South Korean Christians ordered out of Afghanistan

[Captain1]

South Korean Christians ordered out of Afghanistan
57 minutes ago

KABUL (AFP) - Afghanistan](http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=Afghanistan)'s government ordered around 1,500 South Korean Christians who came to the Islamic republic for a “peace festival” to leave the country, a South Korean official said.

A South Korean government team sent to Afghanistan amid concerns about the group’s presence was trying to organize their departure as soon as possible, a member of the team said on condition of anonymity.

Religious issues are sensitive in volatile Afghanistan and a group of clerics in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif has spoken out against the visitors, accusing them of trying to spread Christianity – which they deny.

“We are trying to send them to wherever they came from but it involves a lot of administrative work,” the South Korean government official said. “These people are not criminals, we are just sending them back.”

He said the government had ordered the group to leave because of security reasons. “They said they had some assessment and the risk of them becoming a target is very high,” he said.

The official could not say how many Koreans would be made to leave but it was all those associated with the “peace festival” due in Kabul at the weekend.

The South Korean-based Institute of Asian Culture and Development that was organising the event said there were about 1,500 South Koreans in the country, including 600 children. Some were from the United States and Canada.

The Afghan government would not confirm the South Koreans, reported to be evangelical Christians, had been ordered to leave.

However, one high-ranking official said on condition of anonymity: “They were given tourist visas and now it seems they are misusing their tourist visas.”

Source

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I saw the headline and I couldn’t believe my eyes, a democratic country, ally of US is ordering some “peace festival” people to leave :eek:

I wonder how much of uproar/cry it would’ve caused in worldwide media had it been carried out under Taliban.

[Mr_Fraudia]

Re: South Korean Christians ordered out of Afghanistan

true dat.
woulda been spun one way or the other by all sides involved
kinda like this would be or is being spun

[Seminole]

Re: South Korean Christians ordered out of Afghanistan

What a pity that the Afghan clerics and the people they incite are so insecure and extremist with their views that they can't handle peolpe of a different religion celebrating peace.

[Ohioguy]

Re: South Korean Christians ordered out of Afghanistan

The real story is that they are being expelled for prostylizing.

Is Islam that insecure? Of course if a Western country expelled an Islamic Cleric for prostylitzing, the Muslim world would be running around with their hair on fire. Double standard?

You betcha...

[Captain1]

Re: South Korean Christians ordered out of Afghanistan

^ OG, Seminole: Don't you think you would've been watching this news like 10 times every hour on almost all channels in media if the regime was that of Taliban?

[mAd_ScIeNtIsT]

Re: South Korean Christians ordered out of Afghanistan

Expelling aside, the USA does not allow certain Islamic clerics even enter, despite Western European governments having no issue with them.

Tariq Ramadan comes to mind, as does Yousaf Al-Qaradawi.

[Mehnaz]

Re: South Korean Christians ordered out of Afghanistan

Don’t forget Cat Stevens MS.

[Ohioguy]

Re: South Korean Christians ordered out of Afghanistan

Every country retains the right to limit visas to those that are considered security risks. The situation is not comparable. Are these Koreans security risks?

Let's face it, there is a basic lack of fairness in Islam. What is the penalty for converting to Christianity from Islam? "Islamic countries" will allow people to practice a religion, but not expand a religion except by birth. If we subjected *you guys *to the same limits in western countries you would scream bloody murder.

[SugarFree]

Re: South Korean Christians ordered out of Afghanistan

Proselytizing is not a good idea when people are dying in desperation and hunger. When, more than anything else, they need food and water. Exploiting the indigenous tribal people, who are homeless, poor and needy, whether in remote villages of Africa or Afghanistan is just pathetic. Also such efforts put into proselytizing/preaching are hardly worthy of emulation. You know where I am going with this; there have been many incidents where the missionaries used ‘food’ to entice their subjects into converting to the missionary religion. That’s wicked!

[Mehnaz]

Re: South Korean Christians ordered out of Afghanistan

@Ohioguy

Every country retains the right to limit visas to those that are considered security risks. The situation is not comparable. Are these Koreans security risks?

Let's face it, there is a basic lack of fairness in Islam. What is the penalty for converting to Christianity from Islam? "Islamic countries" will allow people to practice a religion, but not expand a religion except by birth. If we subjected *you guys *to the same limits in western countries you would scream bloody murder.

When the government of Afghanistan claims that Afghanistan is a democratic society where there is freedom to preach and do all kinds of stuff, then I can understand your complaint. It is not a democratic country though. Too bad.

[Seminole]

Re: South Korean Christians ordered out of Afghanistan

@Captain1

^ OG, Seminole: Don't you think you would've been watching this news like 10 times every hour on almost all channels in media if the regime was that of Taliban?

These people are being expelled because of safety concerns, not because the government is pushing an agenda. They would have never been allowed in the first place and would probably be jailed instead of expelled under Taliban.

