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KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan officials, trying to resolve a crisis over an Afghan who may face the death penalty for converting to Christianity, struggled on Saturday to satisfy conflicting international and domestic demands.

The controversy over the man who abandoned Islam, Abdur Rahman, 40, threatens to drive a wedge between Afghanistan and the Western backers who ensure its security and finance its development. Rahman’s trial is due to start in a few days.

International pressure on Afghanistan to respect Rahman’s religious freedom and release him from jail has been met in Afghanistan by calls for him to be tried under Islamic law and executed, and a threat of rebellion if the government frees him.

“There are lots of discussions going on,” said a government official who declined to be identified.

“We know there’s a lot of international concern ... We want to resolve this in a way that accommodates all expectations—international expectations and the expectations of the people.”

Rahman was detained last week for converting to Christianity, judicial officials say. Death is the punishment stipulated by sharia, or Islamic law, for apostasy. The Afghan legal system is based on a mixture of civil and sharia law.

Outcry from international community
The case has sparked an outcry in North America and Europe and led to some calls for peacekeeping troops to be withdrawn.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Friday she had met both President Hamid Karzai and the foreign minister.

“We are working with the Afghans and we look to a favourable resolution of this case,” Rice said. “We’ve been very clear: The freedom of religion is a fundamental principle of democracy.”

U.S. forces have been battling Taliban insurgents since defeating their government in late 2001. The United States is Afghanistan’s most important ally.

Pope Benedict has written to Karzai urging clemency for Rahman, the Italian news agency ANSA said on Saturday.

Benedict sent a letter in the past few days “which appeals for respect for human rights sanctioned in the preamble of the new Afghan constitution,” it added.

‘Polar opposites’
Rahman told a preliminary hearing last week he had become a Christian while working for an aid group helping Afghan refugees in Pakistan 15 years ago. He later lived in Germany before returning to Afghanistan.

He was detained after his family told authorities he had converted, apparently following a family dispute involving two daughters, a judicial official said.

A chorus of clerics, politicians and ordinary people in the deeply conservative Muslim country is demanding Rahman be tried under Islamic law, though some Afghans say privately they support greater freedom of religion.
Karzai cannot ignore the conservatives or appear to bow to Western pressure. Canada said he had pledged that Rahman would not be executed.

A prosecutor has raised questions about Rahman’s mental state, and a judge said that could be taken into account. Rahman has denied he is mentally unstable.

The Afghan constitution says “no law can be contrary to the sacred religion of Islam” but also says it will abide by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which enshrines freedom of religion.

Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12009717/ (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12009717/)



Just wanted to share a discovery from one of my online ramblings!

kestrel

And the update:

KABUL, Afghanistan - A court on Sunday dismissed the case against an Afghan man facing possible execution for converting from Islam to Christianity, officials said, paving the way for his release.

The move eased pressure from the West but raised the dilemma of protecting Abdul Rahman after his release as Islamic clerics have called for him to be killed.

One official said freedom might come as soon as Monday for Rahman, who became a Christian in the 1990s while working for an aid group in neighboring Pakistan.

Muslim extremists, who have demanded death for Rahman as an apostate for rejecting Islam, warned the decision would touch off protests across this religiously conservative country. Some clerics previously vowed to incite Afghans to kill Rahman if he was let go.

Rahman was moved to Kabul's notorious high-security Policharki prison Friday after inmates at a jail in central Kabul threatened him, Policharki's warden, Gen. Shahmir Amirpur, said.

Authorities have barred journalists from seeing Rahman. But on Sunday, officials gave AP an exclusive tour of Policharki, which houses some 2,000 inmates, including about 350 Taliban and al-Qaida militants.

Amirpur said Rahman had been asking guards for a Bible but they had none to give him.

"He looks very calm. But he keeps saying he is hearing voices," Amirpur said.

Rahman was in solitary confinement in a tiny concrete cell next to a senior prison guard's office. AP was shown the cell door, but barred from speaking with or otherwise communicating with him.

A senior guard said inmates and many guards had not been told of Rahman's identity because of fears they might attack him.

