Some Afghan Government Officials Should Be Added to the US Immigration Exclusion List

By Bill West

Today, the New York Sun reported about the Afghan man, Abdul Rahman, who is facing trial and possible execution in a court in Kabul for the heinous offense of...converting from Islam to Christianity some fifteen years ago while working as a relief worker in Pakistan with a Christian-run aid group.

As this story emerges, human rights and Christian advocacy organizations around the world are expressing outrage. Curiously, there has so far been a muted response from the US Government. In view of the fact the �new� Afghan government is responsible for bringing these charges under the �new� Afghan �democratic� constitution the US was so instrumental in installing after we invaded and occupied that country, having routed the radical Islamic jihadist Taliban in that process. The Taliban, you know, the Muslim extremists that did things like execute former Muslims for committing anti-Islamic crimes such as converting to Christianity.

We did sort of defeat the Taliban. Or, at least sent them scurrying over the Pakistan border where, it now seems, they are re-installing their draconian extremist ways in parts of that country while they continue cross-border attacks on US forces in Afghanistan. Let�s not forget the American benevolence toward at least one former Taliban, Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi, the ex-Taliban official spokesman before our invasion who last year received an official US nonimmigrant student visa to attend Yale University, where he is currently enrolled. Apparently, being an official of and officially publicly defending and promoting a regime that supports our terrorist enemies and engages in extreme violations of human rights and religious persecution is not a bar to receiving a student visa nor acceptance to an American Ivy League university. But wait, US Immigration and Nationality law actually says it is. Scratching your head, yet?

Which brings us back to the pathetic case of Abdul Rahman. Given the intense international publicity on this matter, and what is no doubt some very heavy behind the scenes pressure on Afghan president Karzai (as well there should be), it is now probably not likely that poor Mr. Rahman will actually be executed by the lunatic Islamic fanatics passing themselves off as Afghan practitioners of jurisprudence (whatever that is supposed to be). We can only hope that Rahman is quickly released, given a US student visa and a scholarship to...perhaps Harvard (we probably should not hold our breath for that one).

It is pretty clear, however, that certain Afghan �justice� officials involved in this case, as in the prosecutor and the judge who authorized the case to go forward, are Afghan government officials who have probably engaged in severe violations of religious freedom as defined by US and international law. This would render those officials inadmissable to the US and not eligible for any US visas. Will they now be added to the appropriate US immigration lookout lists?

TrackBack