- Introductions
- Today’s Topic: Abdul Rahman
- Background to the issue:
- You’ve likely heard of the Christian in Afghanistan who is currently in court under charges that he converted to Christianity.
- He converted to Christianity 16 years ago while working with refugees in Pakistan with a Christian relief organization.
- He moved to Germany in 1993, and moved back to Afghanistan in 2002 after we ousted the Taliban.
- He’d been divorced by his wife, and, while trying to get custody of his two daughters, his conversion to Christianity was brought up. He was arrested after officials found a Bible in his possession.
- The Afghanistan constitution states that “the religion of the state is the sacred religion of Islam.” But, it also says that “followers of other religions are free to exercise their faith and perform their religious rites within the limits of the provisions of law.” It also upholds the “UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
- The constitution is partly based on Islamic Sharia law. This is based both on the Koran and on traditional teachings call hadith.
- The Koran is relatively ambiguous about what to do with people who reject Islam.
- The hadith quotes Muhammed as saying, “Whoever changes his religion, kill him.”
- More information in the book, The Cross and the Crescent.
- They are considering declaring the man mentally unfit—which isn’t very satisfactory to very many people. And, of course, that would likely send him to an institution—which is probably a worse punishment than execution.
- Many countries have expressed their displeasure at the situation—and the president of Afghanistan seems to want to placate them. The judge, however, doesn’t want to bow to any outside pressure.
- As far as I can tell, it is Afghanistan is a democracy—but one primarily consisting of Muslims.
- Even if he is released, he may face public outrage. “We will not allow God to be humiliated,” Abdul Raoulf, a member of the Ulama Council, Afghanistan’s main clerical organization, told the Associated Press. “We will call on the people to pull him into pieces so there’s nothing left.” (from About.com)
- Most of Afghanistan’s public is for his execution.
- The primary judge stated: “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.”
- He may simply get a lesser punishment.
- Abdul is holding firm to his faith: “They want to sentence me to death and I accept it…I am a Christian, which means I believe in the Trinity…I believe in Jesus Christ.”
- Any thoughts on the issue to begin with?
- Before we get too far into discussion, I think we perhaps ought to pray for him—and other persecuted Christians.
- We could certainly talk about all the political implications. But perhaps that’s not most important here. I think this situation points out some very interesting questions about our faith—well, anyone’s faith, really—and government.
- It points out one of the big weaknesses in a simple idea of democracy—what happens when the people choose evil.
- Francis Schaeffer, I think, pointed out that underlying worldview is incredibly important in the success of a democracy.
- We pretty much all take for granted that we have “certain unalienable rights” and that we ought to be able to vote and have freedom of religion. Those concepts are pretty heavily ingrained into our minds.
- Those in new democracies, however, may not see it that way.
- They may uphold certain “rights” as long as you are a certain religion.
- It may be very difficult for those who have spent generations bowing to those with power to think that “voting” could possibly make a difference.
- They may unanimously agree on many things that we would think are very immoral.
- Is it always a good thing to promote democracy as Christians? Is democracy perfect? Do we need to consider changing people’s hearts and minds as well as their government?
- I heard reports just this morning that he was going to be freed.
- 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.
- It sounds like they may try to bring the case up again when they have more information.
- He was also moved from his current prison/jail conditions (which are reportedly very poor) to a higher security prison for Taliban prisoners. It is hoped that he would be safer there after having his life threatened by inmates at the previous prison.
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