Terry Waite speaks on Kember

Norman Kember is out and celebrations are in order. But his case, and that of Abdul Rahman, facing the death penalty in Afghanistan for converting to Christianity, have highlighted the extent to which 'Christianophobia' flourishes around the world. Kember was working for Christian Peacemaker Teams. The think tank Ekklesia that works with CPT in the UK has put together a briefing here. Open Doors is running a Lenten prayer diary for persecuted Christians around the world. Open Doors is also putting out a story by Barbara Baker of Compass, on the extent to which Rahman's story has led to an escalation of harrassment of other Afghan Christians. The Barnabas Fund has also taken up the case. I also spoke exclusively to former hostage Terry Waite, who offers, below, his own useful insights in the wake of Kember's release. More on Kember, including an audio interview he did last year, can be found at Premier here. See also Christian Freedom International website.

But first, from Baker. She reports: 'An avalanche of media coverage of an Afghan man facing the death penalty for converting to Christianity has apparently sparked the arrest and deepening harassment of other Afghan Christians in the ultra-conservative Muslim country.Authorities arrested Abdul Rahman, 41, last month for apostasy, a capital offense under strict Islamic laws still in place in Afghanistan, which four years ago was wrested from the Taliban regime’s hard-line Islamist control.

'During the past few days, Compass has confirmed the arrest of two other Afghan Christians elsewhere in the country. Because of the sensitive situation, local sources requested that the location of the jailed converts be withheld. This past weekend, one young Afghan convert to Christianity was beaten severely outside his home by a group of six men, who finally knocked him unconscious with a hard blow to his temple. He woke up in the hospital two hours later but was discharged before morning. “Our brother remains steadfast, despite the ostracism and beatings,” one of his friends said.Several other Afghan Christians have been subjected to police raids on their homes and places of work in the past month, as well as to telephone threats.'

Open Doors runs a World Watch List of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted. For the fourth year running, the communist nation of North Korea is top, followed by the Islamic country of Saudi Arabia. The other Islam-dominated countries in the top ten are Iran (at Nr 3), Somalia (4), Maldives (5), and Yemen (8). The communist countries in the top ten include Vietnam (7), Laos (9) and China (10). Mahayana Buddhism is the state religion of Bhutan which comes in at number 6.

Open Doors says tens of thousands of Christians are currently suffering in North Korean prison camps. 'Some think the hermit regime has detained more political and religious prisoners than any other country in the world. North Koreans sometimes become Christians after crossing the border with China and entering into contact with local Christians. However, they are targeted on their return to North Korea, facing torture and death if exposed as Christian believers. Though no exact figures can be given, Open Doors estimates that hundreds of Christians were killed by the regime in 2005.'

Open Doors says: 'Saudi Arabia holds the second spot on the list for the fourth year in a row. Religious freedom does not exist in Saudi Arabia. The legal system is based on Shariah and 'apostasy' – leaving Islam or converting to another religion – is punishable by death. Open Doors recorded more than 70 expatriate Christians who were arrested there in 2005 during worship in private homes in what has been called Saudi Arabia’s largest crackdown on Christians in a decade. Most of the arrested Christians were released after a period of incarceration.

'Iran, which is in third place, has seen an even greater deterioration in religious freedom for Christians, following the election of the hard-line conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the presidency in June 2005. The new president hailed his election triumph as a new Islamic revolution that could spread throughout the world and pledged to restore an Islamic government in Iran.'

The expert on Islam and Christianity and world order is the Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali. His book on the subject, Conviction and Conflict, has just been published. Leading a debate today, Thursday, in the House of Lords, he said: 'This week we have had the appalling news from Afghanistan about a man being threatened with execution simply because he became a Christian 14 years ago.  I have been told repeatedly, and over the years, by Muslim scholars that there is no compulsion in matters of faith, that apostasy is only punishable in the after-life and that Islam respects fundamental human rights.  I plead with them now to speak up for Abdur Rahman.  We need to ask what kind of freedom and democracy we are promoting in that country.'

