Martyr
Said Musa is scheduled to die for becoming a Christian
Date published: 2/15/2011
BY THE TIME you read this, he could be dead.
Said Musa has been a physiotherapist for the Red Cross in Afghanistan for 15 years.
Last May he was arrested by Afghan police and now he's scheduled to be hanged.
His offense? Converting to Christianity.
Police say Mr. Musa was one of the men shown in a video being baptized
at a secret location. In Afghanistan, as in many Muslim countries,
renouncing Islam is punishable by death. He was arrested while trying to
seek asylum in the German Embassy in Kabul. He's never had a trial:
A series of defense lawyers have quit after receiving death threats.
A 45-year-old father of six, Mr. Musa lost a leg in a land mine accident
in the 1990s and since then has worked to help other amputees.
He told the
Sunday Times (London) that he has been beaten and raped
in prison. Still, he refuses to renounce Christianity:
"My body is theirs to do what they want with.
Only God can decide if my spirit goes to hell."
The Afghan Constitution, adopted in 2004, has contradictory statements on religion:
1) Followers of other faiths shall be free within the bounds of law in the exercise and performance of their religious rights;
and
2) No law shall contravene the tenets and provisions of the holy religion of Islam in Afghanistan.
The second provision cancels the first, since, under Sharia law,
renouncing Islam is a capital offense.
Mr. Musa would not be the first Christian to die for his faith in Afghanistan,
nor would he be the last.
But it's a rather bitter irony that the United States
is spending blood and treasure propping up this legal system.
end quote
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2011/022011/02152011/605855
search engine: Said Musa convert
