Christians should
anticipate martyrdom

Most Christians were jarred by the trial of Abdul Rahman before the Afghan court. He faces the death penalty for having converted to Christianity. The possible penalty, as provided by Afghan Law or Sharia is death.

His own family, devote Afghan Muslims, had complained to authorities that Rahman had abandoned his Islamic faith and embraced the Christian faith.

Rahman, however, told the court that he had converted and embraced the Christian faith.

That may have surprised a lot of local believers. But actually that is no surprise to most who had experienced the truth about the Islamic practices.

For example, there is a former Muslim, now converted to Christianity, who sought refuge in Metro Manila and refused to go back to his irate family in Mindanao. Another, who converted after listening to him about how he converted, has also opted to stay behind in the metropolis. They have a common fear - that they would be executed for apostasy by their own families and kin.

Church leaders have long been aware of the anomaly of, for example, Saudi Arabia. There, everybody who comes into the Kingdom must give up his rosary and other Christian symbols. And you are not allowed Christian worship. The only mass allowed in the past were the masses celebrated at the Chancery of the Philippine Embassy in Jeddah.

This was my personal experience. Although equipped with a diplomatic passport went I went there in 1982, my baggage was ransacked and my rosary beads confiscated. The rest, however, were safeguarded from possible confiscation with the warning that they were not to be displayed.

There are, of course, a lot of variations about this mindset. Some "liberal" Muslim countries, particularly the Gulf States, close their eyes to Christian worship and attempts at proselytization. But, by and large, it remains taboo to embrace another faith. The penalty is death. Either through judicial judgment or by one's family members.

That Afghan incident, which had roused concerns in many countries, including from US President George Bush, is actually nothing new. It is part and parcel of Islamic faith where apostasy, as it is called, merits death. Ostracism, at least.

For years, I had focused on this violation of the universal declaration of human rights by, at least, Saudi Arabia. Our own bishops were aware of this. They even send priests to the Kingdom under the guise of secular workers. These carry on with the administration of the sacraments. But that remains a very risky venture.

That projected incident serves as a warning to Christians that we risk martyrdom. Not just martyrdom by dying but worse, the carping and ostracism that daily greets the believer not only in Islamic societies but also elsewhere in the world. Especially in the supposed Christian European community where they exorcised their Christian roots because that tended to alienate the believers of other religions.

***

Yesterday, I listened to former Vice Mayor Ramiro Garcia discuss dispassionately two major issues - the proposed government center (or city hall) and its proposed location, and the BREDCO-City Hall row over the Bacolod Port.

Based on his prolonged technical study, the former Bacolod vice mayor cited the Mansilingan property being donated by former Councilor Monju Guanzon and the Bacolod airport as the best possible sites for the proposed government center.

He took issue with the term government center, pointing out that should include national and regional as well as local government offices. In short, the executive order by City Mayor Evelio Leonardia to skirt the issue is still to be controverted, i.e. clarified.

And, by the way, I must correct the previous impression I had that Monju had offered the Paglaum property of the family. Monju had corrected that earlier. He told me that what he was donating was five hectares of the Guanzon family in the area fronting the present site of the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Mansilingan.

Garcia mentioned another potential area - Vista Alegre. The airport, he pointed out, still await the donation by Lucio Tan.

The crux of the question - where is the study of the proposed city hall? In short, the architectural design plus the engineering costs as well as the backup area for possible examination. In short, you just don't wish it. You must have the plans completed and submitted for technical evaluation. That can't be done overnight. And the crucial issue that has to be studied is also where is the deed of donation of the city hall by the Luzuriaga family? And, yes, that was originally, according to Garcia, donated to the provincial government. In short, that remains questionable.

There is the ridiculous point of having the mayor's office remaining in a place seven kilometers away from the offices of the various city departments.

Anyway, that Garcia rejoiner are feedback that Mayor Leonardia must focus on before he gets involved in a bigger legal tussle than he had originally imagined he was getting into.*

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