Terry Waite, held hostage in Beirut for 1,760 days before being released in November 1991, today had some words of advice for Norman Kember - and for the British government. Speaking exclusively to The Times, he said: 'A couple of days ago I was talking to the families and friends of the Canadian hostages. They were understandably feeling very low. They wanted to talk to someone who had been through the experience. I told them that I could only say one thing: "Do not let hope go until you can be absolutely sure it is the end.

'My wife went for three years without any news that I was alive. She held onto hope.'

His first reaction to Kember's release was one of 'absolute delight'. He said: 'When a hostage comes out of a situation like that, it is a bit confusing. You go into the embassy compound and have a medical check. After that there is an intelligence debriefing. Then you are reunited by phone with your family. Coming out of a traumatic situation like that, it is best to do one big press conference then retreat for a while. It is like coming out of the sea bed. If you come out quickly, you will get the bends. If you come out gently, you will be alright. I benefited from the fact that I was able to tell my story to a trained listener [Dr Gordon Turnbull, with the RAF medical team at the time].'

Terry, speaking from a car on his way to the airport, continued: 'If you talk about it pretty soon afterwards, you find you can come to terms with it and deal with it. If you suppress it and push it down, as many of the Japanese POWs did  because they had no other option, the chances are it will make its reappearance in another way.'

He applauded the aims of the Christian Peacemaker Teams, to aid peace, reconciliation and understanding. But he added: 'I would question the tactic at the moment in situations that have become very polarised. Twenty years ago it was quite possible for me to go out and meet kidnappers and to reason with them. That would not necessarily have led to my captivity in Beirut had it not been for political duplicity [of others] where trust between me and the kidnappers was broken. Today such a position is impossible, largely because the situation has become polarised.

'It has become polarised, largely because of the action taken by the West in invading Iraq. It has given the extremists justification for recruiting impressionable yuong people into their ranks and has increased the polarisation. So many hostages have been killed. If it is not political motivation it descends to the criminal - extortion and money. I applaud the desire to stand alongside local people who themselves have been subject to appalling problems, but almost inevitably, if you do stand in the middle of a polarised situation, you are going to be hit. You have to be prepared to take the consequences of that. If you are captured, you may well be killed.' When hostages were taken, the lives of the people seeking their release were also put at risk, he said.

'Mercifully, in this case, as far as I know no-one was killed, no shot was fired. Speaking from a distance and not knowing all the facts, I know things were going on beneath the surface. This could not have been done without someone from the inside giving good intelligence.'

In his own case, he said, he used to sit in his cell  and pray that force would not be used to release him. The setting was so complex, that such an approach would certainly have resulted in deaths.

'You will not deal with international terrorism in the long term by the force of arms. That will create more resistance.  The only way is to have an intelligence-based programme, to put a heavy emphasis on the creation of good relationships with local people rather than alienating them. We have seen this in Northern Ireland.

'So this [the Kember] situation raises the whole question of how we tackle international terrorism today.' He said invading Iraq, Guantanamo Bay and 'extraordinary rendition' were all signs of 'victory for the terrorist'.

'No civilised state should engage in these things. We have got to clean up our act, use good intelligence and good diplomacy, and use force of arms as a last resort.'

Comments

[Sergeant Raj Joshi, Leicestershire]

Ruth,

It is an absolute relief to know that Norman Kember has been freed. This is wonderful news.

I am wondering how in Afghanistan, some Christians are facing the death sentence. Please correct me if I have mistaken this issue, but people are now being sentenced to death because of the faith they pursue. This is an absurd form of racism and therefore terrorism. India's history is riddled with historical forced conversion to Islam. Do these people not realise they have no right to force another to give up their faith to take on another. Surely International Human Rights must have a say. In 2006 this is an extraordinary situation in a "civilised world."

