Attention All Muslims: Urgent Help Needed (2)

OK, I suppose you all caught on by now that the story posted in my previous entry is half true/half fiction. It is of course the story of Abdul Rahman, the Afghani man who dared announce his conversion to Christianity. It was just my way of saying “if you walked a mile in his shoes…” to any Muslim guest who may read this.

Ironically, this man is called Abdul Rahman. This is a compounded Muslim Arabic name which translates to:
Abdul= he who worships the
and Rahman=Merciful, one of Allah’s 99 names in Islam.

I say ironic, because what this man faced from this supposedly merciful God and His followers leaves a lot to be desired in the way of mercy.

He was labeled an apostate (mortadd), rejected by his own family, jailed like a common criminal, sentenced to death, “diagnosed” with mental illness, accused of converting for financial gain, ordered to forsake his new faith…

No doubt you’ve read or heard a lot about his story. I was more interested in what the Arab Islamic media and public opinion was saying. Here is some of what I found:

1) Al Jazeera:
http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/BF30A354-324F-4A78-9E5B-F344E9D95CFC.htm
الأفغاني المرتد يبحث عن اللجوء في الخارج
The title of the article says: The Afghani apostate seeks to leave the country.

And: http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/C3EF90EC-5A90-4EC0-B8CA-AFEB0650FB03.htm
الغرب يرغم كابل على إطلاق معتنق المسيحية
The west forces Kabul to free the Christian convert
And: http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/7A5A8702-8972-4353-ADBF-BCEC796C53CB.htm
More pressure on Kabul in the case of the Afghani Apostateازدياد الضغوط على كابل في
قضية الأفغاني المرتد
Where we read:
وكان القاضي المكلف بالقضية في المحكمة العليا أنصار الله مولوي قال الخميس "نحاول معالجة هذه القضية بسرعة والتوصل إلى حل مرض" مؤكدا أن الإسلام "دين تسامح وعفو" متراجعا عن تصريح آخر قال فيه "إذا لم
يعد عبد الرحمن إلى الإسلام، فسيتم إنزال عقوبة الإعدام به طبقا للقانون".
The supreme court judge Ansar Allah Molawi said:we are trying to address this issue quickly to arrive at a decsision” He stressed that Islam is a religion of forgiveness and peace, and recanted an earlier statement where he said “If Abdul Rahman doesn’t return to Islam, he will be executed according to the law”

How nice of Aljazeera to keep calling Abdul Rahman an apostate, knowing full well what that label implies.


2) http://us.moheet.com/asp/show_g.asp?pg=13&lc=67&lol=1716279
وأفرجت السلطات الأفغانية عن الأفغاني بعد ضغوط مارستها الولايات المتحدة والغرب تحت ذريعة الحرية الدينية
The Afghan authorities set the man free, after continued pressure from the US and the West under the guise of religious freedom.

Wow! The guise of religious freedom?? The good people at the us.moheet don’t however say what the real motivation is. I wonder what they thought of the arrest itself, or of the fatwa that he deserves death. What were they? Statements made under the guise of a peaceful tolerant religion?

3) http://www.afghannews.net/index.php?action=show&type=news&id=371
Abdelsabour Shahin, an Islamist writer and academic at Cairo University, told the BBC that although Islam in principle enshrined freedom of belief, there were severe restrictions on that freedom.

"If someone changes from Islam to kufr (unbelief), that has to remain a personal matter, and he should not make it public," he said.


(hmmm! Would that be what is called toqiyya then? You know, lie just to save your skin, live the life of a coward?)

In other words, an apostate in a Muslim society, according to this view, forfeits his freedom of expression. If he goes public he should be executed, says Dr Shahin
He says there is an authoritative and unambiguous hadith (saying of the prophet) which calls for the killing of the apostate - "He who changes his religion should be killed", says Dr Shahin, quoting from the sayings of the prophet.
But Dr Shahin says the mere fact that someone goes public with his apostasy "amounts to fitna (sedition, or civil strife), he is thus like someone fighting Islam, and should therefore be killed."

(Right! He is causing trouble for Islam indeed. What happens now when more Muslims see this and want to know what attracted him to Christianity? Worse yet, what if more Muslims want to convert? Well, we wouldn’t be able to say Islam is the fastest growing religion anymore, that’s what. Nonsense, we kill him and make an example of him…after all, that’s what the great prophet said we should do…and he is the best role model we could follow. Freedom of worship?? HAH!)


4) http://global-war.bloghi.com/2006/03/27/afghan-apostate-loony-seeks-asylum.html
Rahman, 41, was arrested last month after police discovered him with a Bible

(gasp!! A Bible?!! If he was arrested with some opium, maybe we could let him go…but a Bible?? That’s criminal)


5) Now to my favorite little friends at AlArabiya.net. I don’t know what’s funnier, the articles or the readers comments.
http://www.alarabiya.net/Articles/2006/03/28/22355.htm
http://www.alarabiya.net/Articles/2006/03/19/22098.htm

Where many accused the man of accepting money to convert. What doesn’t make sense is that if he accepted money to convert, why would he welcome death for the sake of Christ???


In conclusion, I meant what I said…Attention all Muslims: Urgent help is needed! If you really mean what you say about the religion of peace and tolerance. About the mercy and freedom in Islam, speak up!! This man, and many others who leave Islam haven’t committed a crime. Why should they be sentenced to death? Why does the Islamic world go into hysterics about conversions, or even merely interest in other religions? Why is missionary work and proselytizing prohibited in Muslim countries, but Muslims have no such restrictions in Western countries? Why is it scary to let your people examine other faiths?

Urgent help is needed...not for Abdul Rahman, but for Islam. He no doubt has God's protection because he has put all his faith in Christ and welcomed death as a small price to pay. He doesn't need your help because he was promised:

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world John 16:33

and:

Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake. Luke 6:22

But it is your faith that needs your help.You keep saying that the world has the wrong impression of you and your faith...have you asked yourselves why? Have you taken a step back and looked at the image you are projecting?