KABUL, Afghanistan — An Afghan man who allegedly converted from Islam to Christianity is being prosecuted in a Kabul court and could be sentenced to death, a judge said Sunday.

The defendant, Abdul Rahman, was arrested last month after his family went to the police and accused him of becoming a Christian, Judge Ansarullah Mawlavezada told the Associated Press in an interview. Such a conversion would violate the country's Islamic laws.

Rahman, who is believed to be 41, was charged with rejecting Islam when his trial started last week, the judge said.

During the hearing, the defendant allegedly confessed that he converted from Islam to Christianity 16 years ago when he was 25 and working as a medical aid worker for Afghan refugees in neighboring Pakistan, Mawlavezada said.

Afghanistan's constitution is based on Shariah law, which states that any Muslim who rejects their religion should be sentenced to death.

"We are not against any particular religion in the world. But in Afghanistan, this sort of thing is against the law," the judge said. "It is an attack on Islam. ... The prosecutor is asking for the death penalty."

He said that he had offered to drop the charges if Rahman changed his religion back to Islam, but the defendant refused.

Mawlavezada said he would rule on the case within two months.

Afghanistan is a deeply conservative society and 99 percent of its 28 million people are Muslim. The rest are mainly Hindus.

this is the reason we have freedom of religion here

Sad for this guy, his faith must be strong to handle what is coming his way.

The ROP strikes again.

Sad that our Tax dollars and US Service Members lifes went to freeing them from the same savages that are there now.

Thats their culture.  Why shouldn't we respect theirs when we demand others respect ours?


He knew what he was facing.  He made his choice.  He'll have to deal with the consequences.

Dupe: http://ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=447297

Quoted: Dupe: http://ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=447297

You need to work on your Dupe-Fu before you go calling dupe.

I mean like, come on, whe else does one do with an infidel?

I would like to know if that is actually one of Mohammads teachings or some sort of later crazy interpretation of Islam.

Quoted: I would like to know if that is actually one of Mohammads teachings or some sort of later crazy interpretation of Islam.

"They long that ye should disbelieve even as they disbelieve, that ye may be upon a level with them. So choose not friends from them till they forsake their homes in the way of Allah; if they turn renegades, sieze them and kill them wherever ye find them, and choose no friend nor helper from among them." (Sura 4:89)

Respected hadith confirm these as Mohammed's doctrine also; and most schools of Islamic thought agree.

There was a town in Canada a few years back that was mostly Muslim immigrants. The Canadian .gov was very close to allowing them to police their own in courts and law. Then all the women and other rights groups brought attention to Shariah law, and what would happen if the Canadian .gov allowed that to happen.

It was squashed, kinda. Both parties have to agree to it.

www.youmeworks.com/sharia_canada.html

Quoted: Quoted: I would like to know if that is actually one of Mohammads teachings or some sort of later crazy interpretation of Islam. "They long that ye should disbelieve even as they disbelieve, that ye may be upon a level with them. So choose not friends from them till they forsake their homes in the way of Allah; if they turn renegades, sieze them and kill them wherever ye find them, and choose no friend nor helper from among them." (Sura 4:89) Respected hadith confirm these as Mohammed's doctrine also; and most schools of Islamic thought agree.

Let me start with this there is no compulsion of religion in Islam by that I mean it is forbidden to force anyone to believe in Islam. A very good example of this is India it was under Islamic rule for a thousand years yet the majority of its population is Hindu.

Islam as a religion is an all encompassing religion it deals with life from the individual to the state. So in an Islamic country ( of which there are non) if one becomes a Muslim they are pledging their loyalty to the state.  When they forsake Islam they are forsaking the state and comitting treason. No one argues that treason is not a high crime and all countries have laws against it. If one is not in an Islamic state this dosen't apply to the person who leaves the religion.

Lack of evidence?.....They just can not admit defeat.

I hope we continue to hear about these things and the international community keeps strong.

Sad thing is, we did so much for one man, yet we did nothing for Sudan.




KABUL, Afghanistan — An Afghan court on Sunday dismissed a case against a man who converted from Islam to Christianity because of a lack of evidence and he will be released soon, officials said.

