Post Thirty-eight: Afghanistan

I would hope most people have heard about the clerics in Afghanistan who are going to put a guy to death for converting to Christianity from Islam.

Christ, what a backwards nation. And religion. And I know this has to be the understatement of the year.

I am becoming more and more convinced that there is no rational strain of the Muslim religion. "Religion of peace" my ass. Not convinced? Well, one "moderate" cleric, who was actually jailed three times for opposing the Taliban while it ruled Afghanistan, has come out in support of the death penalty for this individual:

"We respect all religions, but we don't go into the British embassy or the American embassy to see what religion they are following," said cleric Enayatullah Baligh at Kabul's main mosque. "We won't let anyone interfere with our religion, and he should be punished."

If killing religious converts is the prevailing attitude among so-called "moderates," their religion is more than fucked-up. What happened to tolerance? What happended to forgiveness (as if there were something to forgive)? Obviously, these qualities do not rank high in Islam. And if such is the case, can someone please explain what is wrong with the following cartoon that has raised such a fuss?



Seems pretty damn accurate to me.

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

Seems the guy has been released. I'd like to think my commentary had something to do with it. I'd like to think that, but there's no way in hell that's true.