March 27, 2006

Abdul Rahman Released

CNN is flying a banner saying Abdul has been released from custody.

Developing...

FOXNEWS as well.

It was reported today that Rahman would seek safety outside Afghanistan. No word yet on what country, if any, he has been moved to.

UN via The TimesAdrian Edwards, a UN spokesman in Kabul, said that he expected that one of the countries interested in a peaceful solution to the case would give refuge to 41-year-old Mr Rahman.

Ok, found the AP original Story and it says that Mr. Rahman was released just outside of Kabul. Hopefully this is a somewhat of a ruse and he was met there and taken to safety.

AP via Yahoo News : 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."

Does I don't know mean long gone? Does outskirts mean at the airport? It's possible the county that takes him may be a bit skittish about going public. I would hate to think of the other possibilities.


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March 26, 2006

Abdul Rahman May be Freed

To follow up on Blutos earlier post, CNN is flying a banner this morning(story up) saying western diplomats expect Rahman will be released today. However they are also reporting that Rahman has been moved to Prison. And pope Pope Benedict XVI has formally requested his release. My concern is both that he may be executed and if not his safety upon release. Muslim clerics have called for the people to quote, “Pull him into pieces!”. Rahman remains steadfast in his faith.

Rahman told the Rome daily La Repubblica Via CNN :"I am serene. I have full awareness of what I have chosen. If I must die, I will die, Somebody a long time ago did it for all of us.”
Many nations, Christian and Secular have done much for the Muslims in Afghanistan. Your freedom is our cause. As your friends we have seen and taken pity on this man. As a favor and gesture of goodwill I ask that you ensure his safety and free transport to exile to Rome. Deport him if you do not desire his presence and surely his children should be with their Father. IÂ’ve heard quotes from Afghanistan like this one.
Via The Volokh Consiracy : "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.

Eugene Volokh Add this:

This is telling evidence, it seems to me, that there is something very wrong in Islam today, and not just in some lunatic terrorist fringe. Doubtless many, I would hope most, Muslims would not endorse executing converts.

Christians are and have been very good brothers to the people of Afghanistan? Why then do you forbid us in your nation? Brothers should stand close to one another and sometimes correct the other. We hear your complaints and are trying to help. Now we ask the same from you.

I pray for Adbdul RahmanÂ’s safe release. IÂ’m not Catholic but I appreciate the work they are doing. Their help gives me some hope. They have a good track record in these things.

Update : ABCNEWS is reporting the case has been dismissed due to "problems" with the evidence. and Rahman will be relased soon.

Others: Michelle Malkin, Captain's Quarters, Jihad Watch and The Anchoress.


more...

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March 22, 2006

Everyone Has A Price

Maybe I'm just a hard-headed realist, but, saving the life of Abdul Rahman, the Christian on trial in Afghanistan for converting, should be relatively easy.

Of course, hard-headed realism died out in terms of diplomacy a long, long time ago. All things diplomatic now have to be nuanced and introduced into formal language for one country to tell another country it's not happy with the latter's action on a particular subject.

Screw all that. Bush should explain to Karzai in no uncertain terms that if Abdul Rahman is put to death for becoming a member of "The People of the Book" then:

All U.S. forces will be extricated from the country at once.

All diplomatic ties will be severed.

All U.S. monetary aid (our tax dollars), will cease. Enjoy your poppies.

All U.S. forces extricated, all diplomatic ties, and all U.S. monetary aid (our tax dollars) will be used to overthrow the mullochracy in Iran.

Will it happen? No, of course not. more...

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Abdul Rahman Update


As international pressure increases on Afghanistan the case of Abdul Rahman has become a front page example the cult like “threat of death” to those who leave Islam. Today Jawa Report co-blogger Richard at Hyscience has a good post and urges the we keep up the pressure.

Richard at Hyscience : Please note action items in extended post! There are many times that the blogosphere steps forward and takes a community stand on an important issue. Saving the life of Abdur Rahman calls for such a stand, and it appears that the blogosphere is beginning to step up to the plate to do exactly that.
The now increasing international pressure has caused Afghanistan to search for a face saving way to release Abdul. If you ask me calling the man crazy does not save much face.
AP via Yahoo News : But prosecutor Sarinwal Zamari said questions have been raised about his mental fitness.

"We think he could be mad. He is not a normal person. He doesn't talk like a normal person," he told The Associated Press.

Moayuddin Baluch, a religious adviser to President Hamid Karzai, said Rahman would undergo a psychological examination.

