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Taliban arrests
expose Christian missionary activities in Muslim countries
The Taliban
authorities in Afghanistan arrested 24 staff members
of a German charity working in Kabul on August 5, setting
off yet another international outcry about their alleged
inhumanity. The outcry was quickly muted, however, when,
three days later, the Taliban displayed clear evidence
that the charity had in fact been involved in covert
Christian missionary work under cover of its charitable
activities.
Shortly
after the arrests, the Taliban authorities also published
new laws governing foreigners working in Afghanistan,
clarifying the confusion surrounding edicts leaked to
the press in June, which had appeared harsh. Under the
new laws, foreigners propogating other religions will
be subjected only to a month’s imprisonment and expulsion
from the country. Other regulations govern the playing
of music and the drinking of alcohol, saying that these
are banned only in public, not totally.
Eight
of the 24 arrested were foreigners, two of them American,
two Australian and four German. They were initially
reported to be employees of Shelter Now International
(SNI), an US-based Christian relief organization committed
to providing housing for refugees in Africa, Asia and
eastern Europe. The evidence discovered by the Taliban
authorities clearly indicated, however, that they were
involved in evangelical work. It included thousands
of Bibles translated into local languages, as well as
large numbers of audio- and video-tapes of Christian
teachings.
Moreover,
it soon also became clear from other evidence developments
that there was substance to the Taliban’s claims. The
day after the arrests, the SNI’s base office in Wisconsin,
USA, issued a statement denying that those arrested
had any connection with them. The statement said that
they were employed by a German-based agency that has
"sometimes used the name Shelter Now without SNI’s
permission, thus creating the confusion surrounding
this incident."
The German
agency referred to by SNI was subsequently identified
as Vision for Asia, a US-German evangelical group specifically
committed to spreading Christianity among "the
unreached non-Christians of the World".
However,
Mike Heil, Vision for Asia’s spokesman in the US, denied
that the eight arrested in Kabul had any connection
with the organization, although he admitted knowing
them. Instead, he insisted that they were working for
a SNI affiliate based in Germany. He also pointed out
the danger to the eight prisoners of identifying them
with Vision for Asia. "It’s a potentially dangerous
problem," he said, "because Vision for Asia
is an evangelical organization and Shelter Now is a
humanitarian one. Although we work together our mandates
are different and distinct. Because we have been linked
so closely in the press, in my mind it’s putting the
workers from Shelter Now that are being detained in
more jeopardy."
Heil’s
position, however, is made untenable by SNI’s prior
denial that those arrested have any connection with
it; instead it seems in line with SNI’s claim that they
are connected with a group that "sometimes use[s]
the name Shelter Now without permission." In fact,
SNI’s hands are hardly clean either. In the early 1990s,
SNI were expelled from Pakistan, where they had been
working among Afghan refugees, precisely because their
workers were trying to Christianize Afghan refugees.
The Ottawa
Citizen newspaper pointed out on August 8 that SNI’s
own website also promotes missionary work under cover
of charitable activities. Commenting on the expulsion
of some workers from Afghanistan in 1998, the site reads
in part: "Obviously being a strict Muslim country,
foreign missionaries are not allowed to come there and
evangelize, but there are many Christians who have come
as aid workers... People in Afghanistan have never heard
the name of Jesus Christ, so it is a place of tremendous
need. It’s one of the final frontiers for the Gospel
to penetrate. Pray for those who have been forced to
leave the country and just pray that they’d be able
to return."
In another
clear indication of the guilt of those arrested, Australian
diplomats in Pakistan said that they would be travelling
to Kabul when permission was granted, not to protest
against the missionaries’ arrests or demand that they
be released, but simply to ensure their safety and offer
them legal representation. If the two Australians arrested
had done anything wrong, he said, they would have to
answer to the law of the land.
As a result
of the new laws for foreigners, announced after the
arrests, their punishment may not be as severe as had
initially been expected, when some reports suggested
that they could be executed. The risk of a month’s imprisonment
and expulsion is, unfortunately, unlikely to deter other
missionaries from trying to exploit the plight of Afghanistan’s
suffering people.
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