Last week, Jordan indicted a group of Danish publishers and cartoonists for daring to publish the Muhammad Cartoons -- claiming international jurisdiction over any act of alleged blasphemy against Islam. Now the Jordanians are actively stripping human and civil rights from their own citizens who turn away from Islam and embrace the truth that Jesus is the Savior.

The North Amman Sharia Court in April dissolved the marriage of Mohammad Abbad, on trial for apostasy, or leaving Islam. The 40-year-old convert fled Jordan with his wife and two young children in March after another Christian convert’s relatives attacked Abbad’s family in their home and his father demanded custody of Abbad’s children. “Marriage depends on the creed [religion], and the apostate has no creed,” a May 22 court document stated, detailing reasons for the April 22 annulment. According to the document, Judge Faysal Khreisat had “proven the veracity of [Abbad’s] apostasy.”

Jordan’s penal code does not outlaw apostasy, and the country’s constitution guarantees freedom of religion, as does the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that was given force of law in the country in June 2006. But Islam, Jordan’s official religion, forbids conversion to another faith. Jordanian sharia (Islamic law) courts that rule on family law have convicted converts of apostasy, stripping them of all legal rights.

“I can’t win this case as long as I insist that I converted to Christianity,” Abbad wrote after arriving in a European country where he has applied for asylum. Abbad and his 10-year-old son were violently attacked in their home on March 23, when relatives of another convert, staying with Abbad, stormed the house. Abbad suffered injuries to his head and chest and bleeding in his right eye, according to medical reports from Jordan University Hospital. When Abbad went to the police station the same day to file a complaint he found his father there, demanding custody of Abbad’s son and 11-year-old daughter.

By allowing the religious courts to take on civil jurisdiction, Jordan has placed itself in defiance of international human rights norms again, even as Kin Abdullah attempts to present his country as a moderate, modern nation that honors human rights. In the end, however, the reality shows that Jordan is still mired in the seventh century when Abdullah's ancestor, the false prophet Muhammad, first preached Islam.