Judi Moylan (Pearce, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Would the minister inform the House of the latest developments in the case against an Afghan man accused of converting to Christianity?

Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Pearce for her question. I know she is very concerned about human rights issues and I appreciate her asking the question. Not surprisingly, the Australian government regards it as repugnant for anybody to be punished for the religious beliefs that they hold. We have made that very clear to the government of Afghanistan. We have made it clear that our fundamental support is for the principle that all people should be free to practise their religions, regardless of what their religions are. Of course, our opposition to the death penalty is well known.

Last week I instructed my department to call in the Afghanistan ambassador to relay our strong concerns back to his government in Kabul that an Afghan citizen was apparently facing the death sentence over a change of his religious beliefs from Islam to Christianity. The Prime Minister subsequently wrote to President Karzai of Afghanistan to express the government’s view that it is offensive to our values and our way of life to prosecute Mr Rahman, particularly when Australian soldiers are in that country risking their lives in fighting the Taliban.

I must say that I warmly welcome the media reports today—which, let me hasten to add, have not been confirmed—that Mr Rahman’s case has been referred back to Afghanistan’s Attorney-General for further review, because of what are described as gaps in the evidence, and that Mr Rahman will be released from custody pending the review. I do hope that the charges against Mr Rahman will be dropped and that freedom of religion, in practice as well as in theory, will be respected in the newly democratic Afghanistan. We will continue to monitor the progress of the case and we will continue to press the government of Afghanistan on this issue.

This is not a question, for Australia’s part, of promoting Christianity at the expense of Islam, or about Islamic values versus non-Islamic values, or whatever it may be. Rather, as Prime Minister Blair said today in his speech right here in the House of Representatives, we believe there are some universal values that we should stand up for—and those values are the right of all global citizens, not just some. The freedom of individuals to practise whatever religion they choose is one of those values.