An Afghan physiotherapist will be executed within three days for converting to Christianity.
Said Musa, 45, has been held for eight months in a Kabul prison were he claims he has been tortured and sexually abused by inmates and guards.
Mr Musa, who lost his left leg in a landmine explosion in the 1990s, has worked for the Red Cross for 15 years and helps to treat fellow amputees.
He was arrested in May last year as he attempted to seek asylum at the German embassy following a crackdown on Christians within Afghanistan.
He claims he was visited by a judge who told him he would be hanged within days unless he converted back to Islam.
But he remains defiant and said he would be willing to die for his faith.
He told the Sunday Times: 'My body is theirs to do what they want with.
'Only God can decide if my spirit goes to hell.'
Defence lawyers have refused to represent him, while others have dropped the case after receiving death threats.
Mr Musa was arrested after a TV station showed western men baptising Afghans during secret ceremonies.
Mind you, this isn't going down in some outlying province of Afghanistan under the control of an Islamist warlord rather in the Afghan capitol where one might think that the mayor of Kabul, Hamid Karzai, might be able to influence a more desirable outcome.
Nation-building is a bitch but since we're doing the heavy lifting over there, we don't think it would be too much to request of our hosts that they might possibly respect some of the most basic of basic human rights and not being put to death for one's religion might be an appropriate and entirely relevant jumping off point considering the time table Mr. Musa is apparently willing to eschew.
We know that it may sound a little too 1st amendment-y for some but since we are ready to throw out the old in the name of "democratic reforms" in Egypt, what's our excuse for inaction here?
As we are spilling American blood in Afghanistan in order to fashion a reliable ally that doesn't harbor terrorists, we've a tough time coming to terms with who exactly are the good and bad guys and for what principles we are willing to look the other way.
And this was supposed to be the good war.
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4 comments:
Perhaps politely requesting by flattening whatever location they want to do executions in?
We went their for our reasons. They dont especially want us there. They like their culture, not ours. We can insist on their following our cultural rules. They can insist that we leave. Nation building sucks. As Exum said, those who understand COIN dont want to do it.
Steve
I know I'm being hopelessly naive and I realize that there will always be a certain amount of head-turning with respect to, you know, "local customs" when pursuing national interests but this is just horribly depressing.
Can we leave a void? Do we have the guts to flatten the place if it becomes an incubator for our enemies? Nation building does suck, and COIN has not been implemented whole-heartedly.
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