Um, WHAT?!

March 24, 2006

“We respect all religions, but we don’t go into the British embassy or the American embassy to see what religion they are following,” said cleric Enayatullah Baligh at Kabul’s main mosque. “We won’t let anyone interfere with our religion, and he should be punished.”

This was recently said by an Islamic cleric concerning the controversy over Abdur Rahman who converted from Islam to Christianity.

I was actually stunned/stymied by this quote. This cleric actually says we respect all religions but for converting this guy should be punished (the current punishment for apostasy is death in Islamic law – for Afghanistan.) Does anyone else see anything odd (read: hypocritical) about that statement?

What the heck?

And to think that Afghanistan actually has a new constitution that says people can freely practice their religion and yet this is still an issue?

Man, oh, man. There’s not even an ounce of logic going on here. It’s truly and utterly mindboggling.

Which is it, Afghanistan? Do you want to repress folks or do you want to be free? C’mon, just make up your mind. That means get off the damn fence and make a decision.