Afghanistan (MNN) — A Twitter campaign was launched to ask President Obama and other leaders to speak up for a believer on death row in Afghanistan.
His crime? Christianity.
Said Musa (also Sayed Mossa) was arrested in Afghanistan in May 2010, shortly after a news station showed Afghan Christians being baptized. Other alleged apostates were arrested as well, but only Musa is now facing the death penalty.
Musa, a 15-year employee of the International Committee of the Red Cross, was taken into custody for converting from Islam to Christianity and has been detained since his May arrest. Voice of the Martyrs, Canada reports Musa has been sexually assaulted and tortured during his stay.
In the second week in February, Musa was threatened by a judge with the death penalty within a matter of days if he did not reconvert to Islam. VOM Canada says this is the first apostasy trial in the country to reach near execution since the Taliban's fall.
Many Christian leaders have responded with a call for justice. The World Evangelical Alliance has tracked a Twitter campaign for Musa's freedom to tweets from Rick Warren, John Piper and David Platt, all of whom have asked Twitter followers to speak up for Musa's plight. Many Twitter members have re-tweeted these leaders' messages on behalf of Musa.
Musa is 45 years old with six kids.
Many–including Musa himself–are calling on U.S. President Barack Obama to have sincere dialogue with the Afghan government to request that Musa not be killed.
If you're on Twitter, join the campaign. More importantly, pray for Musa and his family. And pray that the Gospel would not be put on hold in Afghanistan in the meantime.
