Christian Persecution in Afghanistan

I know that you all have heard of the Afghan Christian who was about to face a trial with a possible death sentence. I was going to blog about it after I finished my exam but now it appears that he may not be prosecuted after all:

While Afghan prosecutors, amid political pressure, apparently are trying to find a face-saving way to drop their case against a convert from Islam by calling him 'mad,' sources close to Abdul Rahman say that despite suffering bouts of
depression, he has a strong, genuine faith in Jesus Christ.

Earlier yesterday, Afghan prosecutor Sarinwal Zamari said of Rahman, "We think he could be mad. He is not a normal person. He doesn't talk like a normal person."
...
Moayuddin Baluch, a religious adviser to Karzai, said Rahman will have to undergo a psychological examination.

"Doctors must examine him," he told the Associated Press. "If he is mentally unfit, definitely Islam has no claim to punish him. He must be forgiven. The case must be dropped."

Western observers in Afghanistan say the government is looking for a face-saving way to drop the case in light of the international firestorm it has caused.

The point that I was going to make about this story is that Muslims have to realize that they aren't going to always be able to force people to believe in a religion that they find untrue. They will have to learn the lesson that the Christian church learned, you can't use the power of the state to make converts. Belief is personal and it isn't the state's business what their citzens believe.

Even though this man may be spared there might be others:

Afghanistan's new constitution declares "followers of other religions (other than Islam) are free to exercise their faith and perform their religious rites within the limits of the provisions of law."

But it also says "the religion of the state is the sacred religion of Islam" and that Shariah, or Islamic, Law is the controlling legal authority. Under Shariah, in many Muslim countries, anyone who abandons Islam is subject to the death penalty.

Read more about this story here.