Afghanistan Convert Case Continues To Have Legal Implications Worldwide

The divide between Western countries and many Muslim nations over the tradition of religious freedom was emphasized in the last few days in the wake of the last minute escape from Afghan courts of Muslim convert to Christianity, Abdul Rahman.

On Thursday, by a vote of 427-0, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H. Res. 736 strongly condemning Afghanistan's attempts to prosecute Rahman for abandoning Islam:

Resolved, That the House of Representatives-- (1) condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the enforcement of laws against apostasy; (2) requests the President to continue to work with the Government of Afghanistan to establish better protections for religious minorities, including converts to minority religions, and to enhance human rights protections in Afghanistan; and (3) calls upon the Government of Afghanistan, and especially President Hamid Karzai, to continue to conform Afghan laws to Afghanistan's international human rights treaty obligations, thereby protecting Afghan citizens who have converted or plan to convert to other religions from prosecution.

The Century Foundation today published an analysis of lessons learned from the Rahman episode about the tensions between Islamic law and Western law still faced by Afghanistan. It reports that President Hamid Karzai has presented the Afghanistan Parliament with a new slate of reformist Supreme Court judges. It is unclear whether Parliament will approve them. In a U.S. News & World Report column posted Thursday, Jay Tolson suggested that it was unfortunate that Afghanistan dismissed the Rahman case. He says: "Kabul has only put off its rendezvous with an inevitable constitutional dilemma.... At the same time, the dismissal robs the larger Muslim world of a golden opportunity for religious moderates to challenge an Islam-wide crisis of authority that allows extreme, literalist interpretations of Islamic law to go unchallenged."

Meanwhile, many other countries continue to impose legal restrictions on proselytizationtion and conversion. The Toronto Star today published an excellent summary of the law in ten Middle Eastern countries on religious conversion. And, according to Bos News Life, on Friday the Algerian Parliament approved a new law aimed at preventing Christian proselytization in the country. It imposes a 2 to 5 year prison sentence and a fine equivalent to $12,000 (US) on anyone who forces, urges or tempts a Muslim to convert to another religion. It also prohibits manufacturing, storing, or circulating publications or audio-visual material aimed at "destabilizing attachment to Islam." Finally the new law permits the practice of religions other than Islam only in buildings that have been licensed by the government.