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Convert's trial upsets Christians
Jewish and Muslim groups are also outraged that Afghanistan may execute a man for becoming a Christian.
Associated Press
Published March 25, 2006
NEW YORK - Religious groups outraged that the U.S.-aided government of Afghanistan might execute a man for converting from Islam to Christianity urged the Bush administration Friday to help save him. Abdul Rahman, a 41-year-old former medical aid worker, faces the death penalty under Afghanistan's Islamic laws against converting to another faith.
Rahman's trial, which started last week, has fired passions in conservative Muslim Afghanistan and highlighted a conflict of values between Afghanistan and its Western backers - including U.S. Christians who cheered the Bush administration when it toppled the oppressive Taliban regime.
Even if Rahman's life is spared, some Americans see the episode as a troubling threat to individual rights in a country where the United States is promoting democracy.
"That there should even be such a trial is an outrage. How can we congratulate ourselves for liberating Afghanistan from the rule of jihadists only to be ruled by radical Islamists who kill Christians?" Family Research Council president Tony Perkins said in a statement.
Such sentiments are spreading through Christian radio stations, Web sites and blogs, and were echoed by American Jewish and Muslim groups.
The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights group, called the case an "alarming example of religious persecution" and a "step backward" as Afghanistan tries to emerge from the intolerance of Taliban rule.
As for Muslims, on Wednesday the Council on American-Islamic Relations urged the Afghan regime to "order the immediate release of Mr. Abdul Rahman" because "religious decisions should be matters of personal choice, not a cause for state intervention."
Senior clerics in the Afghan capital of Kabul have voiced strong support for prosecuting Rahman and again warned Friday that they will incite people to kill him unless he reverts to Islam.
[Last modified March 25, 2006, 01:51:17]
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