Pope Benedict XVI has urged the president of Afghanistan to pardon an Afghan man who risks execution for converting to Christianity, the ANSA news agency reported Saturday.
The pontiff's request came in the form of a letter written by the Vatican's No. 2 official, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, ANSA said without citing sources.
A Vatican spokesman could not immediately confirm the report.
President Hamid Karzai has been under mounting pressure from foreign leaders to free Abdul Rahman, who faces a possible death sentence for alleged apostasy. Top officials in Afghanistan have said Rahman will be released soon, but clerics have questioned Karzai's authority to order his release and have warned of a possible revolt if he tries.
Rahman is being prosecuted under Afghanistan's Islamic laws for converting 16 years ago while working as a medical aid worker for an international Christian group helping Afghan refugees in Pakistan.
Well I had heard the court ruled the man to be insane and let him loose however the russians used to use a court decision like that to subject people to "therapy". Perhaps, with treatment this poor deluded wretch would see how "good" islam is and convert back.
I don't for a minute think islamists have been run off. I'm curious how they'll handle this exposure of islamic "tolerance" to the world. Blame christians somehow I'm sure.
Makes you realize why this country was formed in the first place. So we could have religious freedom, to believe whatever we saw fit.
All those pilgrims that came over here were running from that kind of system. It sucked so bad, they got on boats, spent months on the open sea, died. Still, they kept showing up.
Now, it's like the dark ages, or some strange time warp to know that other countries still have forced religion, or forced non religion.
So we removed the Taliban and yet this still happens. this proves two things 1. Islam as a relgion certain;y has a few problems There aint much more you can say about it.
and 2. Boy did we ever f**k up Afghanisatn in a bad way. We still have relgious intolerance, war lords running parts of the country, drug smuggling on the rise, a rise in terro attacks and a President that has about as much influence over Afghanistan as I do. This sort of thing would not fly in the West but it does in Afghanistan 5 years after we declared we would rid the counrty of these actions.
03-25-2006 05:43 PM
