Western leaders step into case of Afghan Christian convert
Case highlights struggle between reformers and fundamentalists in shaping Afghanistan after ouster of Taliban.
Western leaders are speaking up loudly about the case of a man in Afghanistan who may be tried for converting from Islam to Christanity in 1990.
The
New York Daily News reports that President Bush said the US has influence in Afghanistan, and
he intends to use it in the case of Abdul Rahman, to remind the Afghanistan government about "universal values."
"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 said.
Canada joined the US, Germany and Italy – all of which have troops in Afghanistan – in protesting the charges against Rahman, who said he became a Christian while working for a US charity in 1990. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he had phoned [Afghan President Harmid] Karzai, who "assured me that respect for human and religious rights will be fully upheld in this case."
Police arrested Abdul Rahman last month after discovering him in possession of a Bible during a custody dispute regarding his two daughters.
The Washington Times reports that the case has proved to be
a particularly tricky one for President Bush, who has been traveling the country arguing in favor of "allowing nations to form democracies in their own style." He faced mounting pressure from Christian conservative groups to intercede in the case, particularly after the State Department had earlier issued a statement saying that the US government hoped for a "satisfactory result" of the case. Many US conservatives say that statement is too tepid.
"Americans have not given their lives so that Christians can be put to death," said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, an American Muslim advocacy group, also joined the call for Mr. Rahman to be released. "Islam advocates both freedom of religion and freedom of conscience," the group said.
Reuters reports that the international response to the plight of Mr. Rahman, who has been
jailed but not formally charged with any crime, drew a strong response from the judge dealing with the case.
"Afghanistan is an Islamic country and its judiciary will act independently and neutrally," Supreme Court judge Ansarullah Mawlavizada told Reuters. "No other policy will be accepted apart from Islamic orders and what our constitution says," Mawlavizada said, adding he was saddened by the international outcry.
But the
Associated Press quotes a Western diplomat in Kabul and a human rights advocate as saying the government is desperately searching for a way to drop the case. One possible way out: a state prosecutor says Rahman
may be "mentally unfit" to stand trial.
"We think he could be mad. He is not a normal person. He doesn't talk like a normal person," prosecutor Sarinwal Zamari said. Moayuddin Baluch, a religious adviser to President Hamid Karzai, said Rahman would undergo a psychological examination. "If he is mentally unfit, definitely Islam has no claim to punish him," he said. "He must be forgiven. The case must be dropped." The
Daily Times of Pakistan reports that Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah said the Afghan embassy in Kabul had received hundreds of calls and e-mails about the matter. The case also
shows the tension between the more Western approach being advocated by Karzai's government, and more conservative elements in the country.
In the government's first comment on the case, President Hamid Karzai's spokesman insisted that Afghanistan respects human rights. "This case was brought by his family to justice and is handled by the judiciary, which is independent," spokesman Khaleeq Ahmad told AFP. "But the government of Afghanistan is still committed to the respect of human rights". The Supreme Court is regarded as a bastion of conservatism.
The Washington Post reports that the "unfit to stand trial" comments may indicate that the Afghan government is looking for a way out of the situation that
will avoid conflict with its Western allies, and yet not undermine Islamic law. While it now seems unlikely that Ramen will be tried, the Post also writes that the case has also exposed a rift between the deeply conservative Afghan culture and "the foreign countries that have helped defend and rebuild it in the four years since the fall of the Taliban."
"This case goes right to the heart of the contradictions in the constitution. Is Afghanistan a democracy that respects human rights and international norms, or is it an Islamic country with an extremely conservative judiciary?" said Alex Their, a senior rule of law adviser at the US Institute of Peace. "The issues being raised will have an important impact on Afghanistan's ability to become a stable democracy."
Time magazine reports that even after the ouster of the Taliban, "much of Afghanistan's political life is
dominated by conservative Islamists."
The Abdul Rahman case highlights the limits on the freedom the US has brought to Afghanistan, and will raise the ire of the Evangelical Christian political base of the GOP. But Washington will also be aware that the current political order may be as good as it gets right now, in terms of an Afghan government allied with the West. And if the priority is saving Mr. Rahman's life and preserving his freedom, turning the case into a "clash of civilizations" battle of wills may not be the most effective strategy.
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