Rahman One Among Many Persecuted Converts, Says Religious Freedom Expert
Wednesday, Apr. 5, 2006
Posted: 10:10:57AM EST

For some, the Afghan Christian convert story ended with the release of 41-year-old Abdul Rahman. However, a religious freedom expert is urging people to keep in mind the countless number of persecuted Christian coverts worldwide who face death under their country’s laws on apostasy.

Dr. Paul Marshall, a senior fellow at Freedom House’s Center for Religious Freedom, says that there are many apostates in similar situations to Rahman that the world is ignoring in an article titled “Apostates from Islam” appearing in the Apr. 10 issue of The Weekly Standard. Marshall fears that the world will forget about converts similar to Rahman now that he has been granted asylum in Italy.

“Abdul Rahman's plight is merely the tip of the iceberg,” writes Marshall in the article. “Like the violence over the Danish cartoons of Muhammad, or the Ayatollah Khomeini's demand that Salman Rushdie be killed for blasphemy, it reveals a systematic, worldwide attempt by Islamists to imprison, kill, or otherwise silence anyone who challenges their ideology.”

As example that the case of the convert is not a unique situation, the religious freedom expert points out that two other Afghan converts to Christianity were arrested in March while other converts in February had their homes raided by police. the rest