Pray for our brother in Christ.
Posted on March 26th, 2006 by Adam Greenwood
An Afghan gentleman who quietly converted to Christ faces execution by the authorities. Pray for him, and his country.
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16 Responses to “Pray for our brother in Christ.”
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Apparently, such prayers have worked. The Afghan court dismissed the case against this man today.
Adam Greenwood–I agree this man needs and deserves our prayers, as does his country; however, are you not troubled by the results the American government has apparently left in its wake in Afghanistan, and quite possibly to follow in Iraq–both of which premise their constitutional form of government under Islamic Law? This is so foreign to some ideas in LDS and American political thought so aptly set forth in Alma 30:9-11.
Great news, Elisabeth! Thank you.
Guy,
I’m not sure it’s fair to blame the Americans for the situation that allowed this imprisonment (and the death threats) to take place. Afghanistan is undeniably a disfunctional national community.
However, the indident does raise some serious doubts about the neoconservative world agenda adopted by Bush and others.
Chuck Colson summarizes it pretty well:
“Is this the fruit of democracy? Is this why we have shed American blood and invested American treasure to set a people free? What have we accomplished for overthrowing the Taliban? This is the kind of thing we would expect from the Taliban, not from President Karzai and his freely elected democratic government.”
Anyone else remember why Afghanistan was in the news the first week of September 2001?
Seth,
I’m surprised that you would be against the will of the people just because the country doesn’t follow US morals. I think democracy is the best form of government, especially a Constitutional Republic. But its never going to be perfect and I think we see this outcome of this case as a refutation of your and Chuck’s position. Clearly pre-Bush this man would have been executed, and probably without much fanfare as well. I guess Bush has changed that part of the world for the better. But even if they took another 100 years to get to where we are, they would have done it 130 years faster than we did.
Based on the report I read, this man should plan to head to the American embassy as soon as he’s released from custody and ask for asylum in the United States.
He clearly seems to fit the criteria–a well-founded fear of persecution in his native country, based upon religion (one of the grounds specifically set forth in the statute), which persecution is either carried out by the government or by forces which the government is unwilling or unable to control.
The “unable to control” even gives us an out if Karzai were to claim embarrassment if the US granted the man asylum.
I’m really glad you guys suggested this prayer for this man. My heart has gone out to him. We are so protected here, I’ve wondered if I would indeed die for my faith.
We had to go into Afganistan and we should not be supporting a regime in any country that doesn’t allow freedom of religion. I recognize that it’s possible that we do, but we shouldn’t.
No Heli,
I’m primarily a political realist. I do not think that democracy is always the best solution for each situation.
I believe that democracy is the best long-term goal and is probably the only sustainable government form. But that’s in the long-term.
In the short term, democracy can be a disasterous choice. I’ve seen too many totalitarian systems overthrown and the people immediately shoved into a democratic paradigm that they had no idea how to live under.
The result was insurrection, military coups, upheaval, civil war, organized crime lords, and anarchy. Believe me, anarchy is far, FAR worse than any dictator. More people die, more people are abused, more people starve. Things were far worse in Russia during the Russian civil war, than they were under any of the post World War II dictators.
So no, I think democracy has been an exceedingly bad form of government for some situations. For democracy to work, people have to trust the system and people have to have the required civic virtue. Otherwise, you can hold all the elections you want and it won’t make any sort of positive change in the country. You’ll just have an endless cycle of corrupt elected officials followed by military coups, followed by military dictators, followed by corrupt elected officials, ad nauseum (that’s exactly what has been happening with Nigeria and Pakistan ever since the British left).
The US is trying to disengage from Afghanistan as quickly as possible because our military is too weak to sustain both the Afghans and the Iraqis, and still meet the need to keep places like Korea and the Taiwan Straits safe. Premature and rushed democracy in Afghanistan is a good excuse for us to claim success with the Afghans and get the heck out of Dodge before the whole country collapses into warlord/crime-lord rule, Iran-style clerical rule, or even civil war.
If you’re going to take charge of a poverty-stricken, uneducated people who have known nothing but war for the past 30 years, you have to be prepared to rule with an iron fist until things have stabilized. You have to play parent until the infrastructure exists for the Afghans to stand on their own. Things in Afghanistan, in so many ways, have not reached that point.
I think in about 10 years of commitment, we could have done it. Once we intervened in Iraq, those chances dropped dramatically. I’m not optimistic about Afghanistan’s chances for real democracy right now. If we’re lucky, we’ll get a friendly dictator like Pakistan’s Mussharaf. If not, we’ll end up with a totalitarian nutcase like Korea, or a clerical nutcase like the old Taliban. If we’re really unfortunate, we’ll have a civil war.
One of these days, Americans are going to have to realize that we can’t just drop a few hundred tons of smart bombs, make a few pretty speeches, wave a flag, and expect the world’s problems to go away.
But even if they took another 100 years to get to where we are, they would have done it 130 years faster than we did.
Given that most Americans were far more free 230 (or even 130) years ago than today, I don’t quite see how this comparison is meaningful.
Democracy in Afghanistan is a failure! If only they were as good as we in America! After all, here in our perfectly just country, no one has ever been persecuted or killed for their religious beliefs.
It’s a rocky start for a young democracy, but the fact that he is being released says a lot. Is there anyone who would have expected as much from the Taliban? Progress may be slow, but it is progress.
He was released due to external international pressure.
If Europe and the US had ignored the situation, he would have been executed. The fact he was released says absolutely nothing about the government of Afghanistan.
Furthermore, democracy typically requires societal, economic and political stability to flourish. Afghanistan has none of these things yet.
Guy (#2), as with the beginnings of our own country which left in place such reprehensible practices as slavery, sometimes the best one can get isn’t up to the very standards one aims for. It will take time to bring liberal values to the Islamic world.
Certainly I decry the lack of religious liberty in the middle east. But the question is how best to provide it for the people.
Those who want all or nothing almost always end up with nothing.
From one of the news articles: “Rahman was being prosecuted for converting to Christianity 16 years ago while working as a medical aid worker for an international Christian group helping Afghan refugees in Pakistan. He was arrested last month after police discovered him with a Bible.”
This raises questions: if he became a Christian 16 years ago, why wasn’t he arrested and executed under the Taliban ? Did he keep his conversion secret for 16 years? Did he just recently decide to come out of the closet?
In 1990, the Soviet-backed puppet government ruled Afghanistan. That government fell in 1992, civil war ensued, and the Taliban effectively came to power in 1996.
There must be more to his story.
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If you want to read something scary about religious persecution in the Peoples Republic of Kalifornia, read how the San Fran Board of Supervisors (their city council) issued an official condemnation of an Evangelical Youth conference this past weekend:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/03/25/MNG6OHU6RR1.DTL
What hypocrites. Freedom of religion, freedom of belief, freedom of expression…. for everyone except those who disagree with us.
Actually, he was turned into the authorities by his family.
Maybe there was a particularly bad dinner table conversation or something …
Update: He was flown to Italy after being granted asylum.