Surly's Soap Box

Afghan Christian Should Be Released Soon

Muslim extremists, who have demanded death for Rahman as an apostate for rejecting Islam, warned the decision would touch off protests across this religiously conservative country. Some clerics previously vowed to incite Afghans to kill Rahman if he was let go.

Sorry. It wasn't 'Muslim extremists'. It was their court system.

You know, when this guy was thrown into prison and his trial and execution seamed eminent, I wondered why we went over there in the first place. We went over to drive out the Taliban to replace it with a equally fundamentalist government? What's up with that?

I know that Bush was wanting to be all touchy feely about respecting their religion, but their religion has no respect for others. Instead of being all, "Well, we have problem there." and "Well, it took us years to overcome slavery.", we should just get right in their faces. With the experience we have in democracy building (Japan, Germany, and our own national experience), and with our military giving them the chance to be free, we have a right to say, "Nope. That's not how it's done." If we don't help build, or rather, just plain build, a truly free Afghanistan, then why did we bother? When our Constitution has worked so well for so long, why do dweebs in the State Department try to come up with a better plan?

Hhmmm...Separation of Church and State. Interesting concept.




Afghanistan, Islam

Once again, the religion of peace at work:

KABUL, Afghanistan - An Afghan man who allegedly converted from Islam to Christianity is being prosecuted in a Kabul court and could be sentenced to death, a judge said Sunday.

Ah yes. Feeling the love now.

The defendant, Abdul Rahman, was arrested last month after his family went to the police and accused him of becoming a Christian, Judge Ansarullah Mawlavezada told Associated Press in an interview. Such a conversion would violate the country's Islamic laws.

Rahman, who is believed to be 41, was charged with rejecting Islam when his trial started last week, the judge said.

During the hearing, the defendant allegedly confessed that he converted from Islam to Christianity 16 years ago when he was 25 and working as a medical aid worker for Afghan refugees in neighboring Pakistan, Mawlavezada said.

Afghanistan's constitution is based on Shariah law, which states that any Muslim who rejects their religion should be sentenced to death.

"We are not against any particular religion in the world. But in Afghanistan, this sort of thing is against the law," the judge said. "It is an attack on Islam. ... The prosecutor is asking for the death penalty."

There's that 'religion of peace' thing working for ya again. I wonder, why did we go into Afghanistan? Oh, terrorists, right. And we 'respected' their religion and self determination, and this is what happens.

The prosecutor, Abdul Wasi, said the case was the first of its kind in Afghanistan.

He said that he had offered to drop the charges if Rahman changed his religion back to Islam, but the defendant refused.

So, we did remove the Taliban, didn't we? I thought this stuff wasn't going to happen any more. Oh, how naive I've been.