Tuesday, March 28, 2006
March 28, 2006Checking the news online I found this - very interesting - article:
Christian Convert Released From Prison
By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writers
KABUL, Afghanistan - An Afghan man who had faced the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity has been released from prison after the case was dropped, the justice minister said Tuesday.
The announcement came after the United Nations said Abdul Rahman has appealed for asylum outside Afghanistan and that the world body was working to find a country willing to take him.
Justice Minister Mohammed Sarwar Danish told The Associated Press that the 41-year-old was released from the high-security Policharki prison on the outskirts of Kabul late Monday.
"We released him last night because the prosecutors told us to," he said. "His family was there when he was freed, but I don't know where he was taken."
Deputy Attorney General Mohammed Eshak Aloko told the AP that prosecutors had issued a letter calling for Rahman's release because "he was mentally unfit to stand trial." He also said he did not know where Rahman was staying but that he may be sent overseas for medical treatment.
Hours earlier, hundreds of clerics, students and others chanting "Death to Christians!" marched through the northern Afghan Mazar-i-Sharif to protest the court's decision Sunday to dismiss the case.
"Abdul Rahman must be killed. Islam demands it," said senior Cleric Faiez Mohammed, from the nearby northern city of Kunduz. "The Christian foreigners occupying Afghanistan are attacking our religion."
Several Muslim clerics have threatened to incite Afghans to kill Rahman if he is freed, saying that he is clearly guilty of apostasy and deserves to die.
Rahman was arrested last month after police discovered him with a Bible. He was put on trial last week for converting 16 years ago while he was a medical aid worker for an international Christian group helping Afghan refugees in Pakistan. He had faced the death penalty under Afghanistan's Islamic laws.
The case set off an outcry in the United States and other nations that helped oust the hard-line Taliban regime in late 2001 and provide aid and military support for Afghan President Hamid Karzai. President Bush and others insisted Afghanistan protect personal beliefs.
U.N. spokesman Adrian Edwards said Rahman has asked for asylum "outside Afghanistan."
"We expect this will be provided by one of the countries interested in a peaceful solution to this case," he said.
No country has yet offered asylum to Rahman, said an official familiar with the case who declined to be named because of its sensitivity.
Asked whether the U.S. government was doing anything to secure Rahman's safety after he is released, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington that where he goes after he is freed "is going to be up to Mr. Rahman."
He urged Afghans not to resort to violence even if they are unhappy with the resolution of the case.
The international outrage over Rahman's case put Karzai in a difficult position because he also risked offending religious sensibilities in Afghanistan, where senior Muslim clerics have been united in calling for Raham to be executed.
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Associated Press correspondent Daniel Cooney in Kabul contributed to this report.
Can't help myself but think about the influence of religion on believers and how it changes them. Just a thought but... if God really exists (no matter how you call him) then there are 2 possibilities:
- if he's really that perfect and good and merciful as some believe him to be he had died or just disappeared ages ago;
- if he is still there then he is everything but perfect, good and merciful.
When somebody is perfectly good wouldn't it mean that this someone would never kill another being, never hurt anyone, never did anything wrong? Wouldn't it mean that he left us our free will they so often preach about letting us decide what way to follow? Wouldn't it mean no prejudices, no superiority, no slavery, no killing in his name?
I am not religious, at least not in such a fanatic way. I do believe that there might be something larger than life, something or someone that's over us. But: as long as it doesn't cause any harm to us I just let it be.
I don't need to read holly books, go to the church or pray to know that I am not a bad person. I honour my family. I don't commit murder. I don't commit adultery. I don't steal. I don't lie. I'm not envious of others. I don't bear false witness against anyone.
BUT: I also don't force my opinion to others. I don't try to force others to do something they don't want to / that might be bad for them. I don't let others think and decide for me. I refuse to believe in anything that is harmful or looks like brainwashing. I protect my personal freedom. I don't let others change me. I respect others and I expect others to respect me. When I'm asked for help I do it unless it would cause harm to someone or I just cannot do so.
If there are people I cannot get along with I simply avoid them. Just that some of those can be a real pain in the ass and keep on bugging you until the patience is over. Then I do turn out to be the worst enemy. I know that some people are just not clever enough to see a first subtle hint that they are not welcome any more. But once, twice, three times and it's over. That doesn't mean it bothers me that those people are still alive. I don't even care if they lived next door as long as they keep the distance and let me be. This worked just perfectly back in Europe where I've never had any enemies just people who were my friends and most welcome and people who desperately wanted to be friends with me but were not accepted. I think it has to do something with the peaceful character of people or that they are simply clever enough to see it wouldn't bring anything killing everyone who doesn't do everything you tell them, who doesn't obey you like a puppy, who is just different from you. If everybody would do so manhood would become extinct within a couple of days!
Why does it hurt some people that not everyone is just like them? Why od they think they are superior to others (especially when they recieve humanitarian help from those oh-so-evil others they want to kill)? This has nothing to do with religion. You simply don't bite the helping hand. At least animals and civilized humans don't do so. Maybe we should stop helping them but then we would be just the same like them which we are not. We just cannot watch people dying just because of stupidity or false pride. That's what makes a difference between people and not their religion, nationality or whatever...
