Afghanistan's Rushdie

Islamofascism: Six years ago, we liberated Afghanistan from the religious tyranny of the Taliban. So why is the new government there sentencing alleged blasphemers to death?

An Afghan court has ordered the execution of a 23-year-old Afghan journalist on charges of "blasphemy" and "disseminating defamatory comments about Islam."

Sayed Parwez Kaambakhsh committed the heinous crime of downloading and distributing a document from a Web site critical of the oppressive treatment of women under Islam.

Reporters Without Borders and other press-rights groups have intervened on his behalf. But Afghan President Hamid Karzai, while expressing concern, says the courts should do their work.

Problem is, the lawyer hired by the family to defend the young journalist did not dare attend his trial for fear of reprisals. Now they're looking for a new, bulletproof lawyer. Adding insult to injury, the deposed Taliban have given their blessing to the primitive sentence, condemning Kaambakhsh as "the new Salman Rushdie."

It's not the first time this has happened in post-Taliban Afghanistan. Two years ago, the new, allegedly democratic regime we helped to install there ordered the beheading of a 41-year-old Afghan man. Abdul Rahman's crime? Converting to Christianity.

Our enlightened ally Karzai pretty much sat on his hands in that case, too. Only international outcry spared Rahman's neck. After intense negotiations, he was allowed to flee to Italy.

To be fair, Karzai's hands are tied by a Shariah-based constitution we helped draft. Rahman was convicted under an article of the constitution that allows Shariah law to be applied when no constitutional provisions or other laws exist to cover the case. And Article 3 of the constitution states: "In Afghanistan, no law can be contrary to the beliefs and provisions of the sacred religion of Islam."

Shariah code is derived from the Quran and the Sunna of the Hadith, the stories of Muhammad's life and behavior. It governs spiritual matters, but it also mandates the stoning of adulterous women, execution of homosexuals, amputations for criminals, execution of Muslim apostates and blasphemers, and overall inferior status for non-Muslims.

The code is enforced by religious clerics acting as judges. Afghan Supreme Court Justice Fazi Hadi Shinwari has said it's his duty as judge to "behead" those who do not conform to Islamic law.

Democracy in Iraq is also being retarded by a Shariah-based constitution that, once again, we underwrote. The relevant language in the Iraqi constitution is located in Section 1 "Fundamental Principles" at Article 2: "Islam is the official religion of the State and it is a fundamental source of legislation: No law that contradicts the established provisions of Islam may be established."

In other words, Islamic law supercedes any democratic parts of the constitution.

"This is a critical point," said Maj. Stephen Coughlin, a leading military authority on Islamic doctrine. "Notwithstanding Western notions to the contrary, the Iraqi constitution and, therefore, the government and people of Iraq, formally recognize Islamic law to be the supreme law of the land, not just because Islamic law dictates but also because the constitution requires."

Women in Baghdad, once a relatively secular metropolis, are now frequent targets of violence at the hands of Shiite religious police. It's now rare to see women not covered head to toe in black abayas.

And in Afghanistan, few women have shed their burkas, fearing backlash from Taliban-like zealots working for the Ministry of Information and Culture.

The same ministry of virtues has banned the "Kite Runner" film from Afghan theaters and DVD shops because it puts Muslim society in a bad light.

Zalmay Khalilzad, a Muslim-American immigrant from Afghanistan, helped broker both constitutions as U.S. ambassador to Kabul and then Baghdad.

Now Islam is enshrined in both documents, guaranteeing that democracy will never really flower in those liberated countries, no matter how much we rejoice in "spreading democracy over there."

What are we fighting for? If reforming the Middle East means replacing the Taliban with Taliban Lite, we're not really sure any more.