Afghanistan: Christian Converts on Death Row

Continuing on the topic of religious freedom.

The New York Times recently wrote about an Afghan man, who has been in prison for months on apostasy charges. His life is hanging by a thread, as he is basically facing the death sentence. He is in prison waiting for his trial, but his defense lawyer isn’t interested in defending him until he returns to Islam.

Sayed Mussa became interested in the Christian faith after seeing some Christian aid workers risk their own lives helping his neighbor. He was touched by their compassion and later got the New Testament from another Afghan and decided to start following Jesus. There might not be many like Sayed in Afghanistan, but there are some. And what happens to them is of critical importance.

The constitution of Afghanistan guarantees people the right to practice their own religion.  But the Sharia law says, apostasy is punishable by death. Afghanistan as other countries depending on Western help are stuck. They definitely don’t want people changing religions, but they say they want democracy and human rights for all.

Politicians and advocates are putting pressure on the government to release Mussa. If they would just release him, the hardliners would be furious and the government shamed for obviously having double standards. And if he is given the death sentence and worse, if it is carried out, Americans and other Westerners might cut the money.

And here’s the thing. Christianity is a faith that states everyone’s equality and freedom of will. Democratic ideas and the right to change ones religion flow out of this. Islam on the other hand isn’t like this. Hence most Islamic nations have had autocratic leaders. Now that they want to embrace democracy and freedom, they have a dilemma on how to be Muslims in the midst of it.

Read the NY Times article.

Muslim-Majority Nations: Problem with Religious Freedom

No one can deny that something big is going down. We are not yet in the end of the second month of 2011 and two Muslim-majority nations in North Africa have fired their autocratic rulers. Most remarkably, it hasn’t been done by military power, but by people standing up and together and saying enough is enough.

Well, change as they hoped for, is here. These “revolutionaries” consist of average Muslims, peace loving, family people who just want jobs, food and a hope of a better future for their children. Perhaps they would enjoy a little democracy and freedom of speech. Nothing unreasonable.

With all kinds of freedom, come all kinds of questions. Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Jordan amongst others have significant Christian minorities. Recent unrest has driven most Iraqi Christians into exile. Attacks against Christians in these nations have increased last year.  Christians and Muslims have lived in peace with one another for centuries in the Middle East, so hopefully these attacks are just a passing phase.

But, there are also millions of Muslims (according to an Egyptian Islamic scholar) who have converted to following Jesus Christ. You have to be pretty convinced about it to make the move. Apostasy is punishable by death according to Sharia law. If you’re lucky enough to escape death, your living might be hell. Perhaps your marriage will be annulled. Your children taken away. Your parents disown you. No one wants to hire you. The incredible thing is, that these converts are so convinced of what they have found in following Jesus that they are willing to suffer all this.

When it comes to freedom of conscience and of thought; freedom of religion comes with the package. Are the Muslim people in their awakening also willing to grant this right to their countrymen and women? There are small, grassroots movements that have started to speak out about the human rights of these converts. One of them is Set My People Free To Worship Me, based in Egypt.

It will be interesting to see how Muslim majority nations will deal with this issue of religious freedom. Especially as a growing number of Muslims embrace faith in Jesus.