Bush ‘Deeply Troubled’ by Rahman Case
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
ISLAMABAD – President Bush said yesterday that he was “deeply troubled” that Abdul Rahman, 41, faces a possible death sentence for converting to Christianity from Islam 16 years ago.
Mr. Bush said in a speech that a young democracy is growing in Afghanistan, but “We expect them to honor the universal principle of freedom.”
He continued: “I’m … deeply troubled when I hear the fact that a person who converted away from Islam may be held to account. That’s not the universal application of the values that I talked about.”
The case is an awkward one for the Afghan leader Hamid Karzai and his American and Nato allies who provide foreign aid and troops and consistently urge respect for different religions.
Afghanistan is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which enshrines religious freedom.
Members of Mr. Bush’s government raised the matter when Afghanistan’s foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah, recently visited Washington, but Mr. Bush has now taken the unusual step of weighing in on an individual case in a foreign country.