"Doctors must examine him," he said. "If he is mentally unfit, definitely Islam has no claim to punish him. He must be forgiven. The case must be dropped."
A Western diplomat in Kabul and a human rights advocate — both of whom spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter — said the government was desperately searching for a way to drop the case because of the reaction it has caused.

While that may result in his release it’s a piss poor way of doing business. I call on Afghanistan to release Mr. Rahman immediately and stop all this “He’s a nut” nonsense. Mr. Rahman was born a Muslim and raised as such. If, when he comes of age, he cannot convert that is not much “Freedom of Religion” now is it?

Past Jawa Report coverage here and here and here too.

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March 21, 2006

Why Don't You Die?

That was the question this young ladyÂ’s Father-In-Law asked her. Eleven year old Gulsoma is tougher than the culture that traded her as a four year old bride. Please read Kevin SitesÂ’ article on young Gulsoma from Afghanistan and Kevin provides a link where support for this brave young lady can be sent. As you can see from the picture of her to the right she has suffered much.

Gulsoma via Kevin Sites at YahooÂ’s hotzone blogs : "When I was three years old my father died, and after a year my mother married again, but her second husband didn't want me," says Gulsooma. "So my mother gave me away in a promise of marriage to our neighbor's oldest son, who was thirty."
"They beat me with electric wires," she says, "mostly on the legs. My father-in-law told his other children to do it that way so the injuries would be hidden. He said to them, 'break her bones, but don't hit her on the face.'"
Disgusting! It’s very important that this poor young girl never falls back into the hands of her “family” where this abuse occurred. Too often I must post horrid stories from a culture where women are treated as property to be traded, worked and abused. Too often the abusers quote to teachings of Islam as where they determined that women are property subject to men. Once you view another human being as a piece of property, it’s a very short trip to the kind of treatment poor Gulsoma suffered. more...

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AFA Petition In Support of Abdul Rahman

Abdul is on Trial in Afghanistan for apostasy. His crime against Islam was he converted to Christianity. For that he faces penalties up to and including execution. Today the AFA asks that you sign a petition that will be sent to President Bush in support of Mr. Rahman.

Please email President Bush and ask him to intervene to save the life of Abdul Rahman. Help get others involved in saving the life of this Christian who refuses to deny Christ. Please forward this to friends and family and ask them to send the emails.

Click Here to Email President Bush Now!

Sincerely,
Don
Donald E. Wildmon, Founder and Chairman
American Family Association

Now I reckon the AFA is a bit more conservative than I. But there is no denying their influence. This case I feel is one Howie can agree with. One thought I had was, under the law in Afghanistan, what happens to all AbdulÂ’s property and his immediate family if he is executed?

Update : Michelle Malkin gives us more details on Mr. Rahman and his family here.. Just what I was looking for.

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March 13, 2006

Taliban Murders Four Water Treatment Workers

This morning the news was that one German and three Albanians in Afghanistan would be murdered for helping rebuild the water system there.

Reuters : Omar's order was read by telephone late on Sunday to a Reuters reporter at the border town of Spin Boldak, in Kandahar province.
"These people had come to Afghanistan at America's behest, therefore they should be sentenced to death," Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf quoted the order as saying.
Earlier on Sunday, Yousuf had said four Albanians and four Afghans were being held.
But he later said the four Afghans, two of them drivers, had been released, and identified the foreigners as three Albanians and a German.
Shortly afterward I see news that these men were Murdered and their bodies dumped along the road accounding to Taliban “spokesman” terrorist Qari Mohammed Yousef.
BBC : The Taleban spokesman said the four foreigners had been shot dead.
"We will kill any one who is helping the Americans," he told the BBC.
One of the freed Afghans said they had been stopped by a group of 20 men dressed as police as they left Helmand for Kabul on Saturday morning.
"They tied our hands and feet and blindfolded us," the man, who did not wish to be named, told the BBC.
"They took the Albanians away from us to another location. We heard firing and the Albanians screaming. We couldn't see any thing because our eyes were closed."
Ecolog, the company the men worked for, is a German firm that treats dirty water at US and Afghan army bases.
Yes purifying water is an offense worthy of such a sentence by a one eyed no longer in power madman. Of course this is an attempt by the Taliban to show they have power to steal a bit of legitimacy by fear. Maybe if old one eye had actually thought about the welfare of the people of Afghanistan rather than looking for the next Budda to blow up he would not find himself committing murder for attention. Wait a minute, of course he would be that's what they do.

Hat Tip : Derek

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