Afghanistan: Abdul Rahman Released
Tuesday March 28, 2006
Category: International Human Rights | Religious Liberty
The Associated Press has confirmed that Abdul Rahman, the Afghan recently arrested for his 1990 conversion to Christianity, has been released on a technicality--that he is "mentally unfit to stand trial." This means that the new Afghan government has done nothing to discourage future arrests of this kind--and very little to protect Rahman, for that matter:
"We issued a letter saying he was mentally unfit to stand trial, so he has been released," he said. "I don't know where he is now."
Hundreds of Muslims marched against a court's decision Sunday to dismiss the case against Abdul Rahman after heavy international pressure on Afghan President Hamid Karzai to drop the trial. Several Muslim clerics have threatened to incite Afghans to kill Rahman if he is freed.
You won't see me quoting Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, very often--but in this case, he's right on the money:
We believe that efforts to guarantee fundamental rights cannot be separated from freedom of religion. The action taken by Judge Ansarullah Mawlavizada has been condemned by numerous groups, and not just by Christian organizations. Prosecuting Adbul for converting to Christianity is wrong per se. In addition, allowing this trial to continue, and potentially to sentence Adbul to death, will confirm in the minds of radicals in that country that religious minorities are not protected by the Afghan Constitution. The potential devastation for religious freedom and other fundamental rights is staggering, not only in Afghanistan but in the broader Middle East as well.
The decision to topple the Taliban from power was just, and American and allied forces have died to achieve that goal. We are fighting now to defeat state-sponsored terrorism and surely that must mean we oppose state-practiced terrorism against its own citizens. The most recent reports that Abdul Rahman may be found unfit for trial due to mental illness do not alleviate our concern. The substitution of Soviet-style psychiatric repression for a more lethal form may be only death by slow-motion.
The Associated Press has confirmed that Abdul Rahman, the Afghan recently arrested for his 1990 conversion to Christianity, has been released on a technicality--that he is "mentally unfit to stand trial." This means that the new Afghan government has done nothing to discourage future arrests of this kind--and very little to protect Rahman, for that matter:
"We issued a letter saying he was mentally unfit to stand trial, so he has been released," he said. "I don't know where he is now."
Hundreds of Muslims marched against a court's decision Sunday to dismiss the case against Abdul Rahman after heavy international pressure on Afghan President Hamid Karzai to drop the trial. Several Muslim clerics have threatened to incite Afghans to kill Rahman if he is freed.
You won't see me quoting Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, very often--but in this case, he's right on the money:
We believe that efforts to guarantee fundamental rights cannot be separated from freedom of religion. The action taken by Judge Ansarullah Mawlavizada has been condemned by numerous groups, and not just by Christian organizations. Prosecuting Adbul for converting to Christianity is wrong per se. In addition, allowing this trial to continue, and potentially to sentence Adbul to death, will confirm in the minds of radicals in that country that religious minorities are not protected by the Afghan Constitution. The potential devastation for religious freedom and other fundamental rights is staggering, not only in Afghanistan but in the broader Middle East as well.
The decision to topple the Taliban from power was just, and American and allied forces have died to achieve that goal. We are fighting now to defeat state-sponsored terrorism and surely that must mean we oppose state-practiced terrorism against its own citizens. The most recent reports that Abdul Rahman may be found unfit for trial due to mental illness do not alleviate our concern. The substitution of Soviet-style psychiatric repression for a more lethal form may be only death by slow-motion.
Comments
Religious freedoms are initially what people came to America for. The government of Afghanistan really “owes” us on this one, seeing that we fought to liberate them from a cruelly oppressive form of Islam. Whether Mr. Rahman is hunted by extremists or not is another issue. May God deliver him.