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<DIV><FONT size=4><STRONG><FONT size=5>Afghan Christian Could Get Death
Sentence<BR></FONT></STRONG>
<P><FONT size=-1>By DANIEL COONEY<BR>The Associated Press<BR>Sunday, March 19,
2006; 6:48 PM<BR></FONT></P>
<P></P>
<P>KABUL, Afghanistan -- An Afghan man is being prosecuted in a Kabul court and
could be sentenced to death on a charge of converting from Islam to
Christianity, a crime under this country's Islamic laws, a judge said
Sunday.</P>
<P>The trial is believed to be the first of its kind in Afghanistan and
highlights a struggle between religious conservatives and reformists over what
shape Islam should take here four years after the ouster of the Islamic
fundamentalist Taliban regime.</P>
<P>The defendant, 41-year-old Abdul Rahman, was arrested last month after his
family accused him of becoming a Christian, Judge Ansarullah Mawlavezada told
The Associated Press in an interview. Rahman was charged with rejecting Islam
and his trial started Thursday.</P>
<P>During the one-day hearing, the defendant confessed that he converted from
Islam to Christianity 16 years ago while working as a medical aid worker for an
international Christian group helping Afghan refugees in the Pakistani city of
Peshawar, Mawlavezada said.</P>
<P>"We are not against any particular religion in the world. But in Afghanistan,
this sort of thing is against the law," the judge said. "It is an attack on
Islam."</P>
<P>Mawlavezada said he would rule on the case within two months.</P>
<P>Afghanistan's constitution is based on Shariah law, which is interpreted by
many Muslims to require that any Muslim who rejects Islam be sentenced to death,
said Ahmad Fahim Hakim, deputy chairman of the state-sponsored Afghanistan
Independent Human Rights Commission.</P>
<P>Repeated attempts to interview Rahman in detention were barred.</P>
<P>The prosecutor, Abdul Wasi, said he had offered to drop the charges if Rahman
converted back to Islam, but he refused.</P>
<P>"He would have been forgiven if he changed back. But he said he was a
Christian and would always remain one," Wasi told AP. "We are Muslims and
becoming a Christian is against our laws. He must get the death penalty."</P>
<P>After being an aid worker for four years in Pakistan, Rahman moved to Germany
for nine years, his father, Abdul Manan, said outside his Kabul home.</P>
<P>Rahman returned to Afghanistan in 2002 and tried to gain custody of his two
daughters, now aged 13 and 14, who had been living with their grandparents their
whole lives, the father said. A custody battle ensued and the matter was taken
to the police.</P>
<P>During questioning, it emerged that Rahman was a Christian and was carrying a
Bible. He was immediately arrested and charged, the father said.</P>
<P>Afghanistan is a conservative Islamic country. Some 99 percent of its 28
million people are Muslim, and the remainder are mainly Hindu.</P>
<P>A Christian aid worker in Kabul, who spoke on condition of anonymity because
of the sensitivity of the matter, said there was no reliable figure for the
number of Christians, though it was believed to be only in the dozens or low
hundreds. He said few admit their faith because of fear of retribution and there
are no known Afghan churches.</P>
<P>An old house in a war-wrecked suburb of Kabul serves as a Christian place of
worship for expatriates. From the muddy street, the building looks like any
other. Its guard, Abdul Wahid, said no Afghans go there.</P>
<P>The only other churches are believed to be inside foreign embassies or on
bases belonging to the U.S.-led coalition or a NATO peacekeeping force.</P>
<P>Hakim, the human rights advocate, said the case would attract widespread
attention in Afghanistan and could be exploited by Muslim conservatives to rally
opposition to reformists who are trying to moderate how the religion is
practiced here.</P>
<P>"The reformists are trying to bring about positive changes," he said. "This
case could be fertile ground for extremists to manipulate things."</P>
<P>Muslim clerics still hold considerable power in Afghanistan, especially in
rural areas where most women wear all-encompassing burqas and are dominated by
men.</P>
<P>Hakim said that if Rahman was acquitted, it would be a propaganda win for the
Taliban rebels, who have stepped up their insurgency in the past year.</P>
<P>In the months before U.S.-led troops ousted the Taliban in 2001, it claimed
Western aid groups were trying to convert Afghan Muslims. They arrested eight
foreign aid workers for allegedly preaching Christianity, but later released
them unharmed.</P><!-- start the copyright for the articles -->
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Associated Press</DIV></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>