[MNJohnnie]

He has been freed you Whine All The Time morons.

[Former Fetus]

until Afghanistan not only assures religious freedom for all its citizens, but practices it in law and in society

The problem is that little sentence in their constitution, that no law can go against islamic law. Where there's islamic law there is no freedom of religion and therefore there can be no democracy. So much for Iraq's constitution also!

[eyespysomething]

The Bush Administration missed the opportunity to place religious freedom at the top of the list of required conditions for the new Afghan government.

I don't even know what to say here.

[Tulane]

Ummm, whine much? The guy is out after intense pressure by the Bush administration was applied...what else could Bush have done?

Sheesh. Some peole are truly dim.

[sinkspur]

I, for one, am deeply saddened the sacrifice of American and Afghan lives in the end resulted in such an unsatisfactory outcome.

Did I miss something?

The outcome was quite satisfactory, as Rahman is on his way to Italy, which has given him asylum.

It is by the grace of God that we don't have ministers or priests in positions of secular authority in our government.

[peyton randolph]

"We did adequately apply oil to all the seats," said the Rev. Rob Schenck, who identified himself as an evangelical Christian and as president of the National Clergy Council in Washington.

---

Oiled Ted Kennedy's seat. How nice.

This guy has an interesting history of activism with Randall Terry and Pat Robertson.

[Wasanother]

Rev. Rob Schenck is more than welcome to go over there and tell the tribes what religious freedom means and see if they are willing to change overnight. I hope he tells them all about Jesus too.

The guys free so what did Bush do wrong this time?

[SittinYonder]

I, for one, am deeply saddened the sacrifice of American and Afghan lives in the end resulted in such an unsatisfactory outcome.

I, for one, am glad that the Taliban is no longer in control of Afghanistan and al Qaeda's base of operations was broken. Their ability to plan and execute a terrorist strike against our country has clearly been hampered by our efforts in Afghanistan.

And in the end, Rahman wasn't executed, so I guess we've put down all those nay-sayers who claim there are no happy endings. ;-)

[Graymatter]

Ah! Every time you say "deeply saddened" you have to put a penny in Tom Daschle's jar.

I tried selling mousepads on cafepress with that phrase and Tommy said he would OWN me if I tried to sell them. /joshin'

[DannyTN]

I recognize the article's concern as legitimate.

We put a government in place that does not recognize basic human religious freedom.

The guy has been freed, but justice has not been served in this case. For all practical purposes, the guy is exiled. The custody battle that resulted in the charges against this guy, has been lost, along with all visitation of his daughters.

The court was unwilling to resolve the conflicts in the constitution. And perhaps that's for the best, for now, because the court might have ruled in favor of Sharia law. And a ruling in favor of Universal Human Rights would have caused civil unrest.

Maybe what Afghanistan needs is time to come to grips with human rights. But you can't help but wonder, whether we failed Afghanistan and our goal of instilling basic freedoms in the middle east, by allowing the clause that makes Sharia law supreme, to be included in the constitution.

Meanwhile there is a report that two more Christians have been arrested and another hospitalized after being beaten.

two more arrested

And there's this exerpt from a newsmax.com report...

Link to Newsmax article containing exerpt below

On Monday, hundreds of clerics, students and others chanting "Death to Christians!" marched through the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif to protest the court decision Sunday to dismiss the case. Several Muslim clerics threatened to incite Afghans to kill Rahman if he is freed, saying that he is clearly guilty of apostasy and deserves to die.

"Abdul Rahman must be killed. Islam demands it," said senior Cleric Faiez Mohammed, from the nearby northern city of Kunduz. "The Christian foreigners occupying Afghanistan are attacking our religion."

[Aquinasfan]

No society can claim it practices religious freedom until it protects the smallest and most vulnerable of religious communities—in this case, one who, by his own choice, left Islam to embrace Christianity.

But what about a religion that doesn't tolerate other religions? Religious toleration generally serves the common good, but not always. The first principle of government is the promotion of the common good, not absolute toleration.

[MNJohnnie]

The stench of hypocrisy wafting off the Neo-Isolationists today is sickening. After ignoring the mass murder of Christians in Africa, North Korea, China and Iraq for decades, NOW suddenly they are all concerned about 1 Christian Convert in Afghanistan. It is not about Rackman, it is just the Whine All The Time Choir's latest excuse to scream bile at President Bush.

[lugsoul]

I had no idea that GWB was also President of Afghanistan.

[PzLdr]

While I have concern for Mr. Rahman, and I think people who practice Sharia should be shot, our involvement in Afghanistan is based on the security needs of the United States, and our national interest.

If the Reverend wants to posit a foreign policy on religion, let him talk to the Knights Templar.

[Gritty]

this flaw in Afghanistan’s constitutional DNA may prove a fateful—and fatal —flaw for its future

And not just for Afghanistan.

Islam itself is fatal, on a personal, spiritual level!