The Shape of Days

About forty people gathered in front of the Afghan embassy in Washington, D.C., at noon today to show their support for Abdul Rahman specifically, and freedom of religion and conscience in general.

In addition to the forty people — some waving signs and chanting, some just silently standing in support — there were four news crews, including one from NBC, and a handful of photographers. And a bunch of D.C. cops and six or seven Secret Service agents.

Unfortunately — and this is really just a quibble on my part — the “Abdul Rahman is a Christian” angle was pretty prevalent in the public statements of some of the attendees. I really don’t want this conflict to turn into a story about Christians. My friend Cam, who spoke on-camera at some length, said it best. “If this guy converted from Islam to atheism, we’d still be out here,” he said. Because Islamic law would still have condemned him as an apostate. The fact that he happened to leave Islam to become a Christian isn’t central to the story, and it’s a shame that some folks are getting confused about that.

But for lunch on a Friday on Embassy Row in an inconvenient and hard-to-get-to part of D.C., the turn-out was outstanding, and the message got out.

Pictures are coming. My friend Tom was there and snapped a few shots; he’s going to send me a link later.

Update

Pictures are up.

• Rally for Rahman
• You don’t have to be crazy to convert from Islam to Christianity, but it helps you avoid being put to death for it
• AP: Charges dropped, Rahman to be ‘released soon’