Afghanistan's Still Not Free: Man On Trial For Being Christian

[Oneironaut]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/south_asia/4823874.stm

If Bush was really interested in overthrowing non-democratic régimes, he should overthrow the current Afghan government. How can a country possibly be democratic if there is no tolerance for opposing points of view? Sharia law is fundamentally incompatible with democracy. Period.

Monday, 20 March 2006, 13:15 GMT
Afghan on trial for Christianity
An Afghan man is being tried in a court in the capital, Kabul, for converting from Islam to Christianity.

Abdul Rahman is charged with rejecting Islam and could face the death sentence under Sharia law unless he recants.

He converted 16 years ago as an aid worker helping refugees in Pakistan. His estranged family denounced him in a custody dispute over his two children.

It is thought to be Afghanistan's first such trial, reflecting tensions between conservative clerics and reformists.

Conservatives still dominate the Afghan judiciary four years after the Taleban were overthrown.

The BBC's Mike Donkin in Kabul says reformists, like the government under President Hamid Karzai, want a more liberal, secular legal system but under the present constitution it is hard for them to intervene.

'Tolerance'

Afghanistan's post-Taleban constitution is based on Sharia law, and prosecutors in the case says this means Abdul Rahman, whose trial began last Thursday, should be put to death.

"We will ask him if he has changed his mind. If so we will forgive him"
Trial judge Ansarullah Mawlazezadah

When he was arrested last month he was found to be carrying a bible and charged with rejecting Islam which is punishable by death in Afghanistan.

Trial judge Ansarullah Mawlazezadah told the BBC that Mr Rahman, 41, would be asked to reconsider his conversion, which he made while working for a Christian aid group in Pakistan.

"We will invite him again because the religion of Islam is one of tolerance. We will ask him if he has changed his mind. If so we will forgive him," the judge told the BBC on Monday.

But if he refused to reconvert, then his mental state would be considered first before he was dealt with under Sharia law, the judge added.

He said he expected the case to take about two months to be heard.

Precedent

The Afghan Human Rights Commission has called for a better balance in the judiciary, with fewer judges advocating Sharia law and more judges with a wider legal background.

Several journalists have been prosecuted under blasphemy laws in post-Taleban Afghanistan.

The editor of a women's rights magazine was convicted of insulting Islam and sentenced to death last year - but was later released after an apology and heavy international pressure.

Mr Karzai's office says the president will not intervene in the case.

Observers say executing a converted Christian would be a significant precedent as a conservative interpretation of Sharia law in Afghanistan.

But it would also outrage Western nations which put Mr Karzai in power and are pouring billions of dollars into supporting the country.

Oneironaut Reviewed by Oneironaut on 03-24-2006. Afghanistan's Still Not Free: Man On Trial For Being Christian http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/south_asia/4823874.stm If Bush was really interested in overthrowing non-democratic régimes, he should overthrow the current Afghan government. How can a country possibly be democratic if there is no tolerance for opposing points of view? Sharia law is fundamentally incompatible with democracy. Period. Monday, 20 March 2006, 13:15 GMT Afghan on trial for Christianity An Afghan man is being tried in a court in the capital, Kabul, for converting from Islam to Rating: 5

[Psycho4Bud]

I watched the speach..........

http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/63494.htm
"We have got influence in Afghanistan and we are going to use it to remind them that there are universal values," Bush told an enthusiastic Wheeling, W.Va., crowd in his first public comment on the case.

"It is deeply troubling that a country we helped liberate would hold a person to account because they chose a particular religion over another," Bush added at the town hall-style meeting.

[Oneironaut]

Well, even if this guy is released, it's not going to mend the logical incompatibility between Sharia law and democracy. An organization that forces one specific religion's tenets on everybody is not capable of treating everybody's opinions equally, and thus is not capable of being anything close to democratic.

[Psycho4Bud]

Their making steps in the right direction....kinda like throwin' a hillbilly into New York! Baby steps.......:thumbsup:

[Breukelen advocaat]

They're doing fine at accepting other religions' presence in their country. They have a Jew:

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/...sm/jewpop.html

:dance:

Below left: Afghan Poppy farmer inspecting his crop after it was sprayed with plant-killer

[Myth1184]

Dont blame the government, blame the muslims of Afghan

[Breukelen advocaat]

Dont blame the government, blame the muslims of Afghan

Which "government"? I believe that the government in Afghanistan IS muslim.

Here's the website of the Islamic Government of Afghanistan:

http://www.af/

[andruejaysin]

^^Don't be so negative, given enough American blood, money, and about 600 years, they'll get it right.

[mont974x4]

It didn't take 600 years for Germany and Japan.

[Myth1184]

CNN and Fox news reporting this guy is to be released in upcoming days..now if the Muslim crowds dont rip him to shreads is the question