Who Knitted this Afghan?

Freedom is on the march in Afghanistan! We kicked out the Taliban; we sent al Qaeda fleeing to dark and dank caves in Pakistan; and we sowed the seeds of our democratic values across the land where they can now compete with opium-bearing poppies for the soil, sun and water each spring. Liberty should be blooming in a full array of beautiful colors all around this born-again country any time now! It’s a great time to be an Afghan – with one, little, teensy-weensy exception.

If you’ve made the mistake of stepping in the proverbial jackal dung by converting to Christianity at any time in the past, then the brand spanking new, U.S.-backed Afghan government will cut your head off – literally. Ah, I love the smell of freedom in the morning. It’s the smell of victory!

Abdul Rahman is a 41-year old Afghan who converted to Christianity 16 years ago while working in Pakistan as a medical aid for Afghan refugees. That kind of thing may be okay in liberal Pakistan, but not in any other country with a last name of Stan. Alas, Abdul apparently overlooked the fact that Afghanistan’s liberty-laden constitution is based on Islamic Shariah law, which provides that any Muslim who rejects Islam should be put to death. Oops.

Abdul was arrested last month when his family accused him of having become a Christian. Did no one in the Rahman clan know about this before? Did Abdul make the mistake of bringing a Bible to family show-and-tell, thinking things had changed with regard to homeland security? Or did he just piss off some in-law at a family gathering who decided to rat him out after 16 years of silence?

Abdul’s trial started last week and the prosecutor, who is dressed in drag as the Queen of Hearts, is seeking the death penalty. It appears that there’s no opportunity to cut a plea bargain that could reduce Abdul’s punishment to only having his hands cut off or his tongue yanked out, or maybe just being blinded in one eye. The prosecution did offer to drop the charges if Brother Abdul would slam his sweet chariot into reverse, yell “do over” five times, and immediately renew his Islamic passport to heaven. He declined the offer, being the silly believer he is. Well, as they say – do it to me once, shame on you; do it to me twice, shame on you, again.

This is the modern version of Afghanistan, folks. This drama is unfolding in Kabul, the capitol city, not in some backwater oasis that lacks electricity and indoor plumbing. Before we liberated these people from the Taliban, I suppose Abdul would have had his throat slit by his father or brother without any judicial complications delaying the execution. Democracy changes stuff.

Is this what American men and women are dying for over there? Is this what we’re spending hundreds of billions of dollars to establish? This is the freedom that we’re proud to have marching from Kabul to Zaranj, Meymaneh and Feyzabad? Is this the same freedom that is destined to blossom in Iraq? We obviously don’t need to do anything further in Iran because they already have this kind of freedom.

Let this be a lesson to us – as long as Islamic fundamentalism forms the basis for society in any country in the world, there will be no freedom in that country, at least not as we define it. If the hard-line clerics are in charge, then freedom is just another word for tyranny.

If this ridiculous trial is representative of the end game in any place where the lives of coalition forces are being lost, then it’s beyond the time for all freedom-loving men and women in uniform to come home. And, they should bring Brother Abdul with them.