I don't think anyone would ever proclaim that the culture of Afghanistan welcomes non-Muslims with open arms.

[Captain1]

Re: South Korean Christians ordered out of Afghanistan

@Ohioguy

Every country retains the right to limit visas to those that are considered security risks. The situation is not comparable. Are these Koreans security risks?

They are security risks because local population gets irked/irritated to see Christians secretly proselyting (sp?) their religion. Now whether there should be permission to preach other religions in that area is a different issue, but if LOCAL population is demanding the extradition what would you do? Force the locals to change their ways and accept them?

[quote]
Let's face it, there is a basic lack of fairness in Islam. What is the penalty for converting to Christianity from Islam? "Islamic countries" will allow people to practice a religion, but not expand a religion except by birth. If we subjected *you guys *to the same limits in western countries you would scream bloody murder.
[/quote]
Personally I wouldn't really mind IF "western" or "democratic" countries say they are not secular anymore and will not allow preaching Islam, that is their choice. But if they ban preaching Islam while claiming "neutral" then that would be wrong.

[Ohioguy]

Re: South Korean Christians ordered out of Afghanistan

@MehnazQ

When the government of Afghanistan claims that Afghanistan is a democratic society where there is freedom to preach and do all kinds of stuff, then I can understand your complaint. It is not a democratic country though. Too bad.

You make it sound as if this is a failure of Democracy. Any Democracy, by definition, is a reflection of the people of the country. As a country that is 99% Islamic, it is Islam that endangers minority religions.

There is nothing magical to a Democracy. Representative Democracy simply insures basic fairness to the administration of a country. If the people generally have their head up their butts, so will the government. In this case the values of the people are being reflected in the Governments policies, and the source of the peoples discrimination is Islam. Sorry.

[lussi]

Re: South Korean Christians ordered out of Afghanistan

ok so islamic clerics cannot enter US because that's a security risk. But when christian clerics cannot enter afghanistan that's because islam is unsecure.

Yeah that makes sense. Boy i gotta add this to my hypocrisy thread.

[Mehnaz]

Re: South Korean Christians ordered out of Afghanistan

@Ohioguy

You make it sound as if this is a failure of Democracy. Any Democracy, by definition, is a reflection of the people of the country. As a country that is 99% Islamic, it is Islam that endangers minority religions.

There is nothing magical to a Democracy. Representative Democracy simply insures basic fairness to the administration of a country. If the people generally have their head up their butts, so will the government. In this case the values of the people are being reflected in the Governments policies, and the source of the peoples discrimination is Islam. Sorry.

Why does it bother you if that is what the people want? How is affecting you?

[Seminole]

Re: South Korean Christians ordered out of Afghanistan

@Captain1

Personally I wouldn't really mind IF "western" or "democratic" countries say they are not secular anymore and will not allow preaching Islam, that is their choice. But if they ban preaching Islam while claiming "neutral" then that would be wrong.

But what if the local population gets irked/irritated to see Muslims prostelyzing? I mean if the local population is demanding the extradiction, what would you do?

[Captain1]

Re: South Korean Christians ordered out of Afghanistan

@Seminole

These people are being expelled because of safety concerns, not because the government is pushing an agenda. They would have never been allowed in the first place and would probably be jailed instead of expelled under Taliban.

I don't think anyone would ever proclaim that the culture of Afghanistan welcomes non-Muslims with open arms.

and when those same Afghanis were doing that while in power they were bashed left and right.

[Captain1]

Re: South Korean Christians ordered out of Afghanistan

@Seminole

But what if the local population gets irked/irritated to see Muslims prostelyzing? I mean if the local population is demanding the extradiction, what would you do?

Tell them the law of their own country, if the law gets changed then sure no problem.

[Captain1]

Re: South Korean Christians ordered out of Afghanistan

@Seminole

These people are being expelled because of safety concerns, not because the government is pushing an agenda. They would have never been allowed in the first place and would probably be jailed instead of expelled under Taliban.

I don't think anyone would ever proclaim that the culture of Afghanistan welcomes non-Muslims with open arms.

These people didn't enter Afghanistan as "missioneries" even now and from the news doesn't look like they were handing out Bible etc.

[USResident]

Re: South Korean Christians ordered out of Afghanistan

@Ohioguy

You make it sound as if this is a failure of Democracy. Any Democracy, by definition, is a reflection of the people of the country. As a country that is 99% Islamic, it is Islam that endangers minority religions.

There is nothing magical to a Democracy. Representative Democracy simply insures basic fairness to the administration of a country. If the people generally have their head up their butts, so will the government. In this case the values of the people are being reflected in the Governments policies, and the source of the peoples discrimination is Islam. Sorry.

Oh OG .... Western governments could not live with their religion so they created a secular form of government. This shows the failure of your religion to even plug into your daily lives and principles on which your country is run. In other words you have proved that your religion is not good enough to hold your country together.