Almost 5000 or so years ago Lord Krishna stated clearly if one has a belief in God, it does not matter which God one believes in. What matters is that one has love for God and humanity.

Terroism has no boundares and is taking on another meaning here I am afraid. Leaders of Islam must condemn this behaviour. As a Hindu I condemn it totally and leaders of all faiths must do the same. God Bless Norman Kember.

[Tim Cooper]

I am so pleased that Norman Kember and the other hostages have been freed unharmed and my heart grieves for the family of Tom Fox. But what makes the CPT think it is going to stem the violence that exists in Iraq? The kidnapping was predictable. Locating and releasing hostages puts more soldiers lives at risk and whilst I agree wholeheartedly that we should be working towards world peace and that Iraq is an unjust war that Britain should certainly not be a part of. To approach militant extremists from a Christian standpoint is divisive, ineffectual and partisan. The CPT cannot address cultural violence because it is not impartial. Some militant groups see Christianity as the problem and to persecute Christians as the answer.

I am one of millions of people worldwide who is unencumbered by faith in absent or mythical deities, albeit I unreservedly uphold the democratic rights of others to embrace whatever faith they deem appropriate. I also believe that people with no faith have an absolute right to live moral, peaceful lives in a world not torn apart by religion. I am offended that so many others, in following the many varying paths of rancorous piety, are involving the rest of society in the violent consequences of their beliefs.

Lobbying our unprincipled politicians over burgeoning arms sales (Britain is the 4th largest exporter of arms worldwide) and their selfish and disastrous foreign policies might be a better objective for the CPT.

I am so pleased and relieved that Mr Kember and his associates are to return home and I hope they have not suffered. I am sure that they are good, honourable people, but I believe it was wholly naive to go there is the first place.

[tonymixan]

Wars end with the defeat of the enemy;not with all this "nicety" bull roar of Christians like Kember and his ilk. But I am glad they are alive.

[Alistair McBay]

At the same time that even "friendly" Muslim regimes heighten their persecution of Christians and everybody else, our Prime Minister told us during the week in his "Terorism must be tackled head-on" speech that his "Ministers have been advised never to use the term "Islamist extremist". ( see http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page9224.asp)

But why should they not? Blair also said in the same paragraph of the speech that "to say his (the Islamist extremist's) religion is irrelevant is both completely to misunderstand his motive and to refuse to face up to the strain of extremism within his religion that has given rise to it." But that just makes the edict on Ministers not to call Islamic extremists by this descriptor all the more bizarre.

As even Bush's pals in Saudi increase their persecution of non-Muslims, so the West increases its appeasement of Muslim sensitivities. We're sorry we have offended your sacred beliefs with a few cartoons published in Denmark, so we'll modify our sacred - and hard won - belief of freedom of expression to keep you happy. Is it any wonder that Afghan imams are thus encouraged to limit the rights and freedoms of people to change their religion? We'll stop using the term Islamist extremist but you carry on persecuting non-Muslims and denying their basic human rights.

At an IPPR conference this week Home Secretary Charles Clarke intimated that the Government might yet extend the blasphemy law to cover all religions, rather than abolish it, as had been implied if the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill got through Parliament. Then Turkish foreign minister Abdullah Gul told a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Austria that blasphemy laws in every country should be extended to cover Islam. He said that Muslims viewed European laws protecting the Christian religion and banning anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial as a double standard.

You shouldn't bet against Muslims winning this argument, given Clarke and Blair's willingness to appease. So it will probably be a crime soon for all of us, not just Government Ministers, to describe Bin Laden as an "Islamic extremist", and my sacred freedom of expression will be trumped by the Government's all-out policy to appease Muslim sentiment. The MCB wanted this result anyway as a result of the incitement to religious hatred bill, had it got through Parliament.

