Afghan man prosecuted for converting
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - 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 Associated Press in an interview. Such a conversion would violate the country’s Islamic laws.
Call me silly, but my understanding of the rationale behind going to war in Iraq and Afghanistan was that, among other things, Our Glorious Leader wanted to promote democracy and freedom. Granted, I was a History major at a liberal arts college, but my understanding of “freedom” means the right and ability to think and worship as you see fit…or am I missing something here? Didn’t we go into Afghanistan in part to rid the country of the Taliban? Hmm…it appears that, while we may have defeated the Taliban, their ignorance and intolerance has survived them.
I’m not silly enough to expect that Afghanistan, once liberated, would become Colorado Springs West and suddenly become a haven for Evangelical Christianity, but what has been gained by deposing the Taliban? If an Afghan citizen cannot openly adhere to and profess a religious belief that happens to run counter to the majority religion, what really has been gained? And what has Afghanistan gained? Yes, the Taliban may no longer be in power, but what, really, is the difference?
I’m not here to bemoan the oppression of a Christian or to support Christianity. I am not a Christian, but I do believe in freedom of religion. Yes, we succeeded in ridding (for the most part) Afghanistan of the Taliban. Afghanistan now has a (somewhat) functional political democracy, but it clearly still has a long way to go in learning the value of pluralism and freedom of thought.
The more things change, the more they stay the same, eh?
