves at risk or even sacrifice their life for a fundamentalist, illiberal regime," Cossiga wrote.
Roman Catholic Italy has some 1,775 troops deployed to Afghanistan, a conservative Islamic country where 99 percent of people are Muslim.
Islamic sharia law proposes the death sentence for Muslims who abandon the religion. Afghanistan's new constitution says "no law can be contrary to the sacred religion of Islam".
Emma Bonino, who headed an EU observer mission to Afghanistan for last year's legislative elections, said Italy had done well to ring the alarm bell.
"This episode is extremely worrying, not just because the possible victim is a Christian, but because it indicates the fragility of the Afghan institutions," she told reporters. (Additional reporting by Robin Pomeroy)
It won't be just the Italians who will do something about it.The entire European Union will spring into action on this!
They'll issue a strongly worded letter of protest...after the guy has been beheaded.
Hey, Muslims! We don't execute people who convert to Islam, even though some of us might consider that "apostacy".
It seems like some Muslims are just looking for excuses to kill and maim people. I reject that.
If the Italians do this, an Italian flag will join the Danish flag that is currently decorating the front of my house, next to Old Glory.
You should put one up now. The Italians have been one of the few European countries that has stood by us from the begining. Burlisconi has taken alot of heat from his parlament for staying the course in Iraq, and like Pres Bush, he does what is right, not what is popular.
Want a good read? Google: Oriana Fallacci. (sp?)
What a lady! Former feminist, communist, now arch-conservative, currently on trial for one of her books where she DARES to defend Western Civilization against the encroachment of Islam! Great book, READ IT, Freepers!
Sauron
this is fucking bull shit. if this man dies... I think their needs to be a new age "crusades" to protect christians. They are being executed, bombed, and heads lobbed off every where. It's getting to the breaking point...
muslims have imposed their cult, terroristic ways long enough. What really reached the boiling point was the attack on the christian children in indonesia with axes, and the bombings of all the churches in kosovo, and the killing and executions of the christians in Iraq and Palestine. Enough already.
More news from the religion of dare to convert and die.
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