The Wall Street Journal reports today that the Obama Administration is pressing the government of Afghanistan to release two men who converted to Christianity. Both are under a death sentence. Here’s what an official at the Afghan “Justice Ministry” has to say. Remember, these are our allies, the guys who are supposedly fighting “extremists.” Excerpt:
“The sentence for a convert is death and there is no exception,” said Jamal Khan, chief of staff at the Ministry of Justice. “They must be sentenced to death to serve as a lesson for others.” Apostasy is a capital crime in Afghanistan, where the constitution is based on Shariah, or Islamic law.
The effort to free the two men faces an uphill battle in Kabul. President Hamid Karzai is already bristling against foreign influence, after inaugurating parliament Wednesday under pressure from the West.
One of the detained men, Said Musa, 46 years old, converted nine years ago. He has worked for the International Committee of the Red Cross as a physical therapist in Kabul for over 15 years. After Mr. Musa’s arrest in May, his wife and six children fled the country, fearing for their safety.
The second convert, 25-year-old Shoaib Assadullah Musawi, was arrested in November in Balkh province, in northern Afghanistan, after giving a copy of the New Testament to an Afghan friend, who turned him in.
Mr. Musa, in an open letter written in his jail cell in Kabul, said he has been beaten and sexually abused in prison. “The authority and prisoners in jail did many bad behavior with me about my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,” Mr. Musa wrote in the letter, which he addressed to supporters as well as President Barack Obama and the heads of international forces here.
Mr. Musawi also said he had been beaten and sexually abused by prison authorities and other inmates.”