“The government is scared of the international community. But the people will kill him if he is freed.”
Raoulf, who is a member of the country’s main Islamic organization, the Afghan Ulama Council, agreed. “The government is playing games. The people will not be fooled.”
“Cut off his head!” he exclaimed, sitting in a courtyard outside Herati Mosque. “We will call on the people to pull him into pieces so there’s nothing left.”
He said the only way for Rahman to survive would be for him to go into exile.
But Said Mirhossain Nasri, the top cleric at Hossainia Mosque, one of the largest Shiite places of worship in Kabul, said Rahman must not be allowed to leave the country.
“If he is allowed to live in the West, then others will claim to be Christian so they can too,” he said. “We must set an example. … He must be hanged.”
The clerics said they were angry with the United States and other countries for pushing for Rahman’s freedom.
“We are a small country and we welcome the help the outside world is giving us. But please don’t interfere in this issue,” Nasri said. “We are Muslims and these are our beliefs. This is much more important to us than all the aid the world has given us.”
abc news
It is difficult to take these people seriously except that there is very little doubt that they mean every word that they are saying.
So I am now waiting for the moderate Muslims to take up Rahman’s cause. Searching the first three pages of Google news does not seem to bring up any….Hmmmm.
I also note that Christians have not been burning Afghani flags, attacking Afghani embassies or demanding the deaths of the “Muslim clerics” who so greivously insult our faith and propose to judicially execute - or just plain murder - a member of our faith.
Written by jay on March 24th, 2006 with 3 comments.
Read more articles on Terror and culture.
Great to see the somewhat ungrateful Canadian Peacemakers (and all round busybodies) rescued by main force. Even better to see this:
Canada’s elite JTF-2 special forces played a role in helping to rescue three western aid workers, including two Canadians, held captive in Baghdad.
The Defence Department refused Thursday to confirm Canadian military involvement, but a source said the elite squad was ”instrumental” in the operation.
Pentagon and British military officials also said that Canadian and British special forces took the reins of the ground operation.
”This was several weeks in the planning,” said British Defence Secretary John Reid. ”It was an operation that was rolling, in a sense that it went on for some time.”
The Mounties were also involved in the rescue, said British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, although an RCMP spokesman would not confirm that.
Straw also hinted that other organizations, including Canada’s spy agency CSIS, along with civilians, played a role.
national post
But most gratifying off all was the reliably idiotic Robert McLelland’s post at myblawg:
it looks like our new PM is bound and determined to get us involved in the Iraqmire whether we want to or not.
myblawg
One lives in hope. It is an interesting idea - use Canadian troops to rescue Canadians held hostage by Iraqi thugs. Who would have thought that those guys at JTF-2 were anything other than the very best Kumbaya singers the Canadian Peacekeeping forces could produce.
Robert, very slowly now….these are army guys. The kill people. They blow things up. They do it as Canadians, for Canadians. Whatever the level of their involvement I can’t imagine being anything but proud and relieved that we can at least pull a bit of our own weight at the “pointy end.” Otherwise we’d be even more reliant on the Americans and the Brits and, Robert, I know you wouldn’t want that.
Written by jay on March 24th, 2006 with 6 comments.
Read more articles on Canadian Politics and Terror.