Respect for all religions

A month ago Islamic leaders all over the world, including Afghanistan, condemned the terrifying cartoons of blasphemy and urged respect for all religions.

Right now a man is facing a possibility of death penalty in Afghanistan. His name is Abdul Rahman, and his crime is having converted to Christianity about 15 years ago. Sharia punishes converting from Islam to another religion by death. Not every Islamic country implements that, but Afghanistan does. And that, mind you, is the kinder, gentler and more secular Afghanistan liberated (at least partially) from Taliban by American troops. Heh.

They really are in fact kinder and gentler nowadays. In bad old Taliban days the guy would have been lynched in seconds. Now they are going to give him a fair Sharia trial, whatever that is.

The judge, Ansarullah Mawlazezadah, has shown the true extent of his religion's tolerance. "We will invite him again because the religion of Islam is one of tolerance. We will ask him if he has changed his mind. If so we will forgive him," he said. And if not, they will kill him. In some extremely tolerant way, I am sure.

Some of the authorities are trying to help the poor guy by declaring him to be insane, which would get him out of the death penalty thing. If you are insane, becoming a Christian is understandable and is not punished by death.

Maybe it's just me, but this strikes me as a rather peculiar way of showing respect for Christianity.