Michelle Malkin continues to be the #1 blogger giving this issue the best attention. See her latest posts here, here and here, including this link to a video over at the Afghan Times. She also has an article today about saving Abdul.
An Afghan who has renounced his Islamic faith for Christianity faces the death penalty under Afghan law in a throwback to the brutal Taleban regime. Abdul Rahman, 41, is being prosecuted for an "attack on Islam", for which the punishment under Afghanistan's draft constitution, is death by hanging.
One of the highlights from Michelle’s posts includes this excerpt from this great article from the Chicago Tribune (emphasis her’s):
Elsewhere in the blogosphere, my friend Angela offers her legal analyis:
Abdul Rahman told his family he was a Christian. He told the neighbors, bringing shame upon his home. But then he told the police, and he could no longer be ignored.
Now, in 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 she made a cutting motion with her hands. "There's no need to see him..."
...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."
Judge Ansarullah Mawlawizada, who is handling the case, said he normally takes two months to decide on cases. But because this case is so serious, he expected to hold another hearing within the next week and make a decision.
Mawlawizada, who kept Rahman's green Bible on his desk, said he respected all religions. He emphasized that he did not favor the aggressiveness of the Taliban, who cut the hands and feet off criminals in a soccer stadium. But he said Rahman had to repent.
"If he doesn't regret his conversion, the punishment will be enforced on him," the judge said. "And the punishment is death."
Chuck Colson also weighs in:
...the Afghan court could go either way on this, depending on what place each of the sayings on apostacy have in the Islamic canon, and whether the court chooses to honor them, and how. The Afghan people have decided that they want an Islamic state. I think it's important to respect this, despite my personal aversion to theocracies (and Christian belief that they are unbiblical), and to promote religious freedom for all within that framework. There are a number of ways to do this. Ignoring Islamic law, or declaring that it is beyond hope for promoting religious freedom, will not be one of them.
See more coverage throughout the blogosphere here.
The irony is inescapable: This is the country that we rid of the Taliban because of its religious oppression. This is the country in which we have spent at least $70 billion to establish a free democratic government. This is the country whose freedom cost us three hundred American lives and eight hundred casualties. And this is the country that is preparing to execute a man for becoming a Christian after he witnessed other Christians caring for his countrymen.
Is this the fruit of democracy? Is this why we have shed American blood and invested American treasure to set a people free? What have we accomplished for overthrowing the Taliban? This is the kind of thing we would expect from the Taliban, not from President Karzai and his freely elected democratic government.
I have supported the Bush administration’s foreign policy because I came to believe that the best way to stop Islamo-fascism was by promoting democracy. But if we can’t guarantee fundamental religious freedoms in the countries where we establish democratic reforms, then the whole credibility of our foreign policy is thrown into serious question. I hope the president and the administration can recognize what a devastating setback Rahman’s execution would be to the cause of democracy and freedom.
But just in case they don’t, we had better tell them. While Abdul Rahman is prepared to be a martyr, it is our solemn obligation before God to protest as loudly and strenuously as we can. You need to both call and e-mail your elected representatives and the White House. You need to tell them that Abdul Rahman’s execution must not take place. You need to let them know that “democracy” worth the name must include protection of the most basic human right: freedom of conscience and belief.
As I mentioned yesterday, here is contact info for those wanting to take action:
Please continue to pray for Abdul's release and safety. Also contact your congressmen and anyone else you know of who might be able to help. I e-mailed my church in DC today and have already had a number of responses, including contact from an organization doing work in Afghanistan. The more ways we can try to help the better, especially if we can work with those who have the best local knowledge of the situation, laws and culture over there.
Write the embassy of Afghanistan:
Ambassador Said T. Jawad
Embassy of Afghanistan
2341 Wyoming Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20008
info@embassyofafghanistan.org
Contact the State Department:
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520
Main Switchboard:
202-647-4000
Sign a petition supporting Rahman. And here's an e-mail campaign to President Bush.
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