that squeaky wheel has been greased:

Senior Muslim clerics said Thursday that an Afghan man on trial for converting from Islam to Christianity should be killed regardless of whether a court decides to free him. Abdul Rahman, a 41-year-old former medical aid worker, faces the death penalty for becoming a Christian under Afghanistan’s Islamic laws.

His trial, which began last week, has caused an international outcry. U.S. President Bush said Wednesday he was “deeply troubled” by the case and expects the country to “honor the universal principle of freedom.” Diplomats say the Afghan government is searching for a way to drop the case, and on Wednesday authorities said Rahman is suspected of being mentally ill and would undergo psychological examinations to see whether he is fit to stand trial.

As if we needed yet another example of why it’s foolish to assume that democracy is always synonymous with liberalism…

Funny thing is, if it weren’t for our messianic interpretation of this entire “war on terror”, this wouldn’t even be news. Since it was assumed that we had to somehow rebuild their government, Afghans being Afghans is chalked up as a PR failure on our part rather than a simple act of people that haven’t “figured it out” yet.

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