Several news reports over the last weekend in May are calling attention to pressure being applied to numerous Humanitarian Aid Organizations (NGOs) in Afghanistan. More significant than the impact on these NGOs is the threat to presumed Afghan Christians.

Over the last two days Afghan parliament has engaged in heated debate about accusations of NGO support for the spread of Christianity in the country. This situation developed as an Afghan allegedly posed as a Christian and provided youtube “evidence” that he had infiltrated an Afghan Christian meeting. He is making all sorts of unsubstantiated allegations while the Afghan government insists that there is no evidence against these NGOs.  In Afghanistan, real evidence is not even needed in order to do damage. Allegations are damning enough in such a volatile environment.  Reports suggest that Taliban forces are using the situation to stir up demonstrations and resistance to NGOs and the Karzai government.

So what can happen through incidents such as these? What has happened in the past in a country, a state, a city, or a village when Christianity begins to reach a critical mass to the point that opposing forces feel compelled to take action?

In China what happened?  Under oppression, the church in China went through a great scourging but the church eventually multiplied rapidly over several generations.  But what happened before that rapid multiplication occurred? There were many Christians who were brutally murdered.  There were others who denounced their faith – they could not withstand the torture, the imprisonment, the threat of execution.  In China, there were also those believers whose faith was fortified.  The human tragedy, the murders, the isolation of suspected family members creates unjust suffering in such a setting.

Afghanistan is not China, but we can surmise that events such as these could create immense persecution on any NGO that is rumored to have Christian origins or interests.  Churches around the world have compassionately responded in overwhelming fashion to the devastation in Afghanistan.   These compassionate efforts by Christians and non-Christians alike through NGOs could be severely restricted in the coming days, while Western troops fight for “freedom” for the Afghan people.

Confusing matters even worse, is the fact that there is conflict in the legal system in Afghanistan – one law would provide religious freedom and the other would insist on execution for conversion to Christianity.  Who can speak out for oppressed minorities in such a setting? There are  religious minorities in Afghanistan such as the Ahmadis.  Many Afghans call them apostate and subject Ahmadis to extreme persecution. However, Ahmadis may be at a level of critical mass to the degree that the Ahmadis have some ability to speak for themselves and turn to the Afghan and International Human Rights Commission.   Christians on the other hand, officially don’t exist in Afghanistan.  They have no official voice of influence to speak for them within government circles. Any group such as the Human Rights Commission, if they attempted to speak out for Christians, might not survive the onslaught of violent attacks even from within their own ranks.

So what exactly is God up to in Afghanistan? We obviously will not know for some time but we do know that the Afghan people and these NGO’s need our prayers.  Please take time to pray for the nation of Afghanistan during this crisis.

See Reuters Report Below

Afghanistan suspends two aid groups for Christianity probe

(Reuters) – Afghanistan’s government has suspended the activities of two Western aid groups on suspicion of proselytising, an official said Monday.

World Church Services (WCS) and the Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) were ordered to stop work as part of a government probe into the activities of aid groups after a private Afghan TV channel accused them of trying to convert Muslims — an offence that carries the death penalty in Afghanistan.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Economy, Sediq Amarkhil, said the government had no evidence against either organization, which started operating in the country during the rule of the Islamist Taliban, in the late 1990s.

As planning ministry in those days, the economy ministry oversaw NGO affairs.

“If proven after the investigation that they were involved in conversion activities, they will be introduced to the judicial authorities,” he said. “If not then they can resume their operations.”

Hundreds of foreign and Afghan non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are involved in essential humanitarian projects across the country — helping out in areas ranging from health to education — but some Afghans remain sceptical of their motives and suspect they could be a front for proselytising.

Officials from one suspended group declined to comment, while there was nobody immediately available from the other.

Proselytising is strictly forbidden in the Koran and illegal in deeply conservative Islamic Afghanistan, where tens of thousands of Western forces are fighting resurgent Taliban Islamists who want the expulsion of the troops as part of a holy war.

There have been bloody protests in the past in Afghanistan against the publication of images of Prophet Mohammad in some Western media.

Weeks before their ouster in a U.S.-led invasion in 2001, the Taliban detained several Western aid workers after accusing them of proselytising, but the group was freed in a raid by American special forces.

In 2007 Taliban insurgents kidnapped 21 South Koreans who were visiting as part of a church charity group and accused them of proselytising. Two of the hostages were murdered before the rest were released, although the government denied it had agreed to any ransom demands.

The latest development comes weeks after the government ordered 20 foreign aid groups and charities to close for failing to provide reports on their work and finances.

Some 152 Afghan non-governmental organizations were also ordered shut.

(Reporting by Sayed Salahuddin, Editing by David Fox)