c. 1996 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ International concern is growing as a Kuwaiti Christian convert appeals the court verdict that found him guilty of apostasy. Under Islamic law, the court said, anyone convicted of apostasy “should be executed.”

On May 29, Shiite religious court in Kuwait City found Hussein Qambar Ali, 45, who converted to Christianity two years ago, guilty of apostasy _ abandoning Islam, the majority religion in the Persian Gulf state.

Hussein, who has taken the Christian name Robert, filed his appeal of the apostasy decision June 29. The first hearing in the appeal process is set for September 15, according to Pedro Moreno, international coordinator for the Rutherford Institute, a U.S.-based Christian organization aiding Hussein in his defense.

Hussein remains in hiding in Kuwait as his appeal proceeds. He has reported receiving numerous death threats since December, when he first made his conversion public during a custody battle with his estranged wife. He told Kuwaiti newspapers that she was refusing to let him visit his two children because he had adopted Christianity. After the interviews were published, three lawyers filed a private suit charging him with apostasy for leaving Islam.

Following the May 29 apostasy verdict and its subsequent publication _ including the execution recommendation _ in Kuwaiti newspapers, Hussein’s friends said they are concerned that fanatics may try to kill the convert themselves.

“I consider his personal safety … to be in grave danger and jeopardy,” said Tom Phillips, an American engineer who met Hussein while working in Kuwait. Phillips helped hide Hussein and provided other assistance during the legal case. Phillips returned to the United States in mid-June.

“The Kuwait government has done nothing to protect Robert,” Phillips said in an interview. “To turn himself in for police protection would be to put himself at risk.”

Because the apostasy verdict is the first of its kind in modern Kuwait, procedural issues in the appeal remain unclear. The Kuwaiti Constitution acknowledges that Sharia (Islamic law) is the “main source” for all law, but there are no legal provisions calling apostasy a crime. The Kuwaiti constitution guarantees “absolute” freedom of religion. Hussein had requested that his case be heard by the constitutional court, but the religious court ruled that it had jurisdiction.

Hussein has been forced to represent himself because no Kuwaiti lawyers are willing to take up his case. Moreno said the Rutherford Institute, which specializes in religious liberty issues, drafted the 7-page appeal memorandum which Hussein submitted to the court.

Numerous human rights advocates and religious organizations have raised Hussein’s case with U.S. and Kuwaiti officials.

In a letter to Secretary of State Warren Christopher, officials of the New York-based human rights group Freedom House urged the U.S. government to “take a strong stand to show that freedom of religion remains an animating principle of this Republic, that oil and trade are not America’s sole concerns.”

On June 24, the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board petitioned the Kuwaiti government to intercede on Hussein’s behalf. Baptist officials have called the apostasy verdict “a miscarriage of justice” and urged Americans to protest the case.

A coalition of 48 members of Congress wrote Kuwaiti Crown Prince Shaikh Saad Al-Sabah on June 14 expressing “surprise and disappointment” over the apostasy verdict and execution recommendation.

“We are deeply concerned about this threat to his life and the disregard for his constitutional rights as a citizen of the State of Kuwait,” the letter said. “We urge the government of Kuwait to take all measures necessary to protect Mr. Hussein from any attempts on his life.

“Many Americans who enthusiastically supported the liberation of Kuwait are puzzled and outraged at this infringement to a Kuwaiti citizen’s constitutional rights,” the letter said. Among the signers were Reps. Frank Wolf, R-Va., Tom Lantos, D-Calif., Robert K. Dornan, R-Calif., and Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I.

The U.S. Embassy in Kuwait City has been monitoring Hussein’s case. A State Department official said the United States will include the case in its “regular human rights dialogue” with Kuwait, but refused to comment on what specific diplomatic actions it will take on behalf of Hussein.

“We have a …dialogue with them, and we will put this into that dialogue, but he is not a U.S. citizen,” the official said.

The Kuwaiti Embassy in Washington declined to comment on the case. Neither the press attache nor the ambassador responded to faxed questions.

END LAWTON