APOSTATES FROM ISLAM - RECENT AFGHANI CASE THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG

Written by Paul Marshall, senior fellow at Freedom House's Centre for Religious Freedom, and author of Radical Islam's Rules: The Worldwide Spread of Extreme Shari'a Law.

The news that Abdul Rahman was given asylum in Italy, despite the Afghan parliament's last-minute attempts to prevent him from leaving, has drawn a global sigh of relief. But now is not the time to forget the issue.

The case of Rahman, an Afghan Christian tried for the capital crime of apostasy, is not the only one, even in Afghanistan, and is unusual only in that, for once, the world paid attention and demanded his release. But there are untold numbers in similar situations that the world is ignoring. Two other Afghan converts to Christianity were arrested in March, though, for security reasons, locals have asked that their names and locations be withheld. In February, yet other converts had their homes raided by police.

Some other Muslim countries have laws similar to Afghanistan's. Apart from its other depredations, in the last ten years Saudi Arabia has executed people for the crimes of apostasy, heresy, and blasphemy. The death penalty for apostates is also in the legal code in Iran, Sudan, Mauritania, and the Comoros Islands. In the 1990s, the Islamic Republic of Iran used death squads against converts, including major Protestant leaders, and the situation is worsening under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The regime is currently engaged in a systematic campaign to track down and reconvert or kill those who have changed their religion from Islam.

Other countries, like Egypt, that have no laws against apostasy, instead use laws against "insulting Islam" or "creating sectarian strife." In 2003, Egyptian security forces arrested 22 converts and people who had helped them. Some were tortured, and one, Isam Abdul Father, died in custody. Last year, Gaseer Mohamed Mahmoud was whipped and had his toenails pulled out by police, and was told he would be imprisoned until he gave up Christianity.

While there has been no systematic study of the matter, and many punishments are not publicized, it appears that actual state-ordered executions are rarer than killings by vigilantes, mobs, and family members, sometimes with state acquiescence. In the last two years in Afghanistan, Islamist militants have murdered at least five Christians who had converted from Islam.

Vigilantes have killed, beaten, and threatened converts in Pakistan, the Palestinian areas, Turkey, Nigeria, Indonesia, Somalia, and Kenya. In November, Iranian convert Ghorban Dordi Tourani was stabbed to death by a group of fanatical Muslims. In December, Nigerian pastor Zacheous Habu Bu Ngwenche was attacked for allegedly hiding a convert. In January, in Turkey, Kamil Kiroglu was beaten unconscious and threatened with death if he refused to deny his Christian faith and return to Islam.

Meanwhile, on March 21, the Algerian parliament approved a new law requiring imprisonment for two to five years and a fine between five and ten thousand euros for anyone "trying to call on a Muslim to embrace another religion." The same penalty applies to anyone who "stores or circulates publications or audio-visual or other means aiming at destabilizing attachment to Islam." Converts are not the only ones subject to such violence. Victims also include many Muslims who question restrictive interpretations of Islam. In traditionally moderate Indonesia, Yusman Roy is now serving two years in prison for leading prayers in Indonesian and Arabic instead of only in Arabic.

Abdul Rahman's plight is merely the tip of the iceberg. Like the violence over the Danish cartoons of Muhammad, or the Ayatollah Khomeini's demand that Salman Rushdie be killed for blasphemy, it reveals a systematic, worldwide attempt by Islamists to imprison, kill, or otherwise silence anyone who challenges their ideology. We need to go beyond the individual case of Abdul Rahman and push for genuine religious freedom throughout the Muslim world. Especially we need to push for the elimination of laws against apostasy, blasphemy, heresy, and "insulting Islam." They seek to place dominant, reactionary interpretations of Islam beyond all criticism. Thus, since politics and religion are intertwined, they seek to make political freedom impossible.

Source: Intercessors Network

PALESTINIAN CHRISTIANS FACE INCREASED PERSECUTION

Persecution is having such a devastating effect on Palestinian Christians that thousands are abandoning their Christian faith and leaving their homelands. In 15 to 20 years, experts anticipate that conditions will only intensify.

"My specific interest in the plight of Christians living in Palestinian society began eight years ago when I met a Christian lay pastor who, knowing that I was a human rights lawyer, urged me to investigate the human rights abuses directed at Muslims who converted to Christianity," said Israeli attorney and author Justus Reid Weiner.

"I knew nothing about this, but as I began to schedule interviews, I quickly learned that most of the Christian victims were reluctant to even meet me. If they agreed to reveal what they had suffered, they insisted that I refer to them by a pseudonym," Weiner explained.

The current statistics are alarming. "The Christian community in the Palestinian areas has shrunk to less than 1.7 percent. Nearly all the remaining 98 percent is Muslim," he said. The persecution is happening primarily within the Palestinian territories. Generally, Arab Christians within Israel are received and accepted without persecution. The Jewish believers and Arab Christians are having more and more brotherly contact. Arabs within Israel (about one million are Israeli citizens), are accepted as long as they live peacefully under Israeli government. (There are even Arab members of the Israeli Knesset.)

"Jewish people who are believers - perhaps 7,000 to 10,000 now, are mostly tolerated, although sometimes persecuted, especially by the ultra orthodox. The secular Jews (80 percent of Israeli Jewish population) may observe Passover and even close stores etc. on Sabbath, but they are not people of significant faith and usually do not care, and are usually more tolerant of the Jewish believers in Jesus than they are the ultra orthodox who want to control the country,".

However, the Palestinian territories are another picture altogether. "Bethlehem is no longer controlled by Israel, but by Palestinians, often hostile Muslims who accept traditional Christians who have been Christians for generations (Bethlehem's Christian population has decreased from 80 percent to about 20 percent according to recent statistics), but if a Muslim turns to faith in Jesus, he may be killed by his own family members. The evangelistic work is going forward, but has to be done very carefully, wisely and under the direction of the Holy Spirit," Weiner said.

Weiner has interviewed many of the Palestinian Christian victims. His findings reveal that certain pattern of abuses have become apparent. "The worst treatment is often 'reserved' for persons who leave Islam to become Christians," said Weiner. "Persecution is very hard to measure" he said. If nobody complains does it mean that there is no persecution. It could, but in the case of the Christians living under Palestinian rule this would not be a reasonable conclusion."

They live with in an atmosphere of intimidation and denial. This is particularly true of many of their religious leaders. Since Israel withdrew from the Palestinian cities and towns, it has very little influence over the way the Palestinian Authority and its' Muslim population behave and the religious persecution that follows is having a devastating effect on Palestinian Christians.

"I know of one church that has been attacked 14 times. The pastor was shot and left for dead. In this kind of atmosphere thousands are leaving the cradle of Christianity. According to my estimate, if current trends continue, only the relics and holy sites will be left in another 15 years. The Christian community in Bethlehem will cease to exist", Weiner said.

Source: Ginny McCabe, Crosswalk.com

April 2006