What are we to make of the on-going crisis in Afghanistan over Abdul Rahman, the Muslim convert to Christianity? Supreme Court Chief Justice Fazl Hadi Shinwari, once told our National Public Radio that it is his duty as a judge to “behead” those who do not conform to Islamic law. Western nations are lodging their protests. Here is a case where American foreign policy and Afghanistan's independence collide. How will it be resolved?
Nina Shea, the director of Freedom House's Center for Religious Freedom, has this to say:
But this is about more than Mr. Rahman. This will be a persistent, recurring problem under Afghanistan’s sharia apostasy and blasphemy laws. The administration also needs to do more to ensure the reform Afghanistan’s judiciary. President Karzai must be encouraged to wrest it from the control of Islamists like Supreme Court Chief Justice Fazl Hadi Shinwari, who once told our National Public Radio that it is his duty as a judge to “behead” those who do not conform to Islamic law. Americans continue to give billions of dollars, and sacrifice their lives to support the Afghan government. It not only serves compelling humanitarian interests to use this leverage now, but it would be a betrayal of America’s deepest national values not to.
She is urging the U.S. to initiate pressure on the Afghan government. But the government is receiving equally strong pressure from influential Muslim leaders to resist such pressure. I see this as a genuine crisis in American foreign policy. It is not only Afghanistan about which this issue revolves, but Iraq as well. "Democracy" as a panacea, as a "cure-all" for what ails the Middle East, is apparently stumbling over the rock of Islamic theology and ethics.
The BBC reports "Mood Hardens Against Afghan Convert." The report includes such quotes as the following:
The Prophet Muhammad has said several times that those who convert from Islam should be killed if they refuse to come back," says Ansarullah Mawlafizada, the trial judge.
"Islam is a religion of peace, tolerance, kindness and integrity. That is why we have told him if he regrets what he did, then we will forgive him," he told the BBC News website. [Hmmm... peace, tolerance, kindness -- but only for those who convert!! Death to all others! That's a unique definition of 'peace, tolerance, kindness"!!]
"We will not let anyone interfere with our religious practices," declared cleric Inayatullah at Kabul's Pulakasthy mosque, one of the city's largest.
"What Rahman has done is wrong and he must be punished."
"What is wrong with Islam that he should want to convert?" asks an agitated Abdul Zahid Payman.
"The courts should punish him and he should be put to death."
"Who is America to tell us what to do? If Karzai listens to them there will be jihad (holy war)."
The BBC commentator explains:
Afghanistan's constitution, written in 2004, enshrines the country as an Islamic state under which no law can contravene Islam.
But it also protects personal freedom and respects international human rights conventions.
It is a deliberately ambiguous document which tries to paper over the cracks and contradictions of Afghanistan," says one Afghan law professor privately.
But now the contradictions have risen to the surface. [Yes, exactly. See my post for March 23, 2006)