[Mb-civic] For Afghans, Allies, A Clash of Values - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

For Afghans, Allies, A Clash of Values
Case Against Christian Convert Puts Pressure on Karzai -- and on Bush

By Pamela Constable
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, March 23, 2006; A01

The case of an Afghan man who could be prosecuted and even put to death 
for converting to Christianity has unleashed a blizzard of condemnation 
from the West this week and exposed a conflict in values between 
Afghanistan, a conservative Muslim country, and the foreign countries 
that have helped defend and rebuild it in the four years since the fall 
of the Taliban.

The case of Abdul Rahman, a longtime Christian convert who lived in 
Germany for years and was arrested last month in Kabul, has also 
highlighted the volatile debate within Afghanistan over the proper role 
of Islam in Afghan law and public policy as the country struggles to 
develop a democracy.

Diplomats from several countries said yesterday that Rahman, 41, now 
seems unlikely to be tried or executed. Prosecutors in Kabul said he 
might be mentally unfit to stand trial, a sign that the government may 
be seeking to avoid confronting its Western allies without giving ground 
on Islamic law, under which conversion to another religion is punishable 
by death.

But the case, the first of its kind since the radical Islamic Taliban 
movement was toppled in 2001 by a U.S.-led military invasion, continued 
to draw protests from the governments of Italy, Germany, Canada and 
other NATO nations, at a time when NATO forces are beginning to replace 
tens of thousands of U.S. troops as the principal defenders of 
Afghanistan against Taliban and al-Qaeda insurgents.

It also put pressure on President Bush, who visited Kabul last month to 
show support for Afghan President Hamid Karzai. A number of U.S. 
Christian and conservative groups demanded this week that Bush take 
action, and one organization accused him yesterday of propping up an 
Islamic fundamentalist regime in Kabul.

"This is an extremely sensitive issue here and an extremely serious 
issue back home," Abdullah, Afghanistan's foreign minister, said in an 
interview yesterday with Washington Post editors and reporters. "Every 
time we have a case, it is like an alarm. These contradictions will not 
go away with one or two cases."

Bush, on a visit to Wheeling, W.Va., said yesterday he was "deeply 
troubled" to learn of Rahman's possible prosecution. "That's not the 
universal application of the values that I talked about" while in Kabul, 
he said. He stopped short of calling for the case against Rahman to be 
dropped but said he would work with Karzai's government "to make sure 
that people are protected in their capacity to worship."

Bush's comments were tougher than those made previously by 
administration officials. On Tuesday, a State Department spokesman urged 
the Afghan government to "conduct any legal proceedings in a transparent 
and fair manner." R. Nicholas Burns, the undersecretary of state for 
political affairs, said that the Afghan constitution "affords freedom of 
religion to all Afghans" and that the U.S. government hoped for a 
"satisfactory result" of the case.

The initial low-key response apparently infuriated Christian 
conservative groups. Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research 
Council, complained in a letter to Bush and Secretary of State 
Condoleezza Rice: "How can we congratulate ourselves for liberating 
Afghanistan from the rule of jihadists only to be ruled by radical 
Islamists who kill Christians? . . . Americans will not give their blood 
and treasure to prop up new Islamic fundamentalist regimes."

In another open letter to Bush, the U.S. Commission on International 
Religious Freedom said it was "the obligation of our government" to take 
action in the case. The group warned that in Afghanistan, there is no 
legal guarantee of religious freedom and the judiciary is instructed to 
enforce Islamic principles. "The door is open for a harsh, unfair or 
even abusive interpretation of religious orthodoxy to be officially 
imposed," it said.

Bush, a Christian, often talks about God, faith and respect for all 
religions, especially in relation to the war on terrorism. The White 
House has often portrayed Karzai as an example of a Muslim leader and 
ally who is working to hunt down Islamic terrorists and build a 
democracy based on the rule of law and human rights.

But Afghanistan is also a deeply traditional and tribal society, where 
99 percent of the 25 million inhabitants are Muslims and no Christians 
worship openly. It is a capital crime under Afghan Islamic law to 
convert to Christianity, and prosecutors and judges in Kabul initially 
said Rahman might be sentenced to death.

The country's 2004 constitution, which was heavily debated and rewritten 
by Afghan officials after it was crafted with help from U.N. advisers, 
is an ambiguous document that endorses international human rights 
conventions but also says that no law shall contravene the principles of 
Islam.

"This case goes right to the heart of the contradictions in the 
constitution. Is Afghanistan a democracy that respects human rights and 
international norms, or is it an Islamic country with an extremely 
conservative judiciary?" said Alex Their, a senior rule of law adviser 
at the U.S. Institute of Peace. "The issues being raised will have an 
important impact on Afghanistan's ability to become a stable democracy."

Although Rahman is the first Afghan charged with converting since the 
fall of the Taliban, Afghan courts have recently prosecuted or harshly 
criticized individuals for other alleged anti-Islamic acts, including a 
presidential candidate in 2004 who questioned the right of Muslim men to 
have multiple wives and a magazine editor last year who challenged the 
doctrine that conversion from Islam is a capital offense.

The Supreme Court's chief justice, an elderly cleric named Fazl Hadi 
Shinwari, has issued religious decrees against such individuals. Karzai, 
a moderate who in Afghanistan is widely viewed as having ceded the 
judiciary to Islamic conservatives, renominated Shinwari this week. 
Abdullah, who was not renamed to his post in a cabinet shuffle this 
week, said the Afghan judiciary was in serious need of reform.

So far, the government has not invoked the extreme punishments ordained 
by Islamic law, or sharia , such as cutting off thieves' hands and 
stoning adulterers, which were frequently carried out by the Taliban and 
drew international condemnation. But most Afghans view Islamic law as 
absolute once it is invoked. And despite their gratitude for U.S. 
military and economic support, many remain leery of Western values and 
associate Christianity with fornication and drunkenness.

Under sharia, a convert to Christianity "should be given time to think," 
said Abdul Aziz, a professor of Islamic law who spoke by telephone from 
Kabul. "What he has done may damage Islamic society, so he should change 
his mind." If he does not, sharia prescribes the punishment of death. 
"Then, even a judge cannot change it. It is like doing a coup against 
the government," Aziz said. Rahman's case was brought by a public 
security court, not a regular criminal one.

The case against Rahman is complicated by personal aspects. His 
conversion was denounced by his family in Kabul after he was involved in 
a lawsuit and child custody fight with his former wife, and he has been 
described as perennially jobless and mentally unbalanced. He converted 
in 1990 while working with a Christian aid group in Pakistan and then 
moved to Germany, returning only recently.

Comments made this week in Kabul by judges, prosecutors, neighbors and 
Rahman's relatives illustrated the strong emotional and religious 
feelings such a case can evoke. His father expressed shame and 
bewilderment at his conversion. Guards refused to let journalists visit 
him in a Kabul prison, and one said, "We will cut him into little pieces."

But yesterday, Rahman was briefly brought before the news media. 
According to a report by the BBC, he said: "I am not an infidel or a 
fugitive. I am a Christian. If they want to sentence me to death, I 
accept that."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/22/AR2006032201113.html?nav=hcmodule
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