AIDING THE ENEMY

On March 14 2004 President Bush declared that allied forces had succeeded in creating an Afghanistan free from terror. In his address he announced, "Today, that nation (Afghanistan) has a democratic government and many allies -- and all of us are proud to be friends of the Afghan people." He went on to declare Afghanis free and democratic and to hold Afghanistan up as the kind of nation Iraq could become if the War on Terror continued unhindered. Let's hope Iraq fares better.

There's no doubt that Afghanistan's citizens are better off today than they were before the work of allied forces began. But Christianity is not. And while this is not Bush's or Blair's fault and was certainly not their intention, it is a sobering reality, a reminder of the limitations and short-sidedness of governments and armies throughout history. Allied forces have effectively freed Afghanis from the terror of the Taliban only to aid them in establishing a terror of their a own: a theocracy based on Islamic law which requires converts to Christianity to be executed. One nation under God has inadvertently established a nation opposed to it's God and it's God's followers.

The Associated press reports today that Senior Muslim clerics in Afghanistan are right now demanding that a citizen on trial for converting from Islam to Christianity receive the death penalty. If the courts do not execute him clerics are warning that they will rally the now liberated democratic people of Afghanistan to "pull him into pieces." The 41-year-old Rahman, a former medical aid worker, broke Afghanistan's theocratic Islamic laws against becoming a Christian.

"Rejecting Islam is insulting God. We will not allow God to be humiliated. This man must die," said cleric Abdul Raoulf, who is considered a moderate and was jailed three times for opposing the Taliban before the hard-line regime was ousted in 2001. He is a supporter of the War on Terror. He is an ally but an enemy of my King.

Pressured by Western leaders the courts in Afghanistan are frantically searching for ways to free the Christian convert without going against their own laws forbidding conversion. One out is for Rahman to claim insanity and another would be for him to be exiled to the West. But Said Mirhossain Nasri, a top cleric at the Hossainia Mosque in Kabul, said the convert should not be allowed to leave the country. "If he is allowed to live in the West, then others will claim to be Christian so they can, too," he said. "We must set an example. ... He must be hanged."

The clerics are angry with the United States for pushing for the convert's freedom. "We are a small country and we welcome the help the outside world is giving us. But please don't interfere in this issue," Nasri said. "We are Muslims and these are our beliefs."

So, should Christians support (however that's defined) U.S. government actions establishing new governments and nations if those nations are at their core opposed to Christ and Christianity? What do you think?