Appeal for Afghan Christians, sentenced to death for their faith
(June 1116,2010) An appeal has been made to the Christians of India and the international
community, 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. The appeal
was launched by Vijay Kumar Singh, from the India Bible Publishers and the Delhi
Bible Fellowship. 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 sparked 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 renounces his or her religion in favour of another. 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.”