|
Freed Aid Workers Admit Preaching Christianity, Taliban Treated Them Well
ISLAMABAD, Nov. 17 (IslamOnline & New Agencies) - U.S. aid workers held in captivity for more than three months in Kabul, admitted - at a press conference in the Pakistani capital Friday - that they had been partially guilty of the "crimes" for which they had been arrested by the Taliban in August, the British daily newspaper
The Independent reported Saturday.
"I did make a copy of a book with stories about Jesus in English and Farsi and gave it to a friend who had asked for it," said American Dayna Curry, one of the eight imprisoned workers for Shelter Now International. "We also showed a film about Jesus to some people."
"In Islamic countries, the issue of faith is a top priority," the 30-year-old Curry added. "They shared their religious beliefs with us and also asked us about our own religion - that was our defense."
Preaching any religion except Islam was a crime punishable by death under the Taliban regime.
Shelter Now is a German-based organization, but much of its funding comes from right-wing U.S. Christian organizations. Many supporters believe one of its aims is the conversion of young Muslims worldwide, said
The Independent.
"Either they were extremely naďve or they did have an agenda," said one Western diplomat in Islamabad of the foreign aid workers.
After their arrest, the Taliban showed footage of Christian pamphlets they found in the aid workers' house.
However, the leader of the Shelter Now Afghan operation, Georg Taubmann, who has been working with Afghans for 17 years, denied that they had been trying to convert Muslims to Christianity.
"We knew that if we tried to convert people under the Taliban, we'd be dead the next day," Taubmann said.
Asked what caused their arrest by the Taliban, the aid workers said they were imprisoned after having conversations about religion with an Afghan family that lived near the charity's building in Kabul.
"We often dialogued about faith," said 24-year-old American Heather Mercer. "They wanted to share about theirs [Islam], they asked us questions about our own."
The eight foreign workers - two Americans, two Australians and four Germans - were arrested on August 5. They were kept in a series of jails before their dramatic rescue by Northern Alliance forces, which captured Ghazni, 50 miles southwest of Kabul, on Monday. They were evacuated by U.S. helicopters Wednesday night.
The Taliban treated the eight relatively decently, said The Independent. They were well fed, allowed to sing hymns and hold prayer meetings and were given bottled water to drink.
The two American women emphasized that despite the chaos of their last days in Afghanistan, they were treated well by their Taliban captors, according to Radio Free Europe. They were further allowed access to a Pakistani lawyer, and prior to September 11, were able to receive brief visits from family members over a five-day period.
"The Taliban really had taken great care of us, even called us their sisters and even one jailer told us he loved us as sisters," Curry told Radio Free Europe.
"One Taliban guard said to me: 'I would die before I would let anything bad happen to you,'" said Curry. "They called us guests in their country."
"I don't have any animosity towards the Taliban," said Mercer. "They were doing what they thought was their job and they treated us with respect."
|
