Sharia laws still present in Afghanistan

[Janus]

BBC News

An Afghan man facing execution for converting to Christianity "could be released soon", a senior Afghan government official has said.
The official told the BBC a special government meeting on the case of Abdul Rahman would be held on Saturday.

Mr Rahman is on trial charged with rejecting Islam. He could be executed under Sharia law unless he reconverts.

Many world leaders, including those with troops in Afghanistan, have expressed concern about the trial.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard said on Friday: "This is appalling. When I saw the report about this I felt sick, literally."

On Thursday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice phoned Afghan President Hamid Karzai seeking a "favourable resolution" to the case.

Mounting criticism

Austria, current holders of the European Union's rotating presidency, said they would strive to protect Abdul Rahman.
"We will leave no stone unturned to protect the fundamental rights of Abdul Rahman and to save his life," Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik said.

The Afghan government says it is up to the judiciary to decide Abdul Rahman's fate.

But, the Afghan judiciary is dominated by religious conservatives, and many feel it will be difficult for the president and the government to confront the judiciary, the BBC's Sanjoy Majumder in Kabul says.

The bigger problem confronting the president, however, may be that an overwhelming number of ordinary Afghans appear to believe Mr Rahman has erred and deserves to be executed, he says.
Nevertheless, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Thursday that he had received assurance from President Karzai that Mr Rahman would not be executed.

"He (Karzai) certainly conveyed to me that we don't have to worry about any such eventual outcome.

"He had already spoken prior to my call to the attorney-general of Afghanistan about dealing with the situation," he told a news conference.

'I am not an infidel'

Mr Rahman converted 16 years ago as an aid worker helping refugees in Pakistan. His estranged family denounced him during a custody dispute over his two children.

His mental health was questioned by the judge earlier in the week and on Thursday prosecutor Sarinwal Zamari said there were doubts about whether he was fit to stand trial under Sharia law.

But Mr Rahman told the court: "They want to sentence me to death and I accept it, but I am not a deserter and not an infidel. I am a Christian which means I believe in the Trinity."

Observers say executing a converted Christian would be a significant precedent as a conservative interpretation of Sharia law in Afghanistan.

Mr Rahman's is thought to be Afghanistan's first such trial, reflecting tensions between conservative clerics and reformists.

[Janus]

BBC News

Increasing international pressure over the case of Christian convert Abdul Rahman is forcing the Afghan government to play a careful balancing act between its Western allies and religious conservatives at home.

Under the interpretation of Islamic Sharia law on which Afghanistan's constitution is based, Mr Rahman faces the death penalty unless he reconverts to Islam.

"The Prophet Muhammad has said several times that those who convert from Islam should be killed if they refuse to come back," says Ansarullah Mawlafizada, the trial judge.

"Islam is a religion of peace, tolerance, kindness and integrity. That is why we have told him if he regrets what he did, then we will forgive him," he told the BBC News website.

'Deserves it'

The judge's comments are one indication of why President Hamid Karzai, who already has a reputation for being pro-Western, faces some difficult choices.

The president has yet to comment publicly on the trial but statements put out by his office point out that, while the government respects human rights and personal freedom, the country has an independent judicial system.
In practice, it is even more complicated.

The Afghan judiciary is dominated by religious conservatives, many with strong religious ties or backgrounds.

Many feel it will be difficult for the president and the government to confront the judiciary.

But the bigger problem confronting the president is that an overwhelming number of ordinary Afghans appear to believe Mr Rahman has erred and deserves to be executed.

At Friday prayers in mosques across the Afghan capital, the case of Abdul Rahman and the consequent international outcry is the hot topic of discussion and the centrepiece of sermons.

"We will not let anyone interfere with our religious practices," declared cleric Inayatullah at Kabul's Pulakasthy mosque, one of the city's largest.

"What Rahman has done is wrong and he must be punished."

Public mood

The issue has not reached the stage of street protests, as was the case recently during demonstrations against the publication in the West of cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad.

But there is little doubt that feelings run deep and can easily be inflamed.
"What is wrong with Islam that he should want to convert?" asks an agitated Abdul Zahid Payman.

"The courts should punish him and he should be put to death."

Few were willing to listen to the growing condemnation in the West.

"According to Islamic law he should be sentenced to death because God has clearly stated that Christianity is forbidden in our land," says Mohammed Qadir, another worshipper.


US President George Bush says he is "deeply troubled" by the case.

That cuts no ice with Mr Qadir.

"Who is America to tell us what to do? If Karzai listens to them there will be jihad (holy war)."

Western backers of the Afghan government are pressing to create a country that is a moderate and progressive democracy, able to turn its back on its Taleban past.

But analysts say they often forget that Afghanistan is a deeply conservative country rooted in tribal traditions.

"This is a Muslim country. The state is Muslim, people are Muslim 99%," says Judge Ansarullah.

"This is a very sensitive issue."

Afghanistan's constitution, written in 2004, enshrines the country as an Islamic state under which no law can contravene Islam.

But it also protects personal freedom and respects international human rights conventions.

"It is a deliberately ambiguous document which tries to paper over the cracks and contradictions of Afghanistan," says one Afghan law professor privately.

"But now the contradictions have risen to the surface."

[bunk]

According to dispatches there also prevalent in Iraq. I certain places US and Iraqi troops have agreements with the local clerics to keep it lawful. In return they are free to practice sharia law.

[LSD]

See Islamic "Tolerance" (http://www.revolutionaryleft.com/index.php?showtopic=47596).