Appeal for Afghan Christians, sentenced to death for their faith
Santosh Digal ("AsiaNews," June 15, 2010)
New Delhi, India – VijayKumar Singh, from the India Bible Publishers and
the Delhi Bible Fellowship, has launched an appeal to the Christians of India
and the world to pray and express their support for Afghan Muslim converts
to Christianity who were convicted on conversion charges and sentenced to
death on 31 May. Speaking to AsiaNews, Sing said, “We need Christians’
help all over the world to stop the Afghan government from arresting
Dari-speaking Afghan Christians and condemning them to death by public
execution.”
Afghans consider their country to be 100 per cent Muslim. A local TV
station, Noorin TV, recently broadcast a documentary showing photos and videos
of
secret “Afghan Christian Converts”, which revealed names and showed the
faces of alleged Afghan Christian converts.
This was enough to spark riots and demonstrations throughout Afghanistan
with protesters demanding strong action to enforce the Afghan constitution,
based on Sharia, arrest the culprits, and execute anyone who renege his or
her religion in favour of another.
A number of prominent public figures also spoke out on the matter, calling
for immediate action. One lawmaker even said that killing a Muslim who
converts to Christianity was “not a crime”.
Waheed Omar, the spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai, told
reporters that the president was “personally” taking an interest in this case,
and
had ordered his interior minister and the head of the country’s spy agency
to carry out a full investigation and “take immediate and serious action
to prevent this phenomenon.”
Reports from inside Afghanistan already tell of many arrests in recent
days, as well as allegations of torture of those under arrest in an effort to
extract forcibly the names of other Afghan Christian converts.
Singh also slams the “perplexing media silence” and demands a strong
stance from Christians around the world.
In a letter, Obaid S. Christ, a member of a small group of about 150 Afghan
Christian refugees and asylum seekers in India, writes that he and other
Afghan Christians “are currently living in exile from their beloved homeland
[. . .] forced to flee their country in order to save their life and the
lives of their families, due to orders of execution issued against them by
the Afghan government for choosing to convert to Christianity.”
Recently, he writes, “The Afghan Home Minister and the Chairman of Afghan
Intelligence told the Afghan Parliament that four Afghan Christians and one
family had been arrested and that they were under investigation,” and that “
13 NGOs are recognized and suspended,” and that the “names of Afghan
Christians are listed and the Afghan Intelligence agency wants to arrest
them.”
He adds, “Our houses are checked by police and intelligence people in
Afghanistan, our families and parents (even though they are Muslim) are under
investigation and even arrested, and all Afghan believers are missing”.
For this reason, the Afghan Christian community is calling on every
Christian “not to be silent or close his or her eyes whilst thousands of
fellow
believers are persecuted”.
Afghan Christians are asking their fellow Christians to pray for them, “
make their voice heard and get the international community to put pressure on
the Afghan government to stop killing, persecuting and executing Afghan
Christians,” and give us instead “freedom of religion as well as respect and
accept us as Afghan Christians.”
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