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March 26, 2006

Afghanistan: The True Horror Of Islamic Laws

We reported earlier on the case of Abdul Rahman (pictured), the Christian man who was facing a trial, with a potential death penalty if convicted, by a Kabul court. The incident has caused international outcry, and anguish for those nations which have been bankrolling the reconstruction of Afghanistan. Since we covered the case, the situation has developed. Reuters reported on Thursday that even the leftwing New York Times described Abdur Rahman's case as "barbaric". Christians in America, who backed the presence of US peacekeeping troops have been outraged at the case.

The European media has condemned the trial. Germany's Die Welt wrote of Afghanistan facing "the dark ages of barbarity", with similar themes echoed by La Corriere in Milan, Italy, and by the Dutch newspaper Trouw, which wrote: "We have a duty not to cooperate in bringing back the burning of heretics at the stake." Denmark's Jyllands-Posten suggested that should 41-year old Rahman be convicted of apostasy, Danish troops currently based in Afganistan should liberate him and take him to Denmark for asylum.

Friday's Voice of America News reported that despite Afghan officials discussing the case, the judge in the case, Ansarullah Mawlawizadah, insisted that the trial would go ahead uninterrupted. Clerics have been demanding that the trial should go ahead. On Friday, some of these Mullahs were saying they would incite Muslims to kill Abdur Rahman if he did not return to Islam.

The same judge sentenced Ali Mohaqiq Nasab, a magazine editor to two years imprisonment on October 23 last year for blasphemy, merely for questioning the Sharia Law regarding killing of apostates. Nasab was freed on appeal on December 21. In the current case of Abdur Rahman, Ansarullah Malawizadah has said that if he returns to Islam "we will forgive him, because Islam is a religion of tolerance," according to AFP via Paris News.

Islam is so tolerant that it condones the killing of apostates. Though the only verses in the Koran which deal with apostasy do not outright condemn apostates to death, there are plenty of hadiths that do.

In the Women, in the Koran, this is written:

4:90 Except those who seek refuge with a people between whom and you there is a covenant, or (those who) come unto you because their hearts forbid them to make war on you or make war on their own folk. Had Allah willed He could have given them power over you so that assuredly they would have fought you. So, if they hold aloof from you and wage not war against you and offer you peace, Allah alloweth you no way against them.

4:91 Ye will find others who desire that they should have security from you, and security from their own folk. So often as they are returned to hostility they are plunged therein. If they keep not aloof from you nor offer you peace nor hold their hands, then take them and kill them wherever ye find them. Against such We have given you clear warrant.

This implies that apostates should only be killed if they fight with Muslims. In The Bee, Sura 16, verses 104 to 109, apostates are prescribed the "awful doom" of Hell, in the hereafter. The Bee verses do not advocate killing of apostates.

However, the Hadiths and sunna are a different matter. The Sunan Abu Dawud is clear on the fate of apostates:

Ikrimah said: 'Ali burned some people who retreated from Islam. When Ibn 'Abbas was informed of it, he said: If it had been I, I would not have them burned, for the Apostle of Allah (may peace be upon him) said: Do not inflict Allah's punishment on anyone, but would have had killed them on account of the statement of the Apostle of Allah (may peace be upon him). The Apostle said: Kill those who change their religion. - Sunan Abu Dawud, Book XXXIII, Kitab al-Hudud

There is no "tolerance" in these hadiths by Sahih Muslim:

Book 001, Number 0031:

It is reported on the authority of Abu Huraira that he heard the Messenger of Allah say: I have been commanded to fight against people, till they testify to the fact that there is no god but Allah, and believe in me (that) I am the messenger (from the Lord) and in all that I have brought. And when they do it, their blood and riches are guaranteed protection on my behalf except where it is justified by law, and their affairs rest with Allah.

Book 001, Number 0032:

It is narrated on the authority of Jabir that the Messenger of Allah said: I have been commanded that I should fight against people till they declare that there is no god but Allah, and when they profess it that there is no god but Allah, their blood and riches are guaranteed protection on my behalf except where it is justified by law, and their affairs rest with Allah, and then he (the Holy Prophet) recited (this verse of the Holy Qur'an):" Thou art not over them a warden" (lxxxviii, 22).

And here, Sahih Muslim relates that the prophet's approach to those who apostasise is to torture them to death:

Book 016, Number 4130:

Anas b. Malik reported that some people belonging (to the tribe) of 'Uraina came to Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) at Medina, but they found its climate uncogenial. So Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) said to them: If you so like, you may go to the camels of Sadaqa and drink their milk and urine. They did so and were all right. They then fell upon the shepherds and killed them and turned apostates from Islam and drove off the camels of the Prophet (may peace be upon him). This news reached Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) and he sent (people) on their track and they were (brought) and handed over to him. He (the Holy Prophet) got their hands cut off, and their feet, and put out their eyes, and threw them on the stony ground until they died.

Finally, a hadith from Sahih Bukhari shows how Mohammed viewed the best way to deal with apostates:

Volume 9, Book 83, Number 17:

Narrated 'Abdullah:

Allah's Apostle said, "The blood of a Muslim who confesses that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that I am His Apostle, cannot be shed except in three cases: In Qisas for murder, a married person who commits illegal sexual intercourse and the one who reverts from Islam (apostate) and leaves the Muslims."

Currently, Abdur Rahman is being kept in a maximum security prison on the outskirts of Kabul. He was moved there after after it became clear he was not safe in the police custody he was detained in earlier. According to today's BBC, his case has been returned to the attorney general, because of apparent gaps in the evidence.

Judge Mawlavizada now says that Mr Rahman appears "disturbed". The apostate's family, even though they originally reported him to the authorities for being a Christian, are asking for him to declare him "insane". As Mr Rahman has only been back in Afghanistan for a short time, the judge has said that there are doubts about whether he is an Afghan national or not.

Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's president, who originally said he would not intervene, has apparently been involved with the secret talks concerning the case. It seems that the Afghan regime would now prefer that this issue will go away. By declaring Mr Rahman "insane" they hope to brush the issue aside.

With about one third of the seats in the Wolesi Jirga, the Afghan parliament, being held by former warlords and Taliban leaders, the chances of having the apostasy/blasphemy laws repealed are slim.

But Afghan's constitution, which condones such treatment of apostates, is in direct contradiction with the International Declaration of Human Rights, to which the nation is a signatory.

On Friday, US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice said: "Afghanistan is in its evolutionary state as a democratic state. We will have to work to resolve these contradictions as they move forward."

Mr Rahman's case, no matter how it ends up, has become so politicised that its fallout have affected other individuals.

The Christian website Crosswalk cites information from Compass Direct, which declares that two other Afghan Christian converts have been arrested, though for their safety from fanatics, Afghanistan media have not disclosed their locations. Another Christian was badly beaten outside his house, and more Christians have had their homes raided by police.

The issue of Mr Rahman needs to be resolved for his own sake, and placing him in a mental institution, as has been suggested, will not be accepted by the Western media, nor those Christians who have so far supported George W. Bush's policies in Afghanistan. Mr Rahman needs to be taken out of Afghanistan under military escort, in order to stay alive.

But Afghanistan, and the Islamic world in general, cannot continue to lie to the world that Sharia Law is anything other than backward, primitive, and in direct contradiction of the most basic fundamentals of human rights.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at March 26, 2006 10:36 PM

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