Religion Over Political Ideology

Religion trumps politics; we need to understand that if we are to make a lasting change in the Middle-East:


``Since October 2001, approximately three hundred Americans have been killed and another eight hundred have been wounded in Afghanistan. The overthrow of the Taliban was about more than denying a base of operations to al-Qa'ida—it was also about liberating the people of Afghanistan from a brutal theocracy. All of this makes recent news from Kabul all the more ironic—and outrageous. Abdul Rahman is on trial for his life in a Kabul court. His crime? Converting to Christianity... While the Taliban no longer rules the country, conversion from Islam to another religion, called apostasy, is still punishable by death. The prosecutor offered to drop the charges if Rahman converted back to Islam, but Rahman refused... The irony is inescapable: This is the country that we rid of the Taliban because of its religious oppression. This is the country in which we have spent at least $70 billion to establish a free democratic government. This is the country whose freedom cost us three hundred American lives and eight hundred casualties. And this is the country that is preparing to execute a man for becoming a Christian after he witnessed other Christians caring for his countrymen. Is this the fruit of democracy? Is this why we have shed American blood and invested American treasure to set a people free? What have we accomplished for overthrowing the Taliban? This is the kind of thing we would expect from the Taliban, not from President Karzai and his freely elected democratic government."

—Chuck Colson

(Thanks to the Federalist.)