Execution?

Abdul Rahman is possibly facing the death sentence in Afghanistan, his only "crime" converting from Islam to Christianity. While the government seems likely to release him under pressure from the worldwide community, the people and clerics of Afghanistan are less forgiving. As they have repeated time and again the alleged prophet Mohammed stated that "when somebody changes religion, he must be killed".

This is of course a stipulation of Sharia law and the problem facing the West now is that this position- that a convert from Islam must be killed- is not a rare belief; it is part of mainstream thought in Afghanistan and beyond.

Now that there's a possibility that Rahman may be freed there is already talk of a jihad.

Following on so close after the Mohammed cartoons, the world has now had a good long look at the intolerance of Islam- freedom of speech and freedom of religion are two cornerstones of Western society. Both are denied in the Islamic world.

Unlike cartoon rage however, it seems impossible for the media to spin this story in such a way that the anti-freedom Muslims are shown in a good light. All of the newspapers and TV reports on the cartoons I saw in Britain tried their level best to portray them as some sort of right-wing, "racist" attack on Islam- a deliberate attempt to inflame Muslims around the world.

How are they going to spin the tale of a convert to Christianity facing execution?