 |
|
|
In 1996 the Taliban, an extreme Islamist movement, seized power in Afghanistan. Their government, based on a very strict interpretation of Islamic shari‘a law, explicitly prescribed the death penalty for any Muslim converting to another faith and any non- Muslim trying to win converts. Although theTaliban were ousted in 2001, Afghan Christians, who are few in number and all converts from Islam, remain highly vulnerable. The elected government has little authority outside the capital, Kabul, and the Taliban have mounted a major insurgency, fuelled by the country’s drug industry.
The Afghan constitution is ambiguous regarding conversion, appearing to endorse both Islamic law and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees the freedom to change one’s faith. But most Afghan Muslims seem to believe that the death sentence is appropriate for converts, and as a result many Afghan Christians face extreme danger from their neighbours and from Muslim clerics. Islamic extremists also target anyone propagating Christianity. Any visible Christian presence, such as a church building, is impossible except in a foreign embassy; the only one on Afghan soil was destroyed in 1973. The country has also suffered the effects of violence and war for some 35 years.
The Christian population now is estimated at only about 0.02% of the total population of 24 million people. Many of these are foreigners, but the number of Afghan Christians has increased in recent years, through conversions from Islam and the return of refugees who became Christians while outside the country.
