That Afghan apostasy case

Dr.Veith blogs about that Afghan Christian facing the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity.

I've seen the story. Thing is, there is absolutely no chance of the man even being punished, much less executed. Were such a thing to happen, the strongest American supporters of the current war against the Taliban insurgents would instantly turn against the war on the very understandable ground that the distinction between the Karzai government and the Taliban simply isn't worth fighting for.

I will grant that it's a disgrace that this matter should even arise. But Afghanistan is a backward society in which Sharia law plays a strong cultural role- so strong that even the Afghani Constitution has to give it lip service. We knew that going in. We signed off on that constitution because we knew that it had to be. There is no way that any government which did not at least formally recognize Sharia could possibly survive in Afghanistan.

Reform will take place by exactly what will happen here happening over and over again: lip service being given Sharia, while its requirements are quietly set aside or simply ignored in practice. That way cultural expectations in such cases will be slowly changed, until the case for making official what has been the de facto state of affairs for years becomes strong enough to have some hope of prevailing.

In retrospect, I should have blogged on this story, just as Dr. Veith and others have. We need to follow this story intently- and, just to be on the safe side, make our feelings very clear both to our own government and, through them, to the Karzai regime.

But I would advise against getting carried away by this news, or investing it, at this stage, with more significance than it deserves. It's not as if there were a serious danger of the man actually being executed, or even punished beyond a nominal slap on the wrist. We knew what Afghani society was like before we ever went in. We knew that lip service was going to have to be given to Sharia. That cases like this would arise is hardly surprising. What would be more than surprising as if this case went any further.

The news about this brother in Christ needs to fill us with concern. But we should not immediately leap to the conclusion that the requirements of Sharia are going to be followed in a situation in which doing so would be absolutely catastrophic for the Karzai regime. Ironically, the greatest victory the Taliban would have achieved since the beginning of the war would be for this man to be executed, or even severely punished- and President Karzai's own instinct for self-preservation is not going to allow him to hand the Taliban that victory.