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2. Italy welcomes man who fled Afghanistan | Italy granted asylum Wednesday to an Afghan who faced the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity, and Premier Silvio Berlusconi said the man was in the care of the Interior Ministry after arriving in Italy earlier in the day. (Associated Press)
   
   
3. U.N. defends intervention in Afghan convert case | The United Nations said on Thursday it intervened in the case of an Afghan Christian who had faced death for abandoning Islam to ensure his rights and because the country's ties with its main backers were in grave danger. (Reuters)
   
   
4. Afghan Christian convert granted asylum in Italy | An Afghan Christian convert who had faced the death penalty for abandoning Islam arrived in Italy and was granted asylum, Italy said on Wednesday. (Reuters)
   
   
5. Afghan convert vanishes after release | An Afghan man who had faced the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity quickly vanished Tuesday after he was released from prison, apparently out of fear for his life with Muslim clerics still demanding his death (Associated Press)
   
   
6. Afghan Christian convert is freed | An Afghan threatened with execution for abandoning Islam for Christianity has been freed, Kabul said on Tuesday, after pressure from the Western states whose troops helped bring the Afghan government to power (Reuters)
   
   
7. 'I want to read Bible in peace': Afghan convert | Abdul Rahman, the Afghan who risked the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity, has thanked Italy for granting him political asylum, saying he will finally be able to read the Bible in peace. (Sydney Morning Herald, Australia)
   
   
8. Convert case causes row between Afghan Supreme Court and parliament | The release of Abdul Rahman, the Afghan national who risked the death penalty for converting to Christianity, has triggered a row between the Afghan Supreme Court and the newly established parliament, reports said on Thursday. (Khaleej Times, United Arab Emirates)
   
   
9. UN may be protecting Afghan freed in conversion case | Abdul Rahman, threatened with the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity in a case that drew Western condemnation, disappeared yesterday. (Chicago Tribune, via The Boston Globe)
   
   
10. Afghan convert arrives in Italy as protests mount in homeland | Abdul Rahman, the Afghan convert to Christianity who faced a possible death sentence in his homeland for rejecting Islam, has arrived in Italy and will be granted political asylum here, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Wednesday. (Washington Post)
    
    
11. In Kabul, a test for Shariah | The news that a man in Afghanistan might face a death sentence for converting to Christianity brought cries of outrage around the world last week (The New York Times)
    
    
12. Afghan convert to Christianity is released | The Justice Ministry has released a jailed Afghan man who faced the death penalty for converting to Christianity, a spokesman said (The New York Times)
    
    

Opinions & editorials:

1. Muslims demand respect - but not for Christians | Abdul Rahman's case is just one among many in the Islamic world of people who are facing the ultimate penalty (Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali, The Telegraph, London)
   
   
2. Inequality in taking offense? | The impending execution of Abdul Rahman for embracing Christianity is, of course, offensive to Westerners, and so around the world we reacted equally violently by issuing blood-curdling threats like that made by State Department spokesman Sean McCormack: "Freedom of worship is an important element of any democracy," he said. "And these are issues as Afghan democracy matures that they are going to have to deal with increasingly" (Mark Steyn, The Washington Times)
   
   

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March (Web-only) 2006, Vol. 50