Afghan Christian Convert from Islam Faces Death for Apostasy

Abdul Rahman is an Afghan, born and raised a Muslim who, sixteen years ago, converted to Christianity. For a great many Muslims, this is a huge sin, about the biggest there is. Turning one’s back on Allah, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be unto him) and the Koran carries a death sentence under Sharia law. Mr. Rahman is in an Afghani jail right now facing execution if his legal team and diplomatic pressure don’t save him.

Islam does not accept, any more than Christianity does, that other faiths are its equal. This makes it very messy for President Bush and others who claim that democracy will bring about liberty (clearly they failed Political Science 101). The overwhelming majority of Afghan citizens believe that, as per the Koran and the teachings of the clergy, death for apostasy is OK. If a democratic referendum were held, death for apostasy would be endorsed overwhelmingly. Switching from one faith to another may seem like swapping a Chevy for a Ford, but some people don't see it that way.

Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair both claim to be Christians (and Jesus of Nazareth must be astonished by those claims), and in the US, a huge swath of Mr. Bush’s support comes from people who also claim to be followers of the Nazarene Carpenter. If Mr. Rahman is put to death by the Afghan government as democratically chosen by the voters of that nation and as supported by the troops of Uncle Sam, John Bull and the rest, just what is a Christian to think?

A solution, which is odious in the extreme, is to have Mr. Rahman declared mentally unfit to stand trial. This gets him off the hook, and therefore the Christians in the West are satisfied. At the same time, the fact that he rejected Islam is proof that he is crazy to Islamic fundamentalists and may be a wedge that could allow for apostasy to stay on the books while death penalty isn’t actually used for it.

This is, of course, how the Soviet Union used to treat dissidents. They weren’t criminals, poor fellows. They were mentally unbalanced because they failed to see that the totalitarian dystopia of Marxism-Leninism was social perfection. They had to be made well in the basement of Lubyanka and in the camps of the gulag. What a wonderful lesson to teach Iran – dissidents from the mullahs’ ways are not criminals but sick people in need of thorazine, for their own good. Far better to get it out in the open – democracy in the West doesn’t mean that the majority can do as it will at the expense of the minorities human rights. Apostates are the acid test for Islam. One harbors grave doubts as to whether it can cope without many more cases like Mr. Rahman’s.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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