Sources: CBS 2 (LA), CBS 2 (LA), and CBS 2 (LA)
As you know, he was released by the courts on Sunday.
It didn't take long for things to get a little nasty in Afghanistan.
About 700 people chanting "Death to Bush" and other anti-Western slogans protested Monday against the decision in the central city of Mazar-e-Sharif, said police commander Nasruddin Hamdrad. Security forces surrounded the demonstrators but did not intervene.
A Supreme Court spokesman, Abdul Wakil Omeri, said the case had been dismissed because of "problems with the prosecutors' evidence." He said several of Rahman's relatives testified he is mentally unstable and prosecutors have to "decide if he is mentally fit to stand trial."
The chanting doesn't bother me as much as the notion that he only became a Christian because he's mentally unstable? So Christians are insane? (Pat Robertson and his ilk don't count...I'm talking about real Christians, not the Bible beaters who pretend to be Christians when it fits their situation.)
Rahman is expected to be taken to a mental hospital.
The assertion that Rahman has mental problems, reports MacVicar, appears to be the basis of a face-saving deal in which he may be declared incompetent and unfit to answer for his actions, released and most likely, flown out of the country.
An Afghan official closely involved with the case told The Associated Press that the court ruled there was insufficient evidence and returned the case to prosecutors for further investigation. But he said Rahman would be released in the meantime.
Well, I figured it's the "save his ass by calling him crazy" defense.
Apparently, he went into hiding yesterday.
An Afghan man who had faced the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity quickly vanished Tuesday after he was released from prison, apparently out of fear for his life with Muslim clerics still demanding his death.
The United Nations said it is working to find a country willing to grant asylum to Abdul Rahman, who has appealed to leave Afghanistan. Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini will ask his government to accept Rahman, the Italian government said in a statement.
"Abdul Rahman must be killed. Islam demands it," said senior Cleric Faiez Mohammed, from the nearby northern city of Kunduz. "The Christian foreigners occupying Afghanistan are attacking our religion."
Now I do sympathize with the man because in all honesty, whenever Christian countries enter a nation where the national religion is something other than Christianity, missionaries come in hordes to "educate the heathens". However, this is just one man, and he's harmless. Hell, he wants to leave the country! Let him leave, and things can return to whatever suffices as normal around there these days.
I can understand why he went into hiding.
Afghanistan's parliament demanded Wednesday that the government prevent a man who faced the death penalty for abandoning Islam for Christianity from being able to flee the country.
Italy granted asylum to Abdul Rahman, 41, and the Foreign Ministry said he would arrive there "soon," maybe within the day.
The Italian government granted asylum to Rahman after Muslim clerics called for his death.
"I say that we are very glad to be able to welcome someone who has been so courageous," Premier Silvio Berlusconi said.
No matter what happens to Rahman now, the outcome in Afghanistan remains the same--the country has not changed much since being "freed" from the Taliban.
Muslim clerics condemned Rahman's release, saying it was a "betrayal of Islam," and threatened to incite violent protests.
Some 500 Muslim leaders, students and others gathered Wednesday in a mosque in southern Qalat town and criticized the government for releasing Rahman, said Abdulrahman Jan, the top cleric in Zabul province.
He said the government should either force Rahman to convert back to Islam or kill him.
"This is a terrible thing and a major shame for Afghanistan," he said.
Indeed.
Tags: [Abdul Rahman], [Afghanistan], [Islam], [Muslim leaders upset over dismissal of Rahman's case], [Rahman goes into hiding...possibly in Italy]
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