medical aid worker, faces the death penalty under Islamic laws for becoming a Christi

NEW YORK - Christian lobby groups are urging President Bush to do more to save a man on trial in Afghanistan for converting from Islam to Christianity.

Anger among American Christians continued to mount against the U.S.-backed government of Afghanistan, where Abdul Rahman, a 41-year-old former medical aid worker, faces the death penalty under Islamic laws for becoming a Christian.

Rahman's trial, which started last week, has fired passions in conservative Muslim Afghanistan and highlighted a conflict of values between Afghanistan and its Western backers _ notably American Christians who cheered the Bush administration when it toppled the oppressive Taliban regime.

American Christians have criticized the Bush administration for what they feel is an inadequate response to a fundamental issue of freedom of conscience.

"That there should even be such a trial is an outrage. How can we congratulate ourselves for liberating Afghanistan from the rule of jihadists only to be ruled by radical Islamists who kill Christians?" Family Research Council president Tony Perkins said in a statement.

"Americans will not give their blood and treasure to prop up new Islamic fundamentalist regimes. Religious freedom is not just 'an important element' of democracy; it is its cornerstone. Religious persecution leads inevitably to political tyranny. Five hundred years of history confirm this. Americans have not given their lives so that Christians can be put to death," Perkins said.

Such sentiments are spreading through Christian radio stations, Web sites and blogs, stoked by traditional conservative institutions as National Review magazine.

National Review Online quoted Chuck Colson, a former Nixon White House official, disgraced by Watergate and rehabilitated as a Christian preacher, as saying:

"I have supported the Bush administration's foreign policy because I came to believe that the best way to stop Islamo-fascism was by promoting democracy," Colson said. "But if we can't guarantee fundamental religious freedoms in the countries where we establish democratic reforms, then the whole credibility of our foreign policy is thrown into serious question."

The American Family Association has organized an Internet campaign to e-mail Bush and "ask him to intervene to save the life of Abdul Rahman. Help get others involved in saving the life of this Christian who refuses to deny Christ."

Bush expressed alarm this week, and on Thursday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice phoned Karzai, seeking a "favorable resolution" of the Rahman case.

Rice spokesman Sean McCormack said she told Karzai it is important for the Afghan people to know that freedom of religion is observed in their country.

Diplomats have said the Afghan government is searching for a way to drop the case. On Wednesday, authorities said Rahman is suspected of being mentally ill and would undergo psychological examinations to see whether he is fit to stand trial.

If Rahman is executed, political experts agree, Bush will have alienated his most loyal core constituency _ Christian conservatives.

"The Bush administration simply cannot let this happen. They have to stop this one way or the other. It would make a mockery of much of what President Bush has about our creation of a new democracy in Afghanistan," said Professor Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia, a keen analyst of American political trends.

"It splits his base, and it will be endless trouble for him if it goes forward, and I'm sure he won't it happen," Sabato said.

The largest Protestant denomination in America, the usually conservative Southern Baptists, also mobilized on the issue:

"The American people are not sending their young men and women to Afghanistan for this definition of freedom," said Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. "Compulsion in the name of any religion is shameful and should be rejected by any sincere professor of any religion. Mr. Rahman should be released immediately.

Christian activists have had strong influence over particular Bush foreign policy issues which they see as morally pivotal.

Christian lobbyists have focused on global trafficking in refugees, especially sex slaves; tried to pacify a two-decade war in Sudan between the Muslim government in the north and Christian and animist groups in the south; and have tried to crack North Korea's oppressive isolation by sending aid to covert Christian groups and smuggling out refugees.

Republican Congressman Chris Smith wrote to Bush saying that "the arrest of Mr. Rahman indicates that religious freedom and the fundamental human rights of not just this one man, but of each and every Afghan citizen, are still not fully protected in Afghanistan."

The Compass Direct News Agency, a group that monitors the persecutions of Christians worldwide, reported this week that two more Afghan Christians have been arrested and said more are being beaten and harassed by Afghans riled over the Rahman case.
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This is like throwing a big messy pie in Mr Bush face..