International Christian Concern is reporting that Said Musa, the Afghani convicted of apostasy and under threat of immanent execution, has been released into US custody and is out of Afghanistan. (See his moving letters a few posts down.) Here’s an excerpt from the Christian Post:

Musa wrote a letter dated February 13, saying he was visited by representatives of the U.S. and Italian Embassies offering him asylum.

In the letter, Musa said that after the foreign representatives left the room, he was visited by three Afghan officials who told him that he would be released within 24 hours if he wrote a statement declaring that he regretted his conversion to Christianity.

“I laughed and replied, ‘I can’t deny my Savior’s name,'” Musa wrote in the Feb. 13 letter. “Because my life is just service to Jesus Christ and my death is going to heaven [where] Jesus Christ is. I am a hundred percent ready to die. They pushed me much and much. I refused their demands.”

Musa was then transferred back to his prison cell, according to the letter relayed to ICC.

There seems to be some confusion as to exactly how much danger Musa really was in. All the reporting was that his execution drew nigh, but Musa himself did not believe it. Maybe there was a faith element working in that, because the article goes on to describe yet another Christian who is in prison in Afghanistan, and his situation sounds just as dire as did Musa’s.

Credit where it is due: The Italian and especially American governments did their part to aid Musa being freed. And they did it quietly, out of necessity, because of the explosive Islamic politics of the nation.

This is a great victory, but it’s just one among an ongoing tide of persecution, so we need to remain vigilant, prayerful and active.