A perfect constitution

According to news reports, Canadian Forces personnel in the Kandahar region of Afghanistan are gearing up for a possible intensification of terrorist attacks during the Persian New Year celebrations. These traditional celebrations were suppressed under the Taliban on the grounds that they were un-Islamic.

Of course, under the Taliban, even singing was considered un-Islamic and was likely to lead to a most unfortunate rendezvous with a zealous Mullah in a Sharia court. It seems the nasty boys want to disrupt the people's festivities by bringing more mayhem and murder to the long-suffering Afghani people. If they can also take out some foreign troops and reconstruction workers their joy will be even greater. Evil rejoices over the most grotesque things.

Meanwhile today's Globe & Mail reports that an Afghani man who converted to Christianity some 14 years ago while working in Pakistan for a Christian aid agency is to be tried and maybe executed. It seems that Sharia law prescribes the death penalty for those who reject the religion of peace and adopt another faith community. Accordingly, cafeteria Muslims are few and far between in traditional Muslim societies. It's a question of incentives.

The judge deciding whether an Afghan man should be executed for converting to Christianity does not understand what all the fuss is about.

"In this country, we have [a] perfect constitution. It is Islamic law and it is illegal to be a Christian and it should be punished," Judge Alhaj Ansarullah Mawawy Zada said in an interview yesterday. "In your country, two women can marry. I think that is very strange." ....

"It is a crime to convert to Christianity from Islam. He is teasing and insulting his family by converting," Judge Zada said. "The Attorney-General is emphasizing he should be hung."

Judge Zada's position is understandable. Why should we here in the West object to the application of Sharia law in Afghanistan? It's integral to the new Afghani constitution which, as he says, is perfect because it is Islamic.

And he's correct. Here in Canada, wymyn do marry wymyn. You might think I would be with Judge Zada on thinking this strange, but I'm not. I don't find it so strange that one can be attracted to women. Personally, I was so smitten by one that I married her. So the concept is understandable to me.

But hanging a man because he converts to Christianity is, I think, a bit excessive. I know, my liberal, latte drinking, moral relativist friends would say it's all a matter of perspective and that tolerance of the other is required if we are to live in peace. It's not that I don't try to be politically correct in my outlook. It's just that hangings and beheadings and such make me queasy. It is the way I am.

You may well feel the same about these things. If so, it's best to admit it. There is no shame in admitting to faults of this kind, even if Judge Zada might think you a girly man because of it. Based on his remarks, the good, fundamentalist Muslim jurist probably already thinks of you as a religiously deceived, culturally perverted Dhimmi, completely unworthy of basic respect. What's being a girly man compared to that! If watching the Afghanis hang a man from the neck until dead just because he converted to Christianity makes you all squirmy, be proud of who you are. You go, girly man!

Prosecutor Abdul Wasi said the charge would be dropped if Mr. Rahman converted back to Islam, which he has so far refused to do. Prison officials refused requests to interview Mr. Rahman, but one of his cellmates said he was resolute.

"He is standing by his words," said Sayad Miakel, 30. "He will not become a Muslim again."Another cellmate said Mr. Rahman seemed depressed. "He keeps looking up to the sky, to God," said Khalylullah Safi, 31.

See! As an erstwhile Canadian prime minister once declaimed, "Da Proof is da proof is da proof." Islam is a religion of tolerance after all. If Mr. Rahman just renounces this silly obsession he has about Jesus being the Son of God and Saviour of the World, and re-adopts the religion of Mohammed, Islam will forgive him. It's not like he'd have to garb himself in a chador or some other wymyn thing. And he would be allowed to marry one.

Unfortunately, Rahmin the Apostate appears to have a stubborn streak. "He keeps looking up to the sky to God." If I were Mr. Rahman, I'd be doing just that. I'd also glance from time to time in the direction of the US and Canadian embassies.

According to Afghani law, Mr. Rahman cannot be put to death without the consent of the president of Afghanistan. The American and Canadian ambassadors may want to chat with President Hamid Karzai about why we are expending so much blood and treasure defending a government that maintains a law making it a capital crime to convert to Christianity. Those soldiers of ours who are Christians might also want to know why, if this is the case, they are risking their lives in President Karzai's cause.