I Should Not Go Down to the Pit

On February 24, we received the wonderful news that Afghani Christian convert Said Musa, sentenced to death for apostasy, had been released from prison and was out of the country.

Said, who came to Christ eight years ago, is the father of six young children. He was arrested May 31, 2010 along with two dozen other converts after being seen on national television in footage of a baptismal service. The 45-year-old Red Cross employee, who lost a leg after stepping on a landmine while serving in the Afghan Army, was beaten, tortured, and sexually abused on a regular basis in prison. On our Facebook Page, IRD posted a handwritten letter from Said describing his plight that was smuggled out of prison. He said no Afghan lawyer would defend him and the authorities also denied him access to a foreign lawyer.

On Tuesday, February 22, IRD issued a press release condemning the imprisonment and persecution of Said and others like him. We contemplated demonstrating at the Embassy of Afghanistan as we had done in 2006 to protest the apostasy sentence against another Afghani Christian convert, Abdul Rahman. But we wanted to proceed cautiously and not upset any diplomatic endeavors that might be taking place behind the scenes on Said’s behalf.

And it appears that is exactly what was taking place. In addition to thanking God for Said Musa’s release, I am personally very grateful to our IRD Board member and good friend in the fight for religious freedom, Dr. Paul Marshall. His recent article  about Said in National Review, along with some other news reports, started a prairie fire of tweeting among Christian leaders urging action by the Obama Administration. The Twitter campaign multiplied international diplomatic efforts by Christian human rights groups and others.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) welcomed Said’s release, but had stern words for the continuing abuse of religious freedom in Afghanistan. Said Musa’s imprisonment “demonstrates the serious deficiencies in the Afghan legal system,” said USCIRF chairman Leonard Leo. Leo added that the fact that another individual was in jail on similar charges, “shows that the U.S. government and international community need to seriously engage the Karzai government about protecting the religious freedoms of all Afghanis.”

Leo refers to Shoaib Assadullah, a 23-year-old convert. According to the Barnabas Fund, Shoaib was arrested in October 2010 after he gave a New Testament in the national Dari language to another Afghan who then reported him to the authorities. Like Said, Shoaib was told he would be executed for apostasy if he does not renounce his Christian faith and return to Islam.

Now we must focus our attention on Shoaib Assadullah and any other remaining prisoners of faith. It would be wonderful to see whole congregations of church members in thousands of churches, along with the Christians leaders who were advocates for Said, making religious freedom for Afghan Christians a top priority. This would encourage the U.S. government and the international community to do what Leonard Leo advises. We should not see such tyranny of Shariah and Islamic supremacism in a country in which we have sacrificed so much.

According to the Barnabas Fund, just before Said’s release was confirmed, he was offered the freedom if he were to write a statement regretting his conversion to Christianity. Barnabas Fund reports that Said responded by laughing and saying that he could not “deny [his] Saviour’s name.” He told the Islamist authorities that his life was just “service to Jesus Christ,” and his death “is going to heaven [where] Jesus Christ is.” He said that he was “a hundred percent ready to die,” and although they pushed him “much and much,” he “refused their demands.”

Now with Said Musa, we can rejoice:

I will extol You, O Lord, for You have lifted me up, and have not let my foes rejoice over me. O Lord my God, I cried out to You, and You have healed me. O Lord, You have brought my soul up from the grave; You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.” Psalm 30:1-3

With God’s help, we will pray the same prayer of thanksgiving for Shoaib Assadullah and all of Afghanistan’s Christians.