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Mar. 27, 2006 The Afghan government is doing what it can to make sure Mr. Rahman is not executed for his conversion to Christianity. Not because most Afghans, or the judges in Afghanistan, think he ought to be spared but because the Afghan government can't think of a good way to punish him without angering their western allies. Most likely some loophole will be found to spare his life. But there will be other Rahman's and this does little to address the larger issues. The west sees religious liberty as a given(at least since 1648) the muslim world does not. People who convert from Islam to another religion are viewed as apostates. In the more observant countries they can be punished with death, even in the countries governed by "secular" governments people charged with being apostates face frequent police harrasment, loss of employment, and/or property. So where do we stand? Do we embrace cultural relativism or do we stand up for something we consider a universal right? Islam has been claiming to be a peaceful, tolerant religion. Yet more and more the actions of the muslim world show that is not the case. Riots over cartoons, acts of terrorism, and killing people who no longer want to be muslims are not the actions of peaceful people. A religion that forces people to join, and forbids them to leave can only be called a totalitarian threat to the world. Muslims have a chance to show that Islam can have a peaceful tolerant side. Punishing converts to another religion is an idea that should have died with the dark ages. Sadly many muslims support punishing muslims who convert, as they see it as an insult to Islam for a person to choose another religion. Either a person has the right to choose their religion or they don't. This is a clash of civilizations, of values. Both can't be right. If a person does not have freedom of conscience to embrace any religion that he likes, then he has nothing. Mr. Rahman is just one of many muslims who are threatened for deciding Islam isn't true. The Afghan court told him if he returned to Islam his life would be spared. And I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't some attempts to bribe him back to Islam as well. Mr. Rahman clearly has no desire to return to Islam, so there are calls for his execution, the Afghan court questions his mental state as a way to smear him but not have to kill him.As is no sane person could possibly want to leave Islam. We should not expect religious liberty(as we know it in the west) to flourish in a culture where the idea of religious liberty means you don't forcibly convert or kill the infidels. But it is possible for cultures to change, ours did. And as democracy takes deeper root it is more likely that cases like Mr. Rahman's will become rarer. Perhaps that is just optimism on my part, but it is likely that things will change with the youth of that country. So the hope for the future, not to mention protecting our own country made the removal of the Taliban, and our work there worth it. ------------ Email Craig Chamberlain: craig_chamberlain@hotmail.com ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to TopNewsReports.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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