The Afghan Dilemna

So what do you do if your name is Abdul ahman, and you just don’t believe? Supposedly, according at least to Islamic Sharia law, you are suppossed to die. And so it goes that Mr. Rahman, at 41 years of age now a Christian for some twenty six years, having converted from Islam at the age of 26, may be put to death in about two months, depending on the verdict of the Afghan Islamic Courts. One Islamic judge and scholar was adamant-he should be beheaded-and was unapologetic about the matter.

Hamid Karzai could of course intervene,and has intimated that he may well do this, but he would be walking a thin line in tryig to do so in such a way as to not offend the Islamic imams, and their numerous followers of the very conservative and traditionally oriented country. At the same time a diplomatic solution seems the only way to keep from driving a wedge between him and the Bush Administration-or more to the point, Bush and his right wing conservative Christian allready eroded base.

I think we might be seeing yet anotehr fiasco similar to the Danish cartoon controversy. The Taliban is still very much a force to be reckoned with in the country as a whole, in fact evrywhere outside of the capitol city of Kabul. Some even hold the Taliban are as yet atually the de facto rulers of the country, and are a significant, if ot the main, beneficiaries of the resurgent and malignant opium trade, ninety percent of which is said to have origniated from that sorrowful nation.

And Bin Laden, of course, yet lurks in the shadows, if not as an actual presence, a least as an all enveloping influence.

If all this is true, then this business seems like another tailor made controversy. It is a rarity for any Muslim to convert to any religion, in fact it is all but unheard of. In all of Afghanistan, there are few non-Muslims, just a reative handful of Indian born Sikhs and Hindus. Now this guy comes out of the woodwork, and is remarkably unrepentant about his conversion to his stated belief in “The Trinity”, and in Christ as the sacrificial “Son of God” though at the same time he professes belief in Alah as the one true God. He has been, in fact, manifestly determined. So where exactly did he come from. And why?

Understand, I am not in the least bit questioning his sincerity, but I am wondering at the timing of his arrest, and his impending trial and eventual sentence, whatever that might turn out to be. There have been hints he may be found to be mentally incompetent, and so unfit to stand trial, and so may be sentenced to an asylum, to prison, or exile. I guess thereis also a chance he might be offerred the opportunity to repudiate his Christian adopted religion, but I would imagine that is an outside possibiliy at best.

Still, whatever avenue of escape is presented him, this has to be accepted, theoretically, in order to keep the peace, by the immams and their followers. If he is offerred this out, that could to at least some degree defuse Karzai’s dilemna, but not Bush’s with his own base, who might demand that Bush reitierate his assertion that all religions should be respected, and protection, including the rights of the converted, particularly of those Muslims converted to Christianity. Not merely his rights to not be executed, but also his rights to continue livng in the country in peace and freedom, and allowed to openly practice his faith.

Of course, this would be playing right into the hands of those radical Immams who I feel are tying to drive a wedge between America and the fledgling democracy of Afghanistan. But at this point, a lot of these Christian conservatives probably don’t really care about that, in fact, it probably suits them just as well as it does the Immams.