The news cycle in recent weeks has been dominated by the pullout in Afghanistan and the fallout that has taken place as a result of such a decision — especially the choice to remove most U.S. troops before evacuating American citizens and Afghans who worked with Western groups.
Much of the coverage has centered around the Taliban’s takeover and the tragic events unfolding at the Kabul airport. Meanwhile, others who are in danger — including Christians and members of other religious minorities — are in hiding.
I covered the 9/11 attacks in New York City that day. I can’t help but recall that morning with the 20th anniversary of those attacks approaching. The desperate actions of those stuck in the World Trade Center that day resulted in people jumping off those burning buildings. The very same thing happened just last week when Afghans looking to flee the Taliban grabbed onto military planes as they took off, only to fall out of the sky.
Those images served as a bookend to the U.S.’s involvement in Afghanistan. Rod Dreher, who covered the 9/11 attacks and was my colleague at the New York Post at the time, recently noted the following regarding the U.S.’s time in Afghanistan and the nation-building fiasco that took place:
We are such an unserious nation. I am a practicing Christian who hates the way Christians are treated in many Islamic countries. But I have enough common sense to know that it does not advance America’s national interest to give host countries the finger by displaying a symbol of Christianity to defy their local norms.
This isn’t a post about the culture wars or what the U.S. did right and wrong in Afghanistan since 2002. I will let others do that. Instead, I want to place a spotlight on the important work of Christian groups across Afghanistan over the years, the little mention they have received by the secular press and how one recent story illustrates both the plight of Afghan refugees and how those who converted to Catholicism who now live outside the country have been crucial in helping people get out.
What has largely been viewed as a military operation until now is quickly turning into a humanitarian mission, one that may yet require some military support. Nonetheless, the major newspapers and cable channels in this country still largely cover the Afghan crisis through a political lens — like they do most subjects — and have largely underreported the work of the church.
Afghanistan has a population of roughly 33 million and 99 percent of them are Muslim. In a country overwhelmingly made up of adherents to Islam (with the divisions among them a major part of the story) doesn’t mean that Christians — and Roman Catholics in particular — don’t exist or didn’t play a major role during the U.S.’s involvement there over the last 20 years. Many Afghans who have secretly converted to Catholicism, in fact, have been dubbed by the Italian press as “cristiani nascosti” (“hidden believers” in English).
Catholics were and remain pivotal in helping many Afghans over the last two decades without ever infringing on their beliefs. These men and women were a force for good, helping the poor and doing work with help from charitable donations from many in the United States and the rest of the West.
This remains a largely untold story by the mainstream press over the years and now that Afghanistan has succumbed to the Taliban rule once again.
The history of the Catholic church in Afghanistan is a long and important one. It has unfortunately been overlooked in the coverage of the past few weeks. This is how an excerpt posted to Wikipedia describes the church’s mission since the 2002 U.S. invasion under the “Catholic church in Afghanistan” heading:
On May 16, 2002, a mission sui iuris was created for all of Afghanistan. There is only one functioning chapel in the country, in the Italian Embassy in Kabul. Projects of the new mission include a “Peace School” for 500 students that began construction in August 2003 and will be to “European standards.” Three religious sisters also work with those who have mental disabilities in the capital city, teaching those with cerebral palsy how to go to the toilet and how to eat on their own.
The small community went through a period of crisis during the kidnapping on May 17, 2005, of Clementina Cantoni, a member of CARE International, by four gunmen in Kabul as she walked to her car. Sisters from the Missionaries of Charity had their house blessed on May 9, 2006, and have already started taking in street children. There had been fears that their distinctive blue and white habit would make them stand out and be harassed by Muslims, but their institute is generally respected. Jesuit Relief Services has also applied to join the growing number of religious institutes in the country. Jesuit Refugee Services has recently opened a technical school in Herat for 500 students including 120 girls.
There have been efforts made to start inter-religious dialogue, with the Islamist head of the Afghan Supreme Court. Mullah Fazul Shinwari attended the inauguration of the mission and expressed a desire to meet with the Pope.
The Catholic community in Afghanistan is made up largely of foreigners, including priests, nuns and aid workers. Many of them are Italians who have done admirable, and mostly anonymous, work in that country for years.
Also, some Afghans have converted over the years (mostly once they have moved out of the country). In 2010, for example, two Christian groups, Church World Service and Norwegian Church Aid, were accused of proselytizing, an accusation they denied but that didn’t stop many from protesting and burning photos of then-Pope Benedict XVI.
The Wikipedia article also notes two more facts:
Relations with the new democratic government of Afghanistan have been positive, such as Afghan President Hamid Karzai attending Pope John Paul II's funeral and congratulating Pope Benedict XVI on his election.
The papal nuncio to neighboring Pakistan visited Afghanistan in 2005 and held a Mass in the Italian Embassy Chapel to an overflowing crowd, and Catholic officials hope that official diplomatic ties and a public Catholic church will be possible in the future.
I don’t believe everything on Wikipedia, but it is a good starting point.