Blair may be fighting Islamist extremism, but the manner in which Islam is steadily advancing in the West even after 9/11, and with the West's tacit approval, must convince Bin Laden and his pals that their strategy is working overall in Islam's favour.

Finally, a question to Raj Joshi, who says "God bless Norman Kember". Do you think Allah is blessing him too?

[Sebastian]

I agree entirely with the view that Norman Kember and his colleagues - one of whom has been slaughtered - are foolish and naive. No matter how honourable their sentiments might seem to some, they have caused stress and anxiety; they have diverted energy and resources towards a rescue that should never have been necessary; they have risked others' lives; there may have been an expensive "deal" preceding their discovery in an empty house; and during their capture they have given their terrorist captors some valuable, chilling propaganda. And what in return? What have they achieved? Unless you believe - I don't - that the sort of gratuitous and self indulgent empathising as recently voiced by, say, Bruce Kent, benefits Iraqis, then Mr Kempner and his deluded colleagues have achieved nothing practical at all.
I wish the gentleman well and the long life that, but for the military rescue he seems reluctant to show gratitude for, may have otherwise ended with a Kalashnikov head shot. I hope he will now perhaps listen to his devoted wife - and stay permanently at home.

[Robin Bather]

Norman Kember's release is a reason to be joyful but he does seem rather mean spirited in his cool praise to those who risked their lives for him and the other hostages.

[Alistair McBay]

On the one hand, faith leads the devout Blair and Bush to invoke their Christian God in their middle-east foreign policy. On the other hand, the same faith (apparently) leads the devout Kember to invoke the same Christian God in an ethical, if naive, stand against it.

This sort of absurdity does rather suggest the world might be better off without constant interference by the do-goody religious invoking their personal God in order to impose their will on others.

[Douglas Knight]

Surely it cannot be all that difficult to understand what Norman Kember is about. The man is a witness. ‘Witness’ is a Christian technical term of very long standing (Greek: martyr). The witness simply goes, watches and speaks out about what he sees. He is a witness when he observes the brutal grind of life in much of the world, for example, at the Israeli checkpoints that blight life in the West Bank, and then comes home after a couple of months to tell us about them. He is a witness when in Iraq he hears about people’s experiences, and is seized and held hostage, and afterwards is able to come home to tell us about it. And he is a witness when he is seized and put to death, as one of Kember’s colleagues was.

The witness just takes the knocks he is given. He witnesses to his master’s victory by not being frightened of violence and death, or of the incomprehension and derision of the on-looking media.

In terms of family and of his own career as a doctor Norman Kember had made his contribution already. In the UK, if you are over seventy years of age it is thought that you can have nothing more to contribute, and can only hope not to become a burden. But a man with grandchildren might well decide that is something that he can do for his grandchildren’s generation. He can point towards an alternative form of politics, of truth and peace, by witnessing the violence in Iraq. At the same time Kember’s was also an act of witness against the our attitudes towards older people.

Obviously the media do not understand how there could ever be anything worth dying for. But I think we owe it them to explain, and we could do this in terms of peace, truth and justice. Or, to baffle them completely, let us tell them that Christ compels us.

[Alistair McBay]

Of course it's not difficult to understand what Kember is about. The fact remains, however, that the reason he was in Iraq is because other Christian activists - in the White House and in 10 Downing Street - had the same self-proclaimed courage of their convictions to bring peace to the middle east.

As it turns out, the Blair/Bush Christian axis has now discovered the real threat to the stability of the region is Iraq's Muslim neighbour to the east, so now plans are being drawn up for military action against Iran too. Muslims have their own view, of course, as to who constitutes the real threat to peace in the region.

The middle east has been troubled throughout history by plagues of Christian activists falling over themselves to 'bear witness' to their God, so much so that in March 2000 Pope John Paul II was moved to issue a famous apology for two millennia worth of such "bearing witness". Perhaps if this apology became an annual event, rather than issued once every 2000 years, then the message might finally get through to the faithful?