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Christian missionaries smell opportunity in devastated Afghanistan

Christian missionaries smell opportunity in devastated Afghanistan

Author:
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: February 26, 2002

Muslim for a millennium, this prostrate land now looks from far-off pulpits like a God-given opportunity for missionary work -to save Afghans from "an eternity without Christ," as one American charity chief put it. But Islam's roots run deep in Afghanistan's deserts and snowy highlands. Resistance would be formidable. Here in pious Kandahar, the clergyman Naeem Akhund, for one, is ready. "How can you let a snake into your home?'' the mullah asks.

A year ago, the notion of opening Afghanistan to Christian missionaries would have been dismissed outright. But the upheaval of the American war that ousted the Taliban's Islamic zealots from power has inspired some to envision a different Afghanistan. A US government commission has called on Washington, with its newfound clout here, to lay the groundwork for a society open to all religions. Some American and other Christian activists are saying the same. "It's time to start thinking about mission work in Afghanistan,'' declared the US publication Christian Chronicle.

The talk - some guarded, some not - evokes themes as old as the age-old clash itself of Christianity and Islam, themes that predate terrorism, Israel, feminism and other disputes behind today's headlines. To many traditional Afghans, proselytising threatens the fibre of daily life where religion is an intrinsic part.
 
Headlines last August focused on two young American women, aid workers in Afghanistan, who were arrested by the ruling Taliban for allegedly proselytising in a quiet effort to win Afghan converts to Christianity. Traditional Islamic law prescribes death for Muslims who convert to other religions; the penalty for foreigners who violated the ban on missionary work was indeterminate. The women, Dayna Curry (30) and Heather Mercer (24) were eventually freed from prison in the war against the Taliban last fall, and were given a heroes' welcome home at the White House by president George W Bush.

Once free, the pair acknowledged they had tried to win Afghan Muslims to Christianity, and earlier this month they told a US church audience they hoped to return to Afghanistan. "I would say unapologetically I would do it all over,'' mercer said.

At the height of that US military campaign, Michael K Young, chairman of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, wrote to secretary of state Colin Powell urging that the Bush administration use its influence to "promote ... the idea of a future Afghan political system that practices religious tolerance."

The Commission, named by Congress and the president, was set up under a 1998 law to monitor religious freedoms in other countries. Mission activists welcomed such proposals. "We believe that the Bible mandates that we look for any opportunity we have to share our faith,'' said Wendy Norvelle, spokeswoman for the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention in Richmond, Virginia. In an open internet letter on February 14, Ben Homan, president of the Christian-based food for the Hungry Aid organisation, lamented after an Afghan visit that he had seen "not one church.''

"People there still stand on the precipice of death - and an eternity without Christ,'' he wrote. "... We will need over time to introduce to Muslims around the world the reality of God's son.'' In Germany, the deputy director of Shelter Now International, the aid organisation that employed Curry and Mercer, said every country should grant religious freedom to its citizens. "I hope really they would go forward with this,'' Joachim Jaeger said. "But it's not our goal to do this'' - proselytise - "in Afghanistan.'' he said his group was waiting for approval from the new Afghan interim government, installed under American and UN protection, to return and resume their secular relief work in Afghanistan.

Agencies
 


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