Article in the Gulf News

I found this one in today's Gulf News (Dubai's main paper.) Read on:


Outcry over Afghan convert facing death
By Meher Murshed and Bassam Za'aza, Staff Reporters

Dubai: Islamic scholars yesterday said US President George W. Bush and other Western leaders should mind their own business and must not interfere in the case of an Afghan facing the death penalty for converting to Christianity.

Abdul Rahman, who converted to Christianity in Germany 16 years ago and returned to Afghanistan in 2002, faces death if he does not revert to Islam. He was arrested two weeks ago after his family complained to authorities.

Bush has stepped into the row, saying he would pressure Kabul over the "deeply troubling" matter, while the United Nations says it believes Abdul Rahman will be spared.

The case, the first of its kind in Afghanistan, has put the government in a dilemma, with Western countries on whom it depends for military and financial aid demanding that it respect the right of freedom of religion and spare him the death penalty.

Dr Ahmad Abdul Aziz Al Haddad, a renowned Islamic scholar with the Dubai Department of Islamic Affairs and Charitable Works, told Gulf News: "This is none of their [the West's] business ... Bush and the West should stay out of personal beliefs. They should not intervene in a purely religious matter of Islamic law [Sharia]."

Dr Al Haddad added: "If this penalty is carried out, it will protect many weak-willed people from deserting their religion. If the independence of the judiciary is among the bases of democracy, then it is unjust to interfere in this case. Democracy as practised by the West is fake because it contradicts itself in one of the most important bases."

Ahmad Al Qubaisi, a leading Islamic scholar, told Gulf News: "This President bombards thousands of civilians in Iraq. It is not strange that he defies the feelings of a whole nation, which considers a person who deserts Islam an infidel. Bush will immediately declare a man an outlaw if he deserts the US system and spies on America. This is a double standard by the US and the West. This stand is a crusade against the Muslim world."

The judge handling the case, Ansarullah Mawlavizada, said the courts were trying to find a "good solution" which could include persuading Abdul Rahman to revert to Islam. Abdul Rahman, 41, is in jail while his trial continues, with Sharia law, on which the Afghan constitution is partly based, ruling that conversion from Islam is punishable by death if the defendant refuses to revert.