This excerpt features footnotes (that’s the key, always look at the citations and the original sourcing for such facts) from 11 different articles, most of them from an Italian-language site called AsiaNews. I only recently discovered this Catholic news source (they also have an English online edition for those of you interested in reading it) and it has already become a large part of my already-large daily news diet. Journalists and assignment editors would be greatly served if they bookmarked the homepage and checked it every morning for updates from the region.
The mainstream press has largely missed the religion angle to this ongoing story. The religious press has not. Religion News Service posted a story on Aug. 17 that provided wonderful context and focused on the importance of the Catholic church in Afghanistan. It centers around a refugee named Ali Ehsani and the work he has done. Here is how the story opens:
Alì Ehsani, 32, knows what life can be like for Christians under the Taliban regime. Born in Kabul in 1989, he and his brother fled when he was 8 after the murder of his parents by the Islamic extremists.
“I know firsthand how difficult it is to be Christians in that country,” Ehsani told Religion News Service on Monday (Aug. 16). “I lived through the horror, the terror of these Taliban.”
Ehsani made it to Rome in 2003 after a five-year journey that he detailed in two books, “Tonight We Watch the Stars” and “The Kids Have Big Dreams.” In 2015, he earned a law degree from a university in Rome.
Since then he has been committed to helping fellow Christians in Afghanistan, including a Catholic family facing persecution after the Taliban regained control of the country in mid-August. The urgency has risen a hundredfold since the U.S. withdrawal in recent weeks ceded the country to the Taliban.
While Afghanistan’s new rulers have promised not to shed any blood, some locals fear that the Islamist regime will lead to persecutions and violence, setting the clock back 20 years in terms of freedom and democracy.
Ehsani came into contact with the Christian family in Afghanistan through an Afghan who was also studying in Rome. The two had been friends for some time when Ehsani made the sign of the cross before a meal, and they learned that they shared the Christian faith.
Afghan citizens are not legally allowed to convert to Christianity and there is little data on the number of Christians living in the country. According to the U.S. International Religious Freedom Report, published in 2009, there are between 1,000 and 8,000 Christians secretly practicing their faith in the country. There is only one officially recognized Christian church in Afghanistan, the Catholic chapel inside the Italian Embassy.
Ehsani’s story is a powerful one. Catholic News Agency also reported on him in a story published on Aug. 19, offering readers the following:
“I ask please, please of both the Holy See and the Italian authority to immediately save this Christian family which is still in the airport,” Ali Ehsani told CNA Aug. 19.
“As a Christian, I suffered in Afghanistan. I know how difficult is the suffering,” he said.
Ehsani, who has lived in Rome since 2003, hopes to make his appeal to the pope in person.
“I would very much like to meet the pope,” said Ehsani.
His message for the potential papal meeting? “Save this Christian Afghan family who are stuck there at the airport,” he said.
The Catholic family is made up of five children and their mother. The father went missing last week. The family fears that his disappearance is linked to their Christian identity amid reports that the Taliban has been going door-to-door to find targets.
That takes us back to AsiaNews, who broke the story this past weekend of the safe exit of Ehasni’s relatives from Kabul to Italy. Here is the key section:
As a Christian, Ehsani had fled Afghanistan in the 1990s at the tender age of eight with his brother after he saw his parents killed and their home razed to the ground. Now, as he kept in touch with the family in Kabul with whom he had been in contact for months, he relived his own story.
A week ago, “They had not heard from their father for two days. Even his wife and five children are in danger, they must have discovered them.”
If we mention this story, it is because, amid Afghanistan’s tragedy, we can say that at least P.G., the children and some other close relatives are now safe. They landed in Rome’s Fiumicino airport today, brought out on an airlift organised by the Italian government to rescue Italian nationals and Afghans at risk.
“They bring with them all the pain they left behind,” Ehsani explained. “They have not had any further news about their father for the past ten days. It would have been too dangerous for them to stay in Kabul.”
What made their evacuation possible was the commitment of those who read the AsiaNews article and decided not to remain indifferent.
A few hours after publication, we were contacted by the Fondazione Meet Human, the youngest branch of the Bergamo-based Fondazione San Michele Arcangelo, which is dedicated to solidarity in developing countries through education and work.
“We heard the story. It will be very difficult, but if you want, we can try to do something for them,” President Daniele Nembrini told AsiaNews.
AsiaNews immediately put him in touch with Ali Ehsani, who continued to knock on every door on behalf of these people with whom he was constantly in contact in Afghanistan, sharing their anguish.
Indeed, we all do share in this anguish. As people continue to flee Afghanistan — while the refugee and humanitarian crisis worsens — let’s not forget about all the great work that was done, and is currently being done, by Catholic groups and organizations to help the people of Afghanistan.
The role of journalism (other than to inform) is to report on the realities on the ground, especially in a war zone. As that becomes harder to do under the Taliban, these many Catholic groups and Afghans living abroad remain a key connection in the ongoing coverage.
FIRST IMAGE: Photo of Taliban fighters via Wikipedia Commons