EDITORIAL – Afghan case prompts questions

Under current law in Afghanistan, it’s illegal to convert to another religion. The crime is… Under current law in Afghanistan, it’s illegal to convert to another religion. The crime is considered severe enough to warrant the death penalty in some cases. Abdul Rahman, a longtime Christian convert who spent several years in Germany, is learning this lesson the hard way.

Rahman, 41, was arrested in Kabul last month. Although set to go to trial for his conversion, his psychological health is now being questioned. Prosecutors for the conservative Islamic state have said that he may be mentally unfit for trial – an futile attempt to sidestep a serious problem.

By declaring Rahman mentally unfit, the Afghani prosecutors avoid having to choose sides. They don’t have to go against their Islamic laws, and they don’t have to anger the Western governments that have been supporting them. The problem is, these problems won’t go away. Eventually the government will have to decide on a viewpoint, and no matter what they choose, they will anger and upset people.

To many, especially those in secular or Westernized countries, the idea of killing someone based on his faith – whether the faith he was born into or one he picked up later in life – is atrocious. Different lands have different customs, though, and arguing that one culture’s morals are superior to another is largely useless.

The problem here is that the United States supported this government. We displaced the Taliban so that democracy, freedom and brotherly love could flourish – but instead, the same basic intolerances have been perpetuated. Why did we go into Afghanistan in the first place, and what did we accomplish while we were there?

In many ways this is just another echo of the troubles of the Palestinian government. Encouraging a society to function as a democracy does not ensure that society will elect leaders who mirror the sentiments of our own government. The customs and beliefs of any nation are shared by more than just the highest-ranking governing officials; getting rid of authority figures is not the same thing as getting rid of longstanding ideologies.

After all, if an outside force were to enter America and depose the president and many of his advisers and officials, the rest of the country would still believe in the same basic moral right and wrongs. Citizens would still believe in the idea of a democratic republic, and in the rights, the reedoms and also the limitations in place in America.

Bush has not come out and demanded that the case against Rahman be dropped, but he has expressed disappointment at his arrest; now is the time when the United States finds out how much control it has over Afghanistan. The questions of how much control we should have and how much we should have had all along are more difficult to answer.