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Today's Top Five

1. 'Is this the fruit of democracy?'
It doesn't look good for Abdul Rahman. The judge in his case says the 41 year old clearly violated Islamic law by converting to Christianity. "If he doesn't regret his conversion, the punishment will be enforced on him," the judge said. "And the punishment is death."

The Chicago Tribune has changed its headline from "Afghan man faces death for being a Christian" to "Afghan man faces death for abandoning Islam." But both the judge and prosecutor (Rahman doesn't have a defense attorney) have said his crime isn't just conversion.

"It is illegal to be a Christian and it should be punished," the judge was quoted as saying in the Toronto Globe and Mail. Prosecutor Abdul Wasi told The Times of London, "We are Muslims and becoming a Christian is against our laws. He must get the death penalty."

A human rights expert in Kabul lays out the problem in The Times: "The constitution says Islam is the religion of Afghanistan, yet it also mentions the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and article 18 specifically forbids this kind of recourse. It really highlights the problem the judiciary system faces."

The judiciary seems not to have a problem. It's just disregarding what it considers Western law. It's all a matter of perspective, the judge explained to The Times: "In your country two women can marry. I think that is very strange. In this country we have the perfect constitution. It is Islamic law."

The Chicago Tribune notes that "Islamic rules are violated in Afghanistan every day—whether by alcohol being sold openly on the streets, or by prostitutes who cater to both foreigners and Afghans, or by the booming opium trade." But religion is still a hot button, the paper says: "One Afghan liberal scholar, Ali Mohaqeq Nasab, spent almost three months in jail last fall after publishing a magazine challenging many traditional views on Islamic law, including the belief that Muslims who convert to other religions deserve to die."

Charles Colson is mad. "Is this the fruit of democracy?" he asks on today's Breakpoint radio commentary. He continues:

Is this why we have shed American blood and invested American treasure to set a people free? What have we accomplished for overthrowing the Taliban? … I have supported the Bush administration's foreign policy because I came to believe that the best way to stop Islamo-fascism was by promoting democracy. But if we can't guarantee fundamental religious freedoms in the countries where we establish democratic reforms, then the whole credibility of our foreign policy is thrown into serious question.

Others, including Al Mohler and Family Research Council's Tony Perkins are raising similar questions. It may be that nothing would turn evangelicals against military action abroad quicker than Rahman's execution would.

2. Contributions to Robertson have almost doubled in less than a decade
While evangelical political leaders are set for a disillusionment on foreign policy, Weblog is having a disillusionment of his own. For years, I have been arguing that Pat Robertson has no real constituency. That he may have a few viewers left, but he doesn't need them anymore due to some savvy and questionable business deals. It may be true that he doesn't need viewer donations, but he apparently still has them. "Donors gave $160 million to Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network, according to tax statements for the year ending in March 2005, an increase of 21 percent from the previous year," The Virginian-Pilot reports today. "Contributions to CBN have increased steadily since 1997, when it received $84 million." Who are these people, and why are they giving to Robertson? Is Robertson saying crazy things so that he'll get media attention, which he can spin as media persecution, which then brings in more donations? Is that the game? Or do people say, "Boy, he may call for the assassination of elected world leaders, support and enrich some of the world's worst dictators, proclaim faulty theology about God's wrath, support China's one-child policy, break his promise on selling his race horses, and use his humanitarian ministry's planes for his own personal diamond mining operation, but I can't think of a better ministry leader to write a check to?" Weblog is having a hard time believing these people really exist. If you've given money to Pat Robertson lately, please e-mail me. I'd love to know why, and I promise to be nice.

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March (Web-only) 2006, Vol. 50