News From The "OOOPS, I stepped In It Again File": Killing Christians (Even Converts) Isn't Popular Among The Christian Right

The case against a born Muslim that converted to Christianity has raised the eyebrows of the Republican Party base--the ultraconservative Christian Right--and the rest of us as well. With all the billions of our tax dollars spent on intervening for the sake of freedom and human rights in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere... AND with the assurances coming from Bush, Rumsfeld, Rice, et al.... we have come to expect that some standards of democracy--LIKE FREEDOM OF RELIGION--would be the end result of the effort and expenditure. But even if this man's life is spared by declaring him "incompetent," as is the current plan, it won't change the fact that even the place where we are told there has been greater success is still has a repressive backward approach to human rights... It would appear that that isn't just egg on the faces of the Bush gang, but a spray of the bovine excrement they have been shoveling down our throats from day one. I wonder how much more egg and bovine excrement will be produced from events in Iraq?

For Afghans, Allies, A Clash of Values Case Against Christian Convert Puts Pressure on Karzai -- And On Bush

The case of an Afghan man who could be prosecuted and even put to death for converting to Christianity has unleashed a blizzard of condemnation from the West this week and exposed a conflict in values between Afghanistan, a conservative Muslim country, and the foreign countries that have helped defend and rebuild it in the four years since the fall of the Taliban.

The case of Abdul Rahman, a longtime Christian convert who lived in Germany for years and was arrested last month in Kabul, has also highlighted the volatile debate within Afghanistan over the proper role of Islam in Afghan law and public policy as the country struggles to develop a democracy.

Diplomats from several countries said yesterday that Rahman, 41, now seems unlikely to be tried or executed. Prosecutors in Kabul said he might be mentally unfit to stand trial, a sign that the government may be seeking to avoid confronting its Western allies without giving ground on Islamic law, under which conversion to another religion is punishable by death.

But the case, the first of its kind since the radical Islamic Taliban movement was toppled in 2001 by a U.S.-led military invasion, continued to draw protests from the governments of Italy, Germany, Canada and other NATO nations, at a time when NATO forces are beginning to replace tens of thousands of U.S. troops as the principal defenders of Afghanistan against Taliban and al-Qaeda insurgents.

It also put pressure on President Bush, who visited Kabul last month to show support for Afghan President Hamid Karzai. A number of U.S. Christian and conservative groups demanded this week that Bush take action, and one organization accused him yesterday of propping up an Islamic fundamentalist regime in Kabul.

Kabul Judge Rejects Calls to End Trial of Christian Convert

The judge presiding over the prosecution of an Afghan man facing death for converting from Islam to Christianity said Thursday that he would resist any interference, despite mounting international condemnation.

A day after President Bush mentioned the case, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan to discuss it "in the strongest possible terms," said the State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack.

"She called specifically on this topic," Mr. McCormack said, "and she urged President Karzai's government to seek a favorable resolution to this case at the earliest possible moment."

But Ansarullah Maulavi Zada, the judge who heads the public security tribunal in Kabul, said, "There is no direct pressure on our court so far, but if it happens we will consider it interference."

He added that he expected to rule in the case in the next several days.

Rice Presses Karzai On Convert's Life

Senior Muslim clerics demanded Thursday that an Afghan man on trial for converting from Islam to Christianity be executed, warning that if the government caves in to Western pressure and frees him, they will incite people to "pull him into pieces."

In an unusual move, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice telephoned President Hamid Karzai on Thursday seeking what she called a "satisfactory outcome" of the case of Abdul Rahman. The 41-year-old former medical aid worker faces the death penalty under Afghanistan's Islamic laws for becoming a Christian.

Muslim clerics are adamant that Abdul Rahman, above, holding a Bible, be executed for converting to Christianity. (Reuters Television)

His trial has fired passions in this conservative Muslim nation and highlighted a conflict of values between Afghanistan and its Western backers.

Outrage In Afghanistan

What's the point of the United States' propping up the government of Afghanistan if it's not even going to pretend to respect basic human rights? President Bush himself said it was "deeply troubling" that an Afghan man is facing the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity.

In fact, the case is more than deeply troubling; it's barbaric, and we were glad that Mr. Bush promised yesterday to press for religious freedom in Afghanistan. The Afghan man, Abdul Rahman, was arrested two weeks ago. His parents reported him to the police for converting to Christianity 16 years earlier while working for a Christian aid organization in Peshawar, Pakistan. He was hauled before a judge, where he said he had no regrets. "If he doesn't revert back to Islam, he's going to receive the death penalty, according to the law," an Afghan Supreme Court judge told Agence France-Presse.

As we can see, our efforts to effect changes in the Mesopotamic Region are far from realistic, far from effective, and far from being achieved.