No justice in Afghanistan

A young man, a student of journalism, is sentenced to death by an Islamic court for downloading a report from the internet. The sentence is then upheld by the country's rulers. This is Afghanistan – not in Taliban times but six years after "liberation" and under the democratic rule of the West's ally Hamid Karzai.

The Independent reports that "The fate of Sayed Pervez Kambaksh has led to domestic and international protests, and deepening concern about erosion of civil liberties in Afghanistan. He was accused of blasphemy after he downloaded a report from a Farsi website which stated that Muslim fundamentalists who claimed the Koran justified the oppression of women had misrepresented the views of the prophet Mohamed. Mr Kambaksh, 23, distributed the tract to fellow students and teachers at Balkh University with the aim, he said, of provoking a debate on the matter. But a complaint was made against him and he was arrested, tried by religious judges without – say his friends and family – being allowed legal representation and sentenced to death."

So one concludes liberation from the Taliban is not liberation from the repression that is the local religion. In this country there is not one church building though there are Christians, mainly expatriate. Any Afghan who converts does so at the cost of life in that land. Converts must flee or die. How can the West export democracy and hope it to flourish in the alien soil of Islam? Representative democracy is the child of the Judeao-Christian civilisation of the West. Freedom does not flourish where Islam prevails.