Magic Statistics

Canadian soldiers are in Afghanistan to ensure that the Afghan people enjoy the benefits of freedom, aren't they? I thought that was the idea. Then, why is Abdul Rahman on trial in Kabul for converting from Islam to Christianity? He faces the death penalty under Sharia law for rejecting Islam and being an "apostate". A one-day hearing was held last Thursday and the judge will render his decision within two months.

The defendant, 41-year-old Abdul Rahman, was arrested last month after his family accused him of becoming a Christian, Judge Ansarullah Mawlavezada told The Associated Press in an interview. Rahman was charged with rejecting Islam and his trial started Thursday.

During the one-day hearing, the defendant confessed that he converted from Islam to Christianity 16 years ago while working as a medical aid worker for an international Christian group helping Afghan refugees in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, Mawlavezada said.

The judge pays lip service to judicial impartiality, but that doesn’t last long.

"We are not against any particular religion in the world. But in Afghanistan, this sort of thing is against the law," the judge said. "It is an attack on Islam."

He's "not against any particular religion", but he's hearing a capital case against a man for changing his religion. Right! I agree with Glenn Penner of The Voice of the Martyrs: This is an outrage.

Can anyone tell me how this makes any sense? What are Canadians fighting for in Afghanistan? For what are they risking their life? To protect the right for Muslim clerics to impose Sharia law on religious minorities? The right to restrict religious freedom and to kill "apostates"? Are we fighting for his freedom only to have the Muslim clerics execute him? The fact that this man is even facing this trial is a gross violation of international human rights agreements that Afghanistan claims to uphold.

On March 14, Prime Minister Stephen Harper met . . . with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul. President Karzai expressed his gratitude for the support Canada has offered Afghanistan and Prime Minister Harper reiterated Canada’s unwavering commitment to the people of Afghanistan. Let's remind the Prime Minister that Canada need to be committed to all of the people of Afghanistan, including its persecuted Christian population. I would urge you to email him at pm@pm.gc.ca and urge him to intervene with the Afghan president in the case of Abdul Rahman.

Stephen Harper is going to be hearing from me real soon. I also urge all Canadians to write to our Prime Minister and ask him why Canada is sending troops into harm's way to support a government that allows this case to proceed. Glenn Penner has also posted his letter to the Prime Minister. It's exemplary, in my view–respectful yet pointed.

UPDATE (21 Mar.): Follow-up here.

The influence of Islamic law is spreading in Indonesia, even though the government is democratic and officially secular. There is no constitutional basis for using Islamic law in courts, yet religious edicts and fatwas issued by the Council of Ulemas, Indonesia's most influential Muslim body, are admitted as evidence in criminal proceedings. Thus was Yusman Roy convicted and sentenced to two years' imprisonment for believing and teaching that vernacular prayers are acceptable. Fundamentalist Muslims believe that it is heretical to pray in any language but Arabic.

Roy's desire to pray in Indonesian has sparked such an outrage that he was convicted last year in criminal court of "spreading hatred." Animosity toward Roy ran so high that police posted guards to keep an angry mob from torching his house and school.

Now, he is kept in a cell by himself at overcrowded Lowokwaru prison, and the warden has warned him not to preach to his fellow inmates in any language.

Roy is one of at least 10 Muslims incarcerated in recent months for what the Indonesian Council of Ulemas, the country's most influential Muslim body in setting religious policy, has deemed deviant thinking.

Although Islamic scholars differ over the acceptability of prayers in languages other than Arabic, fatwas issued against Mr Roy by the local and provincial ulema councils were accepted as evidence that Islam rejects non-Arabic prayers. There's another twist: the judge concurred with Roy's view of non-Arabic prayer but threw him in the slammer anyway.

In August, the judge acquitted Roy of the charge that his teachings deviated from Islam, but found him guilty of inciting hatred by challenging the views of local clerics.

So, even though the judge agreed that Islam does not limit the language of prayer to Arabic, Mr Roy was jailed for not knuckling under to clerics who insist that the view rejected by the court is actually correct. Catch-22!

BBC News asked for photos of bizarre bicycle lanes. This one was sent in by a reader who runs a campaign to make streets in Warrington more bicycle-friendly. Nine more photos are posted here.