Promoting Freedom of Religion in Afghanistan

PROMOTING FREEDOM OF RELIGION IN AFGHANISTAN

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, in the past week, the world has witnessed the arrest, the imprisonment, the threatened execution, and eventually the release of a man in Afghanistan named Abdul Rahman. His so-called crime? Apostasy. He was threatened with capital punishment because 16 years ago, while working on a humanitarian mission in Pakistan, he converted to Christianity.

Abdul Rahman has thankfully been released, and charges against him have been dropped. However, religious freedom remains in jeopardy in Afghanistan as do those who might choose to practice it.

I have great respect for President Karzai and the state he is trying to build. I respect the right of Afghanistan to its own laws and legal system.

But it will be a great tragedy if the overthrow of the Taliban government results in its replacement by a state that professes democracy but falls so far short of such an essential democratic standard: the freedom of belief.

We have over 22,000 troops in Afghanistan. Two hundred and eighty-two Americans have given their lives in that country since Operation Enduring Freedom began.

Freedom must, by definition, include freedom of religion,

It is our responsibility to make that utterly clear. As President Bush has stated, ``We expect [the government of Afghanistan] to honor the universal principle of freedom. It is deeply troubling that a country we helped liberate would hold a person to account because they chose a particular religion over another.''

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom raised concerns during the drafting of Afghanistan's constitution that it opened the door for cases such as this. Those concerns extend to both members of religious minorities and to members of the country's majority Muslim community who might dare to express an interpretation of Islam that differs from the prevailing orthodoxy. Sadly, these apprehensions have been borne out.

The State Department's International Religious Freedom Report for 2005 noted that conversion from Islam is ``in theory'' punishable by death in Afghanistan. Although charges against Mr. Rahman were fortunately dropped, clearly such a punishment is more than simply theoretical.

Afghanistan is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which reads in part, ``Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice, and freedom, either individually or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching.''

Today, I am introducing a resolution calling on the Government of Afghanistan to live up to the principles it has endorsed in that covenant. This resolution also urges the Government of Afghanistan to consider the importance of religious freedom for the broader relationship between our two countries, and it expresses the sense of Congress that the President and his representatives should raise these human rights issues both publicly and privately.

In 1864, Abraham Lincoln wrote a grieving mother who had lost 5 sons in a single day in battle. He sought to offer her consolation for ``so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.'' Two hundred and eighty-two Americans have made that sacrifice in Afghanistan. Countless Afghans died in the struggle against Soviet invaders and others in resistance against the brutal regime of the Taliban. It is my fervent hope that Afghanistan lives up to the promise of its own pledge to uphold human rights: freedom of worship must be part of any true enduring freedom.

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