On Sunday, I wrote about the horrid case of Abdul Rahman, an Afghan under threat of death for converting from Islam to Christianity. Michelle Malkin linked to the story later that day. And, now, Michelle has this follow up piece on the story detailing the attention the story has received in the media and the blogosphere.
Along with much else, Michelle highlights this quote from Junkyard Blog that says it better than I ever could:
Mr. Rahman?s plight deserves attention. He deserves religious freedom. Afghans deserve freedom to woship as they please and should not be subject to the laws of a religion they don?t serve. Writing Islam into Afghanistan?s constitution?and Iraq?s?may yet undo all the good work our troops have done in both.
This is a principle that our Founding Fathers laid their lives on the line for more than 200 years ago. We should demand nothing less from the people who purport to be our allies.
Junkyard Blog also says this in a follow-up post:
Forcing a man to renounce his conscience isn?t tolerance. It?s totalitarian.
Bravo. The idea that American soliders died and the end result is a regime that follows rules that Western Civilization abandoned 500 years ago is, quite simply, offensive.
Michelle also links to this story from ABC News:
Presiding judge Ansarullah Mawlazezadah tells ABC News a medical team was checking the defendant, since the team suspects insanity caused Rahman to reject Islam.
“We want to know that the doctors have given him a green light on his mental state, because he is not normal when he talks,” says the judge.
Because, of course, insanity is the only explanation for someone who is true to his faith.
Michelle suggests several courses of action:
Write the embassy of Afghanistan:
Ambassador Said T. Jawad
Embassy of Afghanistan
2341 Wyoming Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20008
info@embassyofafghanistan.orgContact the State Department:
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520Main Switchboard:
202-647-4000
And there’s also an online petition in support of Abdul Rahman and an email campaign to President Bush
The prospect of a man being put to death for standing by his faith should offend anyone who calls themselves an American. The fact that CNN, Fox, and MSNBC haven’t even picked up on this story is simply disturbing.
As ever, the words of the Sage of Monticello ring true:
The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg.
Update 3/21/06: Michelle Malkin has another post up this morning about this case, and points to this Chicago Tribune piece:
[I]n 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, as
(…)
“We are Muslim, our fathers were Muslim, our grandfathers were Muslim,” said Abdul Manan, Rahman’s father, who is 75. “This is an Islamic country. Imagine if your son told a police commander, also a Muslim, that he is a Christian. How would this affect you? It’s very difficult for us.”
(…)
“We knew he had converted, but we didn’t want to get involved in religious issues,” said Col. Abdul Mohammed, the deputy commander of the police district. “So we filed a report on the family’s problems to send to the central police. And he insisted over and over, `Please write in my file that I converted to Christianity.’”
On Thursday, the first day of the trial, Rahman appeared in court with no lawyer. Prosecutor Abdul Wasi said Rahman had been told repeatedly to repent and come back to Islam, but Rahman refused. Wasi called Rahman a traitor.
“He is known as a microbe in society, and he should be cut off and removed from the rest of Muslim society and should be killed,” Wasi told the court.
Rahman said he had surrendered himself to God. “I believe in the holy spirit,” he said. “I believe in Christ. And I am a Christian.”
And this from Toronto’s Globe and Mail:
KABUL — The judge deciding whether an Afghan man should be executed for converting to Christianity does not understand what all the fuss is about.
“In this country, we have [a] perfect constitution. It is Islamic law and it is illegal to be a Christian and it should be punished,” Judge Alhaj Ansarullah Mawawy Zada said in an interview yesterday.
Update # 2: Michelle is staying on top of this story with this post cataloging world reaction to this case. As of now, though, the United States Government remains silent.
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And These Are the People We Helped Liberate ?
Technorati Tags: Afghanistan, Taliban,Religious Freedom, Abdul Rahman
