By BosNewsLife Middle East Service
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN (BosNewsLife)– An Afghan man who faced the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity has fled Afghanistan where he was released on bail after international pressure, his friends said Wednesday, April 20.
Shoaib Assadullah, 23, was detained on October 21 in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif for giving the Bible’s New Testament to a man who later reported him to local authorities.
While jailed, Assadullah said in letters seen by BosNewsLife that he was physically abused and receiving death threats from fellow inmates.
“I am under emotional pressure from being in prison. Add to that the threat of being executed, constant insults and accusations, cursing and being forced by other prisoners and by prison guards to do work for them all because of prejudice against my different beliefs and my different ethnicity,” he wrote last month from jail.
STILL CONFINED
After his March 30 release from Qasre Shahi Prison in Mazar-e-Sharif, authorities initially confined Assadullah to the area, but he eventually received a passport on April 14 and was able to travel to Kabul and flee the troubled country, friends said.
They said he was unable to stay as there were worries over his safety after Muslims began protesting against last month’s burning of a Koran at a church in the U.S. state of Florida.
Several other demonstrations against the torching of what Muslims regard as a holy book left at least 24 dead, including seven United Nations employees.
No details were published about Assadullah’s current whereabouts amid security concerns.
INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMACY
The Netherlands was among the countries believed to have been pressuring Afghanistan to release Christian converts, including Assadullah.
Although Assadullah appeared to be out of immediate danger Wednesday, April 20, friends told BosNewsLife he had been hoping to stay in Afghanistan.
Assadullah reportedly said he wants to “continue to live and serve God in Afghanistan.”
Friends spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case. He is the second Christian to be released from prison after Said Musa, another convert, who was quietly granted asylum in Europe in February.
Christian Musa was detained in May when a local television network aired footage of Afghans being baptized and participating in prayer gatherings.
NATIONAL CRACKDOWN
The broadcast led to a nationwide crackdown against Muslim converts to Christianity, several rights groups said.
While Afghanistan’s constitution upholds freedom of religion, “apostasy”, or abandoning Islam, is tried under Islamic law and punishable by death, according to experts.
Rights activists have welcomed Assadullah’s release but express concern about the future of Christian concerns in the Islamic nation.
“While the Afghan government relented on Assadullah’s behalf, there does not appear to be any change in policy, and the crackdown on Christians will continue,” said Aidan Clay of International Christian Concern, a religious rights group.
Additionally, not all countries are ready to accommodate Christian refugees from Afghanistan, he said. “Currently, several converts may face prison and death sentences after being denied asylum in India and scheduled for deportation back to Afghanistan. We still have a long battle ahead of us before the Afghan government recognizes the religious freedoms of Christians.” (With reporting by BosNewsLife’s Stefan J. Bos).
PRAISE GOD, at least there is actually one smart man left on the earth. There were only 2 choices for him really.
1) GET OUT WHILE YOU STILL CAN OUT OF ALL MARXIST (all the west, australia, north and most of south america, and parts of africa) AND ALL ISLAMIC STATES (middles east to asia, parts of africa) AND BUILD UP THE LAST REFUGE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD WHO ARE STILL FAVORABLE TOWARDS CHRISTIAN CIVILIIZATION THAT EXIST IN SELECT 3rd WORLD AREAS OF WHICH I WILL NOT POST HERE PUBLICLY, GO DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH.
2) GET MURDERED, HAVE YOUR WIFE AND CHILDREN RAPED, CHILDREN TAKEN AWAY, PROPERTY CONFISCATED, PUT IN PRISON, AND SAY IT WAS ALL THE WILL OF GOD.
Mat 2:13 And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.
Jhn 11:54 Jesus therefore walked no more openly among the Jews; but went thence unto a country near to the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim, and there continued with his disciples.
Mat 10:23 But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another
Act 9:25 Then the disciples took him by night, and let [him] down by the wall in a basket.
Act 13:51 But they shook off the dust of their feet against them, and came unto Iconium.
It is very sad to read that the citizens of certain countries can’t make their own decision
to follow his or her own religious faith. If India is forcing this person to return to
Afganistan, that is too hard to understand.
i want to be Christen but i don know how ?
its very sad to see so many Christian’s being persecuted in all islamic countries Christianise are being attacked, murdered children being beheaded, but in the west muslims are free to practise their faith,this is wrong everyone should have the right to believe in what they want without fear of being persecuted,
what a drama to conver to this or that religion.in fact,with such conversions people manage to get their econmic and social benifits.hurrah,to the current afghan convert who finally succeeded in getting visa and media coverage.
Samir, to find out what a true Christian is, you can’t go by what someone else tells you, you have to find out from the only true source for what true Christianity is, that is the Bible, in a good translation like the kjv or nkjv.
Go to this link and you can read in private safely without threat. Don’t give up quickly if you read things you don’t understand at first, keep with study for a few years and you will begin to see the overall picture and be able to understand what is true Christianity and what is false christianity, because everything you see out in the world under the name or claim of christianity is not, but only when you know the Bible enough for yourself will you be able to know the difference.
http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Jhn&c=1&t=KJV&q=john
Samer! Confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord, and call upon his Holy Spirit. God will guide you to fellowship and the fullness of life!
Repeating a phrase that someone doesn’t even first know the meaning of will not help him at all, he has to learn what such words even mean before he can understand how to be ‘saved’ and what that even means to begin with, and how it comes about. It certainly doesn’t come about by repeating a phrase you don’t even know the meaning of. Study of the Bible is the only way to have the answer to questions about who God/Jesus/Holy Spirit even is, and who He is not.
Dear Ummm,
True faith has nothing to do with repeating a phrase. However if someone truly believes that God revealed Himself in Jesus Christ, who rose up from death for our sins, that person is saved. The Bible is very clear on that. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.“ (John 3:16). It does NOT say Only Those Who Study will be saved. Ofcourse to come to a deeper understanding of God it is essential to study the Word of God, the Bible.
Stefan J. Bos, BosNewsLife