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"We
have got influence in Afghanistan and we are going to use
it," Bush said. (Reuters)
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KABUL,
March 23, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – US President
George W. Bush said the United Stats would pressure Afghanistan over
the case of an Afghan facing the death penalty for his conversion to
Christianity, with the UN warning Kabul of a rift over the issue.
"We
have got influence in Afghanistan and we are going to use it,"
Bush said in a speech on Wednesday, March 22, reported Agence France-Presse
(AFP).
"It
is deeply troubling that a country we helped liberate would hold a
person to account because they chose a particular religion over
another."
Abdur
Rahman, 41, was arrested last month in Afghanistan after his relatives
reported his conversion to Christianity to the police.
The
man, who converted 16 years ago as an aid worker helping refugees in
Pakistan, is now on trial and could face the death penalty if refusing
to revert to Islam.
The
US, which invaded Afghanistan in late 2001 to topple the Taliban
regime, has said it was watching Abdur Rahman's trial as a test of
democracy and religious freedom for the Kabul government.
UN
Rift
The
United Nations has also joined the chorus, warning of a rift with
Kabul over the issue.
Tom
Koenigs, the UN Special Representative for Afghanistan, said Thursday,
March 23, he was confident that the man would not be executed.
"The
case of Abdur Rahman would be resolved quite soon", Koenigs,
German, told Deutschlandradio Kultur.
Afghanistan
had signed up to human rights conventions, human rights were enshrined
in its constitution and the United Nations expected it to adhere to
those principles, he added.
The
Italian government summoned on Tuesday, March 21, the Afghan
ambassador to Rome to express its concern over the issue and
threatened to take the case to the upcoming European summit.
Germany
also condemned the persecution as "intolerable" and appealed
to Afghan President Hamid Karzai to save Rahman.
Adamant
 |
|
Mawlavizada
said if the man did not revert back to Islam he would get the
death penalty. (Reuters)
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Afghanistan's
Supreme Court, however, remained adamant on Thursday in the face of
mounting Western pressures.
"This
is a sensitive issue -- we are trying our best to handle it
quickly," Ansarullah Mawlavizada, the judge dealing with the
case, told AFP.
He
said efforts were under way to persuade Abdur Rahman to convert back
to Islam.
"We
are trying our best to persuade the man to convert back to
Islam."
He,
however, said that if the man did not revert back to Islam, "he's
going to receive the death penalty, according to the law."
A
Supreme Court spokesman has said that Abdur Rahman may be mentally
unfit to stand trial and would be subjected to psychological testing.
Prominent
Muslim scholar Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi said that Islam does not
execute the apostate who does not proclaim his apostasy or call for
it. Rather, it leaves the punishment for the Hereafter if he dies in
the state of apostasy.
Mohammad
Salim Al-`Awwa, secretary general of the International Union of Muslim
Scholars, stated that the Noble Qur'an did not specify a worldly
punishment for apostasy.
The
Qur'anic verses talking about apostasy only warned of a punishment for
the apostate in the Hereafter, he said echoing Qaradawi's stance.
"Although
we admit that apostasy is a crime, I doubt that the punishment
mentioned by some classical jurists in the books of jurisprudence for
apostasy is the capital punishment. I further doubt to include this
form of punishment as a legal punishment prescribed by the Shari`ah.
"I
am of the opinion that the punishment for apostasy is a discretionary
one that is wholly left to concerned authorities to apply in the
Muslim State," said Awwa.
