KARACHI - The detention of aid workers by Afghanistan's ruling Taliban on charges of spreading Christianity has thrown the spotlight on the risks run by anyone even thinking of trying to convert Muslims in the purist Islamic nation.
Since sweeping to power in Kabul in 1996, the Taliban have stamped their hardline Islamic rule on most of the country and warned Christian evangelists to stay away.
By accusing eight foreign aid workers of trying to convert Afghan Muslims -- an offence punishable by death -- they have raised the stakes in what has always been a dangerous game in the impoverished and war-ravaged nation.
"No right-minded Christian missionary would dare attempt to convert an Afghan! Jihad (holy war) would begin right there and then," wrote Terry Dougherty, a U.S. peace corps volunteer in Afghanistan during the period from 1972 to 1975.
The Taliban, widely condemned abroad for human rights abuses, have now taken an even tougher stance than previous Afghan regimes, which also banned the promotion of Christianity.
The detention of 24 aid workers -- four Germans, two Australians, two Americans and 16 Afghans from German-based Christian relief agency Shelter Now International -- may reflect Taliban hostility to the West.
Tensions between the Taliban and aid workers, including those in the United Nations, have been rising for months. Although many non-governmental organisations are run by Christian groups, most focus on help as a Christian duty rather than a way to win souls.
"I am a Christian, but in Afghanistan, as with everywhere else, I concentrate on helping improve lives," said an aid worker with long experience in Afghanistan.
"Anyone who comes in under the aid flag should stick to that and not attempt to exploit people's misery."
MISSIONARIES
Since Afghans began fleeing conflict more than 21 years ago some Christians have targeted refugees in Pakistan and elsewhere. Evangelical groups say they have converted as many as 90,000.
It is impossible to gauge the extent of their activities inside Afghanistan, where not only converting from Islam but encouraging conversion can carry a death sentence.
One Christian with 25 years in Afghanistan, told a Christian conference after the Taliban came to power that her group had suffered, but she had to remain.
"During... 15 years of civil war, two of our team members were murdered. Colleagues were tortured. Team members experienced beatings, robberies, threats and attempted rapes," she said.
"Staying (in Afghanistan) may involve injury, even loss of life. We believe Jesus would say that in his kingdom there are things worth dying for."
The vast majority of Afghanistan's 25 million population is Muslim, but among the tiny minorities as many as 1,500 Christians worship in secret, often guided by short-wave broadcasts in Pashto, Dari and Hazaragi languages.
In a country with an estimated 48,000 mosques, the only church was built in Kabul during the reign of King Zahir Shah in 1970. It was bulldozed a few years later.
In 1998, the Taliban's Voice of Shariat Radio said Christian activities threatened the nation.
"We will fight to the death for this cause and we condemn their action and will never forgive them."
ARRESTS BEGIN
In early August, the Taliban's religious police detained the SNI workers, triggering an international outcry by initially refusing to let them see representatives of their governments.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) visited the eight on August 26.
SNI, which says its staff are told not to proselytise, is no stranger to controversy in Afghanistan or neighbouring Pakistan, where it works with Afghan refugees in squalid camps.
In 1990, a mob angered by preaching by some members attacked SNI facilities, including a centre for young widows at Nasir Bagh refugee camp near the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar.
In 1997, SNI was listed by a Pakistani newspaper among aid agencies accused of proselytising.
Mohammad Salim Haqqani, the Taliban's deputy minister for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice -- the ministry of the religious police -- in August showed reporters an apology sent in 1999 by SNI after an SNI staffer was expelled for preaching.
"This letter proves that under the cover of helping the destitute people, (SNI) were actually involved in converting people," Haqqani said.
An SNI employee dismissed the charge. "(The expelled man) was a little bit of a crazy man, he was just standing in the market talking to the Mullahs (clerics). He was not proselytising, he was just talking about different things and they took offence."
UNREACHED PEOPLES
Christian networks abroad identify Afghanistan, its suffering from the war compounded by the worst drought in decades, as a prime target with a large number of "unreached peoples."
U.S.-based Livethecall recently delivered 2,200 blankets to Afghan refugees. "We met both the physical and spiritual needs as our brothers and sisters in Christ took blankets and the Gospel to those who desperately need to know of the hope of life in Christ," it said on its website (www.livethecall.com).
Voice of the Martyrs, a U.S.-based evangelical group, says it hopes Taliban rights abuses will drive people to Christianity.
"Open profession of faith in Christ has often led to death... Pray that abuses by the Taliban regime will cause many to seek God's grace," it said on its website (www.persecution.com).
John Marion, director of the Center of Peace and Hope in Christ for Afghanistan (www.afghanbibles.com), lived in Afghanistan from 1992-95 with his wife and two children.
"Officially, none of our work was missionary work. My personal motivation for going to Afghanistan was to learn... so that I could have an effective gospel ministry outreach to the people of Afghanistan," Marion told Reuters in an e-mail from the United States.
Marion, who this year sent Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar a letter explaining how to get bibles in local Dari and Pashto languages, said he was prepared to die for his faith.
"As a follower of Christ, I must be willing to die for him. Any... Christians who have the same perspective as I... are justified in taking the risk to evangelise inside Afghanistan."
21:41 08-27-01
Copyright 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.