Abdul Rahman, the Afghani who faced execution because he converted from Islam to Christianity, has been freed. The court hearing the case dropped the charges, citing lack of evidence.
The relief is tempered by two facts.
The case was referred back to prosecutors, who could refile the charges if they address the court's concern. So this is a reprieve, not a victory.
In addition, the "lack of evidence" claim is a bit odd, considering Rahman confessed to the particulars.
Bottom line, there is nothing to prevent another convert from being charged and executed under the same law.
So this clearly is an effort to avoid the PR debacle of a conviction and execution, while refusing to address the underlying problem: Does the Afghan constitution rule the country, or does a particularly atavistic brand of Islamic law?
That fight will need to be fought sooner or later if Afghanistan is to become a truly free society.
Abdul Rahman, Afghanistan, politics, midtopia
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Humanity triumphs, but justice hedges
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2 comments:
So! We invade Afghanistan, allegedly because of their support of terrorism, in reality to build the pipeline which the Soviets had tried to construct. Our "Christian" clergy, who are all about money-grubbing, and selectively preach the message of Jesus, support the war, closing their eyes to its obvious hypocrysy. How many of them have applied their considerable political clout to save their converts in Afghanistan?
From an evaluation of your web site, you should consider joining us at veteransagainsttorture.com (no charge).
Wolfgang P. May
Intelligence Operations Officer 4th US Armored Division in Goeppingen, Germany; Advisory Team Leader, Republic of Vietnam.
http://thewararoundus.blogspot.com/
http://home.earthlink.net/~wolfgangpmay/
Thanks for the comment!
While I don't doubt we can have dubious motives in our foreign policy, the invasion of Afghanistan was justified by 9/11, and morally right as well because of the ongoing human rights catastrophe that the Taliban were perpetrating.
What we haven't done is put in the hard work of extending the central government's authority and establishing the laws and institutions that a free society needs. That is a real travesty.
And while I agree that many of our more fundamentalist clergy can be hypocritical as well as hyperbolic -- claiming "persecution" of Christians in this country, for example, when folks like Abdul Rahman face true persecution -- many of them did raise a cry about the Rahman case.
I'll check out your sites; they sound interesting.
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