Islam: March 2006 Archives

Via AP/Yahoo:

An Afghan court has dismissed the case against a man who converted from Islam to Christianity for lack of evidence, an official said Sunday.

The court, and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, had been under intense international pressure to drop the case against Abdul Rahman, who faced a possible death sentence for his conversion.

No mention in the article about when and where he's to be released - in the meantime, they moved him to another prison:

On Sunday, he was moved to a notorious maximum-security prison outside Kabul that is also home to hundreds of Taliban and al-Qaida militants. The move to Policharki Prison came after detainees threatened his life at an overcrowded police holding facility in central Kabul, a court official said on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

But this isn't over yet.

Obviously, this fellow isn't safe in Afghanistan - in or out of prison. If they just shove him out the door into the bloodthirsty mob that clerics have pledged would be waiting for him, then the Afghan gov't has acted in no less a barbarous fashion than if they had carried out their original plan to execute him.

Someone needs to be giving Rahman safe passage to a country where he can be free from religious persecution.

Update: AP reports that others are concerned too:

A Western diplomat, also declining to be identified because of the sensitivity of the case, said questions were being raised as to whether Rahman would stay in Afghanistan or go into exile in a foreign country.

Additionally, it appears that they are using the insanity argument to smooth over the bloodthirsty clerics:

An official closely involved with the case told The Associated Press that it had been returned to the prosecutors for more investigation, but that in the meantime, Rahman would be released.

"The court dismissed today the case against Abdul Rahman for a lack of information and a lot of legal gaps in the case," the official said Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

"The decision about his release will be taken possibly tomorrow," the official added. "They don't have to keep him in jail while the attorney general is looking into the case."

Abdul Wakil Omeri, a spokesman for the Supreme Court, confirmed that the case had been dismissed because of "problems with the prosecutors' evidence."

He said several of Rahman's family members have testified that the 41-year-old has mental problems. "It is the job of the attorney general's office to decide if he is mentally fit to stand trial," he told AP.

On a side note, consider the outrage it would have sparked had this been a muslim prisoner in a western country and the book in the following quote had been the Koran:

He said Rahman had been asking guards for a Bible but that they did not have any to give him.

Update 2: Michelle Malkin has more here.

Via Reuters/Yahoo, here's a story about kites. Apparently, kite battles using metal and glass-coated kite string have caused injury and death in Pakistan.

Punjab Chief Minister Pervez Elahi has upped the ante on the use of banned doctored kite string, reclassifying the act as terrorism:

"Action under the Anti-Terrorism Act would be taken in case of deaths due to ... dangerous kite-flying string," he was quoted as saying.

Since it is now terrorism, some groups have rushed to distance themselves from the practice:

Some Islamist groups have staged protests in the past week after newspapers reported several deaths caused by kite-flying, denouncing the activity as un-Islamic.

Would that they were so quick to protest other less serious acts of terrorism, such as beheadings and suicide bombings. And it's an especially good thing that no one published a cartoon of a kite...

with apologies to Natalie Dee.

Update: Gateway Pundit on other banned activities.