It looks like the guy is out of danger, but I can't say I'm happy about this as a Big Picture kind of thing.
The status quo in Afghanistan has not changed. Nothing happened here that prevents them from charging another guy for the same thing.
This case was "dropped for lack of evidence", which is as big a lie as they come, not because Sharia law was ruled to be an abomination or because the Afghanistan government respected the UN documents incorporated into their Constitution that specifically prohibit this kind of prosecution.
I agree. I think we, the US, should have been much more publicly involved in this (after all, we created the current govt of Afghanistan) and that we should have demanded changes to the statutes enshrining sharia.
The only thing I can say in our defense is that we were probably more naive about Islam when we started out there than, hopefully, we are now after several years of experience dealing with it. That must be why sharia slipped in, but I hope it's not too late to go back and change it.
Otherwise, you're right, nothing has changed in Afghanistan. It's just that the Taliban (in its new incarnation) is now receiving bundles of US foreign aid.
You're right...
" or because the Afghanistan government respected the UN documents incorporated into their Constitution that specifically prohibit this kind of prosecution."
Can't find those specific prohibitions ... -
http://www.afghansite.com/afghanistan/afghanConstitution.asp