Afghan Evacuee in New Mexico Accused of a Crime That Isn't a Crime in Afghanistan

(AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

Americans rescued Shah Mahmood Selab from Afghanistan last year as Old Joe Biden’s woke, distracted military was botching our withdrawal from that country. Other Americans then helped him settle in Las Cruces, N.M., and start a new life. But it looks as if Selab brought a bit too much of Afghanistan with him: he has been charged, according to a report in The Blaze on Saturday, with “a child sex crime and violent assault of a 12-year-old boy in New Mexico.”

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American authorities could have and should have seen this coming as that kind of behavior is rampant and taken for granted in Afghanistan. But they didn’t. The far-Left blinders that everyone in the Biden administration wears prevented them from seeing anything so “Islamophobic.”

Selab was “charged in federal court with coercion and enticement of a minor” and consequently “faces a minimum of 10 years and up to life in prison if he is convicted.” The incident in question took place last August when Selab “allegedly approached a 12-year-old boy at Youngs Park in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Selab reportedly conversed with the boy who was sitting on a bench at the park – located near a middle school.”

According to a Justice Department news release that, interestingly enough, never gives the slightest hint that Selab is an Afghan refugee, Selab “began asking the victim personal questions, and then invited the victim to sit with him on another bench in the shade. After moving to the other bench, Selab allegedly used his cellphone to show the victim photos and videos that were sexual in nature. Selab allegedly touched the victim inappropriately.”

When the boy tried to get away from Selab, who is 35, Selab went after him and “punched him in the face multiple times.” As if that weren’t charming enough, Selab then “allegedly asked the victim to get into his vehicle and offered the victim $20 to allow Selab to touch him.” At that point, the boy tried to call 911 and ran into the park restrooms, closing himself into one of the stalls.

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Selab, however, “followed the victim into the restrooms and pulled him from the stall. Selab allegedly locked the restroom door to prevent the victim from leaving, began kissing the victim’s face, and put a $20 bill in the victim’s hand. Selab also allegedly attempted to force the victim to touch Selab.” At that point, however, “another person arrived at the restroom and knocked at the door,” allowing the boy to escape.

Related: Virginia: Afghan Convicted of Sexually Assaulting 3-Year-Old Girl, Says it’s Allowed in His Culture

Where might Selab have gotten the idea to behave in this manner and try to molest a twelve-year-old boy? The Washington Post, of all people, reported in July 18, 2017, that “hundreds of such outposts of the Afghan Local Police (ALP), a front-line force armed and funded with U.S. taxpayer dollars, and other pro-government militias are believed to have enslaved young boys for dancing and sexual companionship, many of them kidnapped.” This phenomenon is known as “bacha bazi,” which the Post defined as “the cultural practice of sexual slavery and abuse of boys who are often dressed effeminately and whose possession is seen by Afghan strongmen as a marker of power and masculinity.”

The Post added:

Institutionalized bacha bazi, described as culturally sanctioned male rape, is likely to continue unabated in the absence of any real deterrent. The United Nations has called on Afghanistan to urgently adopt legislation to criminalize bacha bazi and swiftly prosecute state officials guilty of the practice.

One senior official in Uruzgan described bacha bazi as an addiction worse than opium, saying commanders compete — and sometimes battle — one another to snatch pretty boys. Many prowl neighborhoods for boys “who have not seen the sun for years,” a cultural euphemism for unblemished beauty.

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The practice is ultimately founded upon the Qur’an, which promises the believers that they will not only enjoy the famous heavenly virgins but “immortal boys” (56:17) who, “when you see them, you would take them for scattered pearls” (76:19).

Anyone who warned that some Afghan men might bring this practice with them to the United States would have been dismissed and excoriated as “Islamophobic” by the cultural Marxists who run refugee resettlement programs. And so now Shah Mahmood Selab and untold numbers of others like him are in the country, making it likely that this is only the first of many such cases we will be hearing about. If Biden’s DOJ had gotten its way, however, you would never have known that Selab was an Afghan refugee at all. There! That solves the problem, now, doesn’t it?

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