Christian Convert Faces Execution

KABUL, Afghanistan, March 22, 2006 — -- Despite the overthrow of the fundamentalist Taliban government and the presence of 22,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, a man who converted to Christianity is being prosecuted in Kabul, and a judge said Sunday that if convicted, he faces the death penalty.

Abdul Rahman, who is in his 40s, says he converted to Christianity 16 years ago while working as an aid worker helping Afghan refugees in Pakistan.

Relatives denounced him as a convert during a custody battle over his children, and he was arrested last month. The prosecutor says Rahman was found with a Bible.

Human rights workers have described the case as an unsettling reminder that the country's post-Taliban judiciary remains deeply conservative, and they have called on President Hamid Karzai to intervene. During Taliban times, men were forced to kneel in prayer five times a day, and couples faced the death penalty for sex outside marriage, for example. Reform efforts have been slow, say experts, since there are so few judges and lawyers with experience.

Earlier today, President Bush said he was upset Rahman is being tried for his conversion to Christianity. The U.S. State Department also said it is watching the case closely and considers it a barometer of how well democracy is developing in Afghanistan.

"We expect them to honor the universal principle of freedom," Bush said at a speech in Wheeling, W.Va. "I'm ... deeply troubled when I hear the fact that a person who converted away from Islam may be held to account.

"I look forward to working with the government of that country to make sure that people are protected in their capacity to worship," he said.

The United States will the Afghan government that it is making a mistake by prosecuting the case, the president said.

"We have got influence in Afghanistan and we are going to use it to remind them that there are universal values," Bush said. "We will deal with this issue diplomatically and remind people that there is something as universal as being able to choose religions."

A number of Christian nonprofit groups do humanitarian work in Afghanistan. Dominic Nutt of Christian Aid calls the Rahman case a step backward for the country, especially if Rahman is executed.