Help Save The Life Of An Afghan Man Who Refuses To Deny Christ

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Heath

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March 20, 2006

Abdul Rahman, 41, faces death because he converted from Islam to Christianity and refuses to convert back to Islam.

His family accused him of being a Christian. During his trial last Thursday in Kabul, Rahman confessed that he converted from Islam to Christianity 16 years ago while working as a medical aid worker for an international Christian group helping Afghan refugees in the Pakistani city of Peshawar.

Read the WorldNetDaily article here - http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49345

"We are not against any particular religion in the world. But in Afghanistan, this sort of thing is against the law. It is an attack on Islam," Judge Ansarullah Mawlavezada said.

The prosecutor, Abdul Wasi, said he offered to drop the charges if Mr. Rahman converted back to Islam, but Rahman refused. "He would have been forgiven if he changed back. But he said he was a Christian and would always remain one. We are Muslims, and becoming a Christian is against our laws. He must get the death penalty," Wasi said.

TAKE ACTION

Please email President Bush and ask him to intervene to save the life of Abdul Rahman. Help get others involved in saving the life of this Christian who refuses to deny Christ. Please forward this to friends and family and ask them to send the emails.

Click Here to Email President Bush Now!

https://secure.afa.net/afa/afapetition/takeaction.asp?id=191

Also, please pray that God will intervene to save his life.
 
It's not the US government's job to enforce freedom of religion in other countries. Especially if freedom of religion only means freedom of Christian denomination.
 
Teresh said:
It's not the US government's job to enforce freedom of religion in other countries. Especially if freedom of religion only means freedom of Christian denomination.
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We are a Christian nation. We should back up any Christian both domestically or internationally. I signed the petition.
 
Countries should not force people to stick to religions. Are some people so insecure they punish those who don't adhere to the same religion? It's sad that people can't be Christians by choice because a government prohibits it.

I disagree that the US government should take a part in it. USA is not a Christian nation. It is a nation rich with diversity in all beliefs and creed.

However, US citizens who are Christians or are just concerned about liberities of others' right to worship in another country certainly can help. :)
 
Heath said:
We are a Christian nation.
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A fallacy rooted completely in your naivete. 22% of Americans identify themselves as something other than Christian according to the CIA. Keep in mind also that most who identify as Christians attend church infrequently or only on holidays.

22% of the people in America are not Christian. Only 19% of people in America are not white. The total number of non-white people is less than the total number of non-Christians. Why not just be a racist and say we are a White nation, too? Go ahead and deny Blacks, Asians, Native Americans, et al exist. You'll get mostly weird looks from people if you say something like that, but say we're a Christian nation and you think everyone's OK with that? Sorry, but it doesn't work that way.

Your statement might be true if you made it in Italy or Spain, but not in the US.

Since you don't count Mormonism or Catholicism as Christian, that number grows to 48%. I'm not going to bother stating any more details about that. 22% damaged your argument, 48% annihilates it.

Heath said:
We should back up any Christian both domestically or internationally.
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And why exactly should we devote our energy, money and resources to protect Christians in other countries when we can't even protect Muslims, Jews, Pagans and non-religious people in our own? "Freedom of religion" is "freedom of religion". It's not "freedom to be Baptist, Methodist, Episcopal or Catholic". We shant fight to protect civil liberties in other nations and have none on the homefront.

Heath said:
I signed the petition.
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That's nice. Good for you. No one cares. Bush won't read it. Chances are no one in his office will even hear about it.
 
That blows me away that people refuse to count Catholicism as Christianity, considering that historically that's what Eastern Orthodoxy and Protestantism are both descended from.

Anyway, on topic--Teresh, what about the UN's Declaration of Human Rights, and other things of that nature? Why does that not make this kind of persecution against international law? I'm not sniping, I'm seriously asking.
 
Heath said:
We are a Christian nation. We should back up any Christian both domestically or internationally. I signed the petition.
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You need to retake government course. U.S.A is not a Christian nation...

I wonder why you passed the high school government exam? Show me Constitution of the United States of America....

I do not see anything in freedom of religous....
 
Rose Immortal said:
That blows me away that people refuse to count Catholicism as Christianity, considering that historically that's what Eastern Orthodoxy and Protestantism are both descended from.
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Not even equal to Native Americans in North America?

How comes the forefathers never mention about Native Americans? What about black slaves who had lost their own religous that white masters with KJV bibles brainwashed them for new religous....
 
Rose Immortal said:
Teresh, what about the UN's Declaration of Human Rights, and other things of that nature? Why does that not make this kind of persecution against international law? I'm not sniping, I'm seriously asking.
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The UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights was a resolution, not legislation. Like everything else passed in the UN, it is not binding on member nations, it only states the opinion of the majority of the world.

"International law" is an oxymoron. There is no such thing as law outside of a sovereign nation, nor can there be laws which affect more than one sovereign nation as that would violate the very definition of sovereignty. The concept of an international law really means that the governments of two or more nations have signed a treaty stating that they will implement new legislation in their own country (or have done so already) which will do something specified by the treaty.

The Berne Convention is an international law, it is essentially the international copyright law. It is not actually a law per se, it is a treaty that many nations have signed which states that nations that have signed it (members of the Convention) have implemented legislation to allow copyrights on certain kinds of works to be registered by the government and to respect copyrights registered by foreign governments. Under the rules of the Convention, if I write a book you can't just take it over to Japan and sell it as your own, you need a license from me to do that. If you do that, I can file suit against you in a Japanese court for copyright infringement, even if my copyright is only registered in the US, Canada, France, Slovenia, Thailand or Germany.