The announcement came as U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai faced mounting foreign pressure to free Abdul Rahman, a move that risked angering Muslim clerics here who have called for him to be killed.

An official closely involved with the case told The Associated Press that it had been returned to the prosecutors for more investigation, but that in the meantime, Rahman would be released.

"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 Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

"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."

Abdul Wakil Omeri, a spokesman for the Supreme Court, confirmed that the case had been dismissed because of "problems with the prosecutors' evidence."

He said several of Rahman's family members have testified that the 41-year-old has mental problems. "It is the job of the attorney general's office to decide if he is mentally fit to stand trial," he told AP.

A Western diplomat, also declining to be identified because of the sensitivity of the case, said questions were being raised as to whether Rahman would stay in Afghanistan or go into exile in a foreign country.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she could not confirm that an Afghan court had dismissed the case and stressed the U.S. needs to respect the sovereignty of Afghanistan, which she called a "young democracy."

"We have our history of conflicts that had to be worked out after a new constitution. And so the Afghans are working on it. But America has stood solidly for religious freedom as a bedrock, the bedrock, of democracy, and we'll see." Rice said Sunday on a network news show.

Asked if American Christian missionaries should be encouraged to go to Afghanistan, Rice said: "I think that Afghans are pleased to get the help that they can get" but added "we need to be respectful of Afghan sovereignty."

Rahman has been prosecuted under Afghanistan's Islamic laws 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 and charged with apostasy.

Muslim clerics had threatened to incite Afghans to kill Rahman if the government freed him. They said he clearly violated Islamic Shariah law by rejecting Islam.

The case against Rahman put Karzai in an awkward position.

While the U.S., Britain and other countries that prop-up his government have demanded the trial be dropped, Karzai has had to be careful not to offend Islamic sensibilities at home and alienate religious conservatives who wield considerable power.

Rahman had been held at a detention facility in central Kabul since his arrest, but he was moved to the notorious Policharki Prison just outside Kabul on Friday after threats were made against him by other inmates, prison warden Gen. Shahmir Amirpur told AP.

Policharki, a high-security prison housing some 2,000 inmates, including about 350 Taliban and Al Qaeda militants who were blamed for inciting a riot there late last month that killed six people.

"We are watching him constantly. This is a very sensitive case so he needs high security," he said in an interview in his office in a crumbling building inside the jail.

Rahman is being held in a cell by himself next to the office of a senior prison guard, the warden said. He showed the AP the outside of Rahman's cell door, but refused to allow reporters to speak to him or see him.

He said Rahman had been asking guards for a Bible but that they did not have any to give him.

Rahman, meanwhile, said he was fully aware of his choice and was ready to die for it, according to an interview published Sunday in an Italian newspaper La Repubblica.

"I am serene. I have full awareness of what I have chosen. If I must die, I will die," Abdul Rahman told the Rome daily, responding to questions sent to him via a human rights worker who visited him in prison.

"Somebody, a long time ago, did it for all of us," he added in a clear reference to Jesus.

Rahman also told the Italian newspaper that his family — including his ex-wife and teenage daughters — reported him to the authorities three weeks ago.

He said he made his choice to become a Christian "in small steps," after he left Afghanistan 16 years ago. He moved to Pakistan, then Germany. He 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."

Quoted: Quoted: I would like to know if that is actually one of Mohammads teachings or some sort of later crazy interpretation of Islam. "They long that ye should disbelieve even as they disbelieve, that ye may be upon a level with them. So choose not friends from them till they forsake their homes in the way of Allah; if they turn renegades, sieze them and kill them wherever ye find them, and choose no friend nor helper from among them." (Sura 4:89) Respected hadith confirm these as Mohammed's doctrine also; and most schools of Islamic thought agree.

Even a certain Arfcommer thinks that people leaving islam should be killed.

Quoted: ...I have no problem, after thinking it through, on executing people who leave the faith; I may be a lapsed Muslim, but I can never imagine totally leaving my faith, I personally would sooner die than do so. Execution for apostacy IMHO is a way to attempt to save the soul of the apostate before he commits too many sins, because hopefully Allah will forgive him of his transgression, for Allah knows best our deeds and actions and it is up to Him and Him alone to decide what happens to us when we die...