The rally had a pretty good showing-- about 40 people and a couple news crews. I'm uploading pictures now.
There were a host of bloggers, Freepers, and regular citizens. You know citizens--those people who don't have to put an -er behind their titles to explain themselves to regular folks? Like, Christians, and moms, and Americans. My point being-- lots of good folks there, including blogger Charmaine Yoest, who brought two of her little activists with her. Here's one of her tiny freedom-lovers, on the right:
Michelle Malkin, Cam Edwards, Jeff Harrell (he points to pics, too), and Tom Bridge were also there.
This was my favorite sign:
There were several news crews on hand. The one from NBC had the most questions to ask, and interviewed a handful of folks. I grabbed some quotes. As was to be expected, the MSM reporter kept turning away from Abdul Rahman and toward President Bush-- more specifically, he was pretty obsessed with the fact that a bunch of conservative, Christians were calling on Bush and the State Dept. to be tougher on the Afghan government than they have been.
But Cam set him right with a great quote that I don't imagine you'll see on TV:
"This is not a political issue. This is about a man in Afghanistan who is going to die because he believes in Jesus Christ...It's a human rights issue...There are political overtones to everything, but that's not why we're out here. That's not why President Bush should act...If y'all turn it inot a political issue--conservatives vs. Bush or conservatives vs. liberals-- then you will have failed to get the message out."
Cam said what most of us were thinking. The guy was just trying so hard to make it a conservatives vs. Bush issue that he was missing the whole man-about-to-die-for-his-religious-beliefs aspect of the story.
Here are some other thoughts from the rally:
Kristinn Taylor of Free Republic:
"I think he [Bush] needs to take a much stronger stand against the government of Afghanistan...It's the duty of the President Bush to stand up and speak loudly on this issue...The American people have sacrificed so much for this nation [Afghanistan]."
Recommended
Bill Saunders, Human Rights Counsel for FRC:
"The most fundamental right of all is religious freedom...True democracy recognizes religious freedom of the minority...It's not just about Adbul Rahman. It's about no more Abdul Rahmans."
Someone from Institute on Religion and Democracy also spoke, but I didn't catch the name:
"This is starting to open people's eyes to the danger of sharia...We need to stand up for true freedom in the constitutions of these countries."
We got a couple of peeks out of the upstairs windows of the Afghan embassy, so someone was paying attention. With that, the news coverage, and a whole lot of prayer, we can hope Abdul will be helped. Check the other bloggers who were there for more coverage. My co-worker Josue, who took some of these pics, also blogged it.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member