"Afghan Court Drops Case Against Christian," Allah Reportedly Still Weighing Retrial…
[Abdul] Rahman has been prosecuted under Afghanistan's Islamic laws for converting 16 years ago while working as a medical aid worker for an international Christian group helping Afghan refugees in Pakistan. He was arrested last month and charged with apostasy.
Muslim clerics had threatened to incite Afghans to kill Rahman if the government freed him. They said he clearly violated Islamic Shariah law by rejecting Islam.
More here.
Over at The Moderate Voice, Justin Gardner asks, "What does that mean for the next convert to Christianity where the evidence is overwhelming? Will that person be put to death?"
And those of us raised Roman Catholic thought we had it tough with the Holy Days of Obligation.
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I gave up islamofascism for Lent this year…
Maybe he could work out some sort of deal where he agrees to not eat pork on Fridays during Lent. See if that satisfies the Afghan authorities.
Um, weren’t we supposed to “free” this country when we invaded? How is this that much different than under the Taliban? Or are they in power again?
I predict it will be a generation or four before we invade a country and try to rebuild it. People alive now have seen just how pointless this endevour is. Iraq is an obvious failure, and Afghanistan seems to be one too, if a slightly more subtle one.
Andy-
If people learned from their mistakes the drug war would be over.
I was talking about this with a Catholic who was originally from Egypt, and she says that killing those who convert away from Islam is a basic practice of the religion… even outside the Muslim world. Where the law doesn’t support this, Muslims will often take it as their religious duty to enforce the death penalty on converts.
There’s an article in Wikipedia about this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostasy_in_Islam
Religion of peace my ass.
How is this that much different than under the Taliban?
He’s not dead?
Of course, what’s funniest about this, is that if an American court came up such a half-assed excuse for acquitting someone, many of the same people who are glad Rahman is being released would be shrieking about liberal activist judges foiling the will of the voters….
If this guy doesn’t immediately leave the country after being released, he WILL be dead.
Um, weren’t we supposed to “free” this country when we invaded?
No, you’re thinking of Iraq. Officially speaking, there was no actual goal to invading Afganistan.
Officially speaking, there was no actual goal to invading Afganistan.
What, I thought our goal was to “Smoke ’em out, and git ’em runnin’.”
What Would Jesus Do?
Muslim clerics had threatened to incite Afghans to kill Rahman…
So Muslim clerics view the average Muslim as a dog that they can sic on someone if they choose to. Doesn’t the average Muslim have any fucking pride?
Imagine a black leader in America appearing on Meet The Press and saying, “If so and so is released from jail, I’m going to incite a bunch of angry black men to murder him.” Black people would condemn this guy for saying that, immediately.
“Of course, what’s funniest about this, is that if an American court came up such a half-assed excuse for acquitting someone, many of the same people who are glad Rahman is being released would be shrieking about liberal activist judges foiling the will of the voters….”
I disagree, and here’s why: if there were a case of similarly odiousness here (let’s say the guy who shot the cop when they broke into his house and is now on death row), I imagine anyone on this site would be overjoyed for that guy to be let off even if the judge said God came down on a flaming cheese danish and told him to.
When speaking of humanitarian goals in the Middle East, our administration wants to promote both freedom and democracy, with little consideration of the simple truth that, in that part of the world, the two are diametrically opposed.
“I imagine anyone on this site would be overjoyed for that guy to be let off”
I didn’t mean H&R by my earlier comment, I meant the usual suspects at Weekly Standard, Worldnet Daily, etc. H&R is relatively free of “activist” judge bashing.
Iraq is an obvious failure, and Afghanistan seems to be one too, if a slightly more subtle one.
The government of Afghanistan is no longer overtly collaborating with a terrorist organization bent on murdering Americans, and, considering that, the invasion of Afghanistan was not an obvious failure.
Get all US troops out of Afghanistan immediately. Bring our ambassador home. Stop all US taxpayor aid.
Stop making US taxpayors feel guilty about poppies blooming there.
That will be “revenge” enough for me.
heh heh
“What does that mean for the next convert to Christianity where the evidence is overwhelming? Will that person be put to death?”
Well, if that’s the issue, you have gotta question who the U.S. chooses as allies. In that
Afghanistan isn’t the only U.S.-allied government where Muslim converts to Christianity are threatened with execution.
Saudi Arabia neither permits conversion from Islam nor allows other religions in the kingdom. There are no churches and missionaries are barred. Saudi Arabia considers Sharia the law of the land, which considers conversion to any religion apostasy and the punishment is death.
In Kuwait, a court convicted a Shiite Muslim man who publicly proclaimed his conversion to Christianity, but didn’t sentence him since the criminal code did not set a punishment.
Egypt does not have laws criminalizing apostasy, but those who do convert can still face prosecution.
There are exceptions. In strongly secular Turkey, a convert can walk into a Demographic Records office, sign a declaration saying they have converted from Islam to Christianity and leave an hour later with a new identity card reflecting the change. While Islam is the religion of 99 percent of Turkey’s 71 million people, it has no official religion.
And let’s not forget Israel, the state has laws against missionary activities among Jews, though it does not punish converts.
Ironically, IRAQ was the most tolerant country is the region as far as allowing Christians and other faiths to operate according to their beliefs. But unfortunately that has all changed now.
Why haven’t we heard exactly which stripe of Christian this schlemiel is?
Is he the sort who burns Baptist churches, or the sworn enemy of Baptists, the Church of Christ, who kill their spouses willy-nilly?
Ruthless, he’s Nestorian and is a fanatical devotee of Prester John. Who will lead lead Christian hordes from the east to dispatch the heathen.
Oh, wait. Wrong millennium.