The enforcement of such treaties (and the enforcement of laws that were crafted based on the texts of such treaties) is left up to the nation in which the violation occurs, not some giant world governing body.

The UN is a forum for diplomacy and international relations, yes, but it has no power at all except for that of its members, who variously do or do not enforce its resolutions in their respective territories. The UN was created this way so that nations can't bully other nations into compliance with its opinions... Remember that the UN was created because the National Socialists in Germany were bullying Europe, so it's logical that they created a body (the UN) where that wouldn't be very easy to do without losing your position of leadership in the UN.
 
http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html

Amendment I - Freedom of Religion, Press, Expression. Ratified 12/15/1791. Note

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
 
http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/lang/eng.htm

FROM UN DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Article 18
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

As stated before, it is not law, and would only truly apply to the countries who ratified it.
 
Mookie said:
Does it mention about Christian Nation?
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Mookie, you are correct that no official federal document (none that I know of anyway) declares that the U.S. is a "Christian" nation. That said, our Constitution protects freedom of religion. See direct quote of a few posts ago. You can follow the link to read the entire US Constitution at your leisure.
 
MorriganTait said:
Mookie, you are correct that no official federal document (none that I know of anyway) declares that the U.S. is a "Christian" nation. That said, our Constitution protects freedom of religion. See direct quote of a few posts ago. You can follow the link to read the entire US Constitution at your leisure.
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MorriganTait, :ty:

It is not for me. It is for Heath that he needs to relearn the government course as soon as he enrolls at liberal arts university... :thumb:
 
Mookie said:
MorriganTait, :ty:

It is not for me. It is for Heath that he needs to relearn the government course as soon as he enrolls at liberal arts university... :thumb:
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Hey, don't leave me out. I am learning too.
If Native Americans can operate casinos, why not Christians as well?
;)
 
Beowulf said:
Hey, don't leave me out. I am learning too.
If Native Americans can operate casinos, why not Christians as well?
;)
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Well, from a strictly legal standpoint, it is the sovereign status of the reservations that allows Indian Gaming. If Christians could create a recognized legal sovereign status in a geographic location, I am sure they'd be allowed to do it too - or, as in Atlantic City and Nevada, state laws allow really anyone to own a casino (except criminals, of course.)
 
Teresh--thanks for putting all of that into perspective. :)




Mookie said:
Not even equal to Native Americans in North America?

How comes the forefathers never mention about Native Americans? What about black slaves who had lost their own religous that white masters with KJV bibles brainwashed them for new religous....
Click to expand...

I'm not sure how you jumped from a discussion of medieval Christian history, when Europe and America hadn't even heard of each other beyond the Leif Erikson expedition, to this--your statement is not relevant to my original comment, which was:

That blows me away that people refuse to count Catholicism as Christianity, considering that historically that's what Eastern Orthodoxy and Protestantism are both descended from.
Click to expand...

There is absolutely no nexus between my comment and your response that I can identify.
 
I'm afraid we've lost track of the original topic:

Abdul Rahman, 41, faces death because he converted from Islam to Christianity and refuses to convert back to Islam.
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This man's life is at risk, and I prefer to pray for his deliverance rather than bicker off topic.

I don't know what else our country can do other than maybe offer the poor man asylum here in the States.
 
When it comes to REAL work being done to free, or improve the lives of prisoners of conscience, I look to Amnesty International. I have been working on several Amnesty Campaigns for many years, and they seem to know how to appeal to many foreign governments for humane treatment of prisoners, and frequently have been instrumental in arranging the release.

http://www.amnesty.org/actnow/

Urgent Action works

When Amnesty International issues an Urgent Action, we keep track of the case and pass on the latest information to our letter-writers. Although the news is not always good, in an significant number of cases we receive evidence that Urgent Actions do have an effect. Here are a few of the most recent examples:

"When the Urgent Action letters began to arrive, it was the first time the postal services entered our favela."

When Urgent Action letter-writers sent messages of support to a family of a man killed by military police in Brazil, it obliged the authorities to acknowledge the existence of their community.

"I have boxes and boxes of appeals sent on our behalf by Urgent Action letter-writers… I have no doubt those letters saved our lives."

Urgent Action appeals helped to protect Colombian human rights defenders Astrid Manrique and Yolima Quintero after they received death threats. Yolima Quintero added, "Urgent Actions are a powerful way to hold our government accountable… Your support is the oxygen that keeps us going."

"We cried and laughed for days and nights out of joy. We are so happy and want to thank everybody who made this possible."

The grandmother of Evgeny Gugnin, after she heard in April 2004 that his death sentence had been commuted by Uzbekistan authorities.

"Amnesty International’s support was like a candle that lit the darkness of the cell and left the spark alive and vivid in our souls."

Urgent Action letter-writers sent thousands of appeals to protect Syrian prisoner of conscience Riad al-Turk from torture and ill-treatment, and to secure his release.

"The appeals sent by Amnesty International members are effective and important - I have seen first-hand how important they are"

Sevim Yetkiner, a human rights defender in Turkey, attributed her swift release from prison in August 2003 to Amnesty International's campaigning.
 
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