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24 March 2006
For immediate release
The
council of Church Society, the senior evangelical body in the
Church of England, today utterly condemned the trial of Abdul
Rahman, an Afghan Christian convert from Islam, who may face the
death penalty simply for becoming a Christian.
Duncan
Boyd, the chairman of the Finance Committee, said ‘It is scandalous
that under the provisions of the new Afghan constitution an Afghan
citizen can face death simply because he has decided to become
a Christian. Mr Rahman has been unjustly imprisoned, and if he
is killed for his faith that would be nothing less than an act
of judicial murder.'
The
Society hopes and prays that justice and humanity will prevail.
British military involvement in Afghanistan, and indeed the deaths
of many British service men and woman, will have been in vain
if the new Afghan government implements legal penalties that are
only worthy of a religious tyranny. Church society calls on all
Christians to express their outrage at this injustice and to do
what they can to prevent Mr Rahman's death. The Society also calls
on the British Government to use all its influence in Afghanistan,
and indeed in other Muslim countries should have the same freedoms
that Muslims demand so vocally in the United Kingdom.
END.
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