But Amirpur vouched for the prisoner's safety. "We are watching him constantly. This is a very sensitive case so he needs high security."

The case set off an outcry in the United States and other nations that helped oust the hard-line Taliban regime in late 2001 and provide aid and military support for Afghan President Hamid Karzai.     President Bush and others insisted     Afghanistan protect personal beliefs.

A Supreme Court spokesman, Abdul Wakil Omeri, said the case had been dismissed because of "problems with the prosecutors' evidence." He said several of Rahman's relatives testified he is mentally unstable and prosecutors have to "decide if he is mentally fit to stand trial."

Another Afghan official closely involved with the case told The Associated Press that the court ruled there was insufficient evidence and returned the case to prosecutors for further investigation. But he said Rahman would be released in the meantime.

"The court dismissed today the case against Abdul Rahman for a lack of information and a lot of legal gaps in the case," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly comment on the case.

"The decision about his release will be taken possibly tomorrow," the official added. "They don't have to keep him in jail while the attorney general is looking into the case."

Secretary of State     Condoleezza Rice, who said she had not received official confirmation from Afghan authorities, told Fox News the announcement was "a very good step forward."

She said on CNN's "Late Edition" that the U.S. government had stressed to Karzai that religious freedom is a vital element of democracy.

"We're going to stand firm for the principle that religious freedom and freedom of religious conscience need to be upheld, and we are hoping for a favorable resolution in this case," Rice said.

The uproar left Karzai in an awkward position. While trying to address concerns of foreign supporters, he also has sought not to alienate religious conservatives who wield considerable influence in Afghanistan.

The court's decision was sure to anger at least some of the clerics who have strongly demanded that authorities enforce a provision in the country's Islamic-based laws calling for the execution of Muslims who abandon the faith.

"There will be big protests across Afghanistan," said Faiez Mohammed, a Sunni Muslim leader in the northern city of Kunduz. "This has shamed Afghanistan in the eyes of other Muslim countries."

A Western diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said it wasn't clear if the 41-year-old Rahman would be able to stay in Afghanistan or have to move abroad.

A prison official told AP that Rahman had been moved to a new prison Friday because of threats from inmates at his first jail.

Rahman was being prosecuted for converting 16 years ago while working as a medical aid worker for an international Christian group helping Afghan refugees in Pakistan. He was arrested last month after police discovered him with a Bible.

In an interview published Sunday by an Italian newspaper, Rahman said his family, including his former wife and two teenage daughters, reported him to authorities.

He stressed that he was fully aware of his choice to convert.

"If I must die, I will die," Rahman told the Rome daily La Repubblica, which did not interview him directly but channeled questions through a human rights worker who visited him in prison.

Rahman said he chose to become a Christian "in small steps" after leaving Afghanistan around 1990. He moved to Peshawar, Pakistan, then Germany and tried to get a visa in Belgium.

"In Peshawar, I worked for a humanitarian organization. They were Catholics," Rahman said. "I started talking to them about religion, I read the Bible, it opened my heart and my mind."

After saying he was ready to die, he told La Repubblica: "Somebody, a long time ago, did it for all of us," in a clear reference to Jesus Christ.
___

Associated Press correspondent Rahim Faiez in Kabul contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060327/ap_on_re_as/afghan_christian_convert (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060327/ap_on_re_as/afghan_christian_convert)
(bold mine)


Isn't that just awesome??

kestrel

Amen Kestrel!

It's really hard for us to understand just how precious our freedom is to love and worship JESUS. Reading Voice of the Martyrs on a regular basis is an eye opener. The number of Christians being killed because of their faith in JESUS is growing by the day. All we can do is pray for Christians around the world and keep spreading the GOOD NEWS.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Philippians 4:12-13 NASB  I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.  I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

Amen brother we do need to continue praying for this man as well as many Christians around the world that are being persecuted daily for their faith in Jesus Christ.

Just because the courts may release him does not mean that he is out of danger. There are still many islamists in that country that want him dead and will continue to try to bring that into being.