As this issue of Human Events was going to press, the Associated Press reported out of Kabul, Afghanistan, that even allegedly "moderate" Muslim clerics in that country were demanding death for Christian convert Abdul Rahman. (See the cover story.)
"Rejecting Islam is insulting God. We will not allow God to be humiliated. This man must die," said Abdul Raoulf, whom the AP described as a "moderate" cleric who was "jailed three times for opposing the Taliban."
"Cut his head off," said Rauolf. "We will call on people to pull him into pieces so there’s nothing left."
Other leading clerics rejected any deal with the U.S. to free Rahman as well as any pretense that he should be spared because he is mentally ill.
"He is not crazy. He went in front of the media and confessed to being a Christian," said Hamidullah, chief cleric of a major Kabul mosque. "The government is scared of the international community. But the people will kill him if he is freed."
Hanidullah said "there will be an uprising" like the one that forced the Soviets to leave Afghanistan if the government frees him.
"The government will lose the support of the people," he said. "What sort of democracy would it be if the government ignored the will of all the people?"
