Sunni And Sharia

What with all the great news coming out of Iraq, the equally brilliant success story that is Afghanistan has been largely overlooked. Let's take a quick peek in and see how that's going, shall we?

An Afghan man is being tried in a court in the capital, Kabul, for converting from Islam to Christianity.

Abdul Rahman is charged with rejecting Islam and could face the death sentence under Sharia law unless he recants.

(snip)

Afghanistan's post-Taleban constitution is based on Sharia law, and prosecutors in the case says this means Abdul Rahman, whose trial began last Thursday, should be put to death.

When he was arrested last month he was found to be carrying a bible and charged with rejecting Islam which is punishable by death in Afghanistan.

(snip)

Mr Karzai's office says the president will not intervene in the case.

This has to be uncomfortable for Bush's religious base (all five of them who are aware of it): They have to either admit that Afghanistan is not quite the enlightened democratic triumph that was advertised, or embrace a government that is willing to execute someone simply for converting to Christianity (kinda puts a damper on proselytization, don't it?).

My money's on the latter; they'd rather tell themselves that Rahman's not a "real" Christian than admit that Afghanistan is not a real democracy, and Bush is not a real president.

Thanks to Bill for the tip!