Note #9226 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:
06189 March 28, 2006
Afghanistan won't execute Christian convert from Islam
Sharia court relents in wake of worldwide storm of protest
by Anto Akkara Ecumenical News International
NEW DELHI - An Afghan man facing execution for having converted from Islam to Christianity was freed Sunday (March 26) after a court in Kabul dismissed the charge against him.
Abdul Rahman was freed after appeals on his behalf came in from around the world.
Rahman, 41, had said he was ready to die for his faith. He faced possible execution under Islamic Sharia law, for converting from Islam, then refusing to renounce his Christianity.
"I respect Afghan law, as I respect Islam, but I chose to become a Christian for myself, for my soul. It is not an offence," Rahman told Italy's La Repubblica daily newspaper.
After his release, Rahman reportedly disappeared. He apparently feared for his life and intended to seek asylum in a Western country.
Bishop Wolfgang Huber of the Evangelical Church in Germany credited the worldwide protests for Rahman's release and said: "The fact that he cannot remain in Afghanistan is an expression of the deplorable situation that the application of Sharia in cases of a change of religion contravenes universal human rights."
Rahman's conversion came more than 15 years ago when he worked for a Christian relief group. He lived overseas before returning to Afghanistan in 2003.
His arrest, about a month ago, sparked condemnations and expressions of concern from individuals including U.S. President George W. Bush and Roman Catholic Pope Benedict XVI.
In Britain, which has troops serving in Afghanistan, the moderator of the (Presbyterian) Church of Scotland, the Rev. David Lacy, said he was distressed by the reports that Rahman was to be executed.
"Members of our armed forces are in Afghanistan, having assisted the Afghan people there to free themselves from a barbaric, repressive regime," Lacy wrote to British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. "Are they now to defend, at risk of their lives, a system which may execute people for becoming Christians?"
Hundreds of clerics, students and others marched through the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif on March 27 in protest of the dismissal of the charge against Rahman, chanting "Death to Christians!"
A foreign church worker based in India who travels frequently to Afghanistan told Ecumenical News International that church workers in Afghanistan fear for their lives. "The situation in Afghanistan is very dangerous," he said, asking that his name not be published.
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