Christian Refugees Refused Help; Lives In Danger
By: Marshall Ramsey II, Worthy News US Correspondent
November 16, 2011 (Worthy News) - On November 2, 2011, the following e-mail correspondence was received by Aidan Clay with International Christian Concern:
"I just received a warning call form a person who introduced himself as an [official at the Afghan embassy]... If I don't go to the embassy in two hours to met hm, he will arrest [me] and present me to the embassy through the Indian police... Please pray and be in contact, and if in case something happens, my wife will contact you. He was claiming that I convert people from Islam to Christianity."
The calls continued throughout the day. "They were very angry and saying that they will hit me by knife and kill me."
The person being threatened is named Obaid S. Christ, an Afghan Christian living in New Delhi, India. He fled his native Afghanistan in 2007 after receiving word that an Islamic court issued an arrest warrant for his conversion to Christianity. He adopted the pseudonym Obaid S. Christ to be able to hide from his persecutors in Afghanistan.
High Price For Conversion
Threats against Afghan converts to Christianity should not be taken lightly. Conversion is viewed as a serious crime in Afghanistan, and Christians are frequently being targeted by both the government and extremists. As reported earlier this year by Worthy News, a video showing the beheading of one Abdul Latif near the Afghan town of Herat was released. The militants, who claimed to be Muslim, were seen quoting passages from the Hadith (extra-Qu'ranic writings used to help decide whether or not something came from Muhammad) before executing him: "Mohammad (peace be upon him) says, 'Whoever changes his religion should be executed.'"
For Obaid, the menacing calls were not the first time he felt threatened since arriving in India. "Our community is a persecuted and rejected community," he said last April. "We left behind all our belongings in Afghanistan just to save our lives by leaving Afghanistan. Here in India, we are receiving no legal and physical protection from the UNHCR Office or Indian government. We are harassed, attacked, insulted, and persecuted by Indian Muslims and Afghan Muslim refugees in this city."
Persecution Ignored
The persecution of Afghan Christian refugees is sometimes ignored by the very agencies that are mandated to protect them. Aman Ali and his family fled Afghanistan in June 2010 following a television broadcast showing footage of Afghans being baptized. Though Aman's conversion was already known in his community, the broadcast stirred animosity towards Christians which led to nationwide protests and the arrests of several converts.
Ali immediately applied for refugee status with the United Nations High Commission of Refugees (UNHCR) upon arriving in New Delhi, but was rejected and told that he failed to meet the criteria set forth in Article 6B of the UNHCR Statute which states that in order to receive refugee status, one must have a "well-founded fear of persecution by reason of his race, religion, nationality or political opinion." It was clear to Aman that the UNHCR did not consider his conversion as a legitimate threat to his life.
One Ratimullah from Mazar-i-Sharif fled at the same time as Aman and for the same reasons. Like Aman, Ratimullah's application for refugee status was also rejected along with seven other applicants. "I cannot return to my country because I will be arrested and executed by the Afghan government," Ratimullah wrote in an appeal to the UNHCR. "A definite death is waiting for me in my homeland."
Another deportee, Ali Hussani, said, "They will kill me for being Christian. There are only Muslims there."
Some foreign aid workers in the country believe that the threats are merely Taliban propaganda as they have heard similar declarations in the past. Obaid S. Christ however, has a different view.
"The centers' (churches and other Christian meeting places) activities are being observed, Afghan converts are identified, and it is planned to destroy the centers," he said. "This is serious!"
Hundreds of Afghan Christians, like Obaid, remain on the run from religious-based persecution that targets them at home and abroad. "In the modern world, where we have NATO, the UN, human rights commissions, and governments which claim they fight for democracy and give protection for those who are persecuted, I cannot find a place in this world where I am protected," Obaid lamented.
Information for this story was obtained from International Christian Concern
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