Christianity in Afghanistan

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Christianity in Afghanistan is an historically small community. A few Afghan Christians made news recently with the arrest of Abdul Rahman.^[1] A number of Afghan Christians reside in foreign countries, mainly in United States.

There is one organized community of Afghan Christians who have multiple radio programs such as Radio Afghan and a weekly television program, "Voice of Christ" (آواز مسيح) and other websites in English and Dari languages. Hussain Andaryas, an Afghan Christian, was the first to launch a website in the Dari language in 1996^{[citation needed]}. Radio broadcasts in other major Afghan languages including Pashto and websites in the Pashto language are also published by Pashtun Christians from the region ^[2].

Hussain Andaryas has stated that the publicity surrounding the Abdul Rahman case had resulted in a surge of interest in Christianity among Afghans, strong concern for the plight of Afghanistan's underground Christians -- and an antagonistic response from Muslims.

Andaryas estimates there are up to 10,000 Afgan Christians worldwide. He bases that figure on the 6,000 messages sent to his ministry since it began in 1996. Even if some of those messages were not genuine, he said, the number would be more than evened out by Christians living in remote areas without access to computers; and those who are too scared to risk their safety.^[3]