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Death to Converts: Afghanistan Reminds West of Wisdom of Separation of Church and State

Posted By Elisa On 26th March 2006 @ 12:12 In rankism in the church, rankism and the courts, rankism and the state, new world order | No Comments

Recently the U.S. has been facing significant challenges to one of the fundamental principles of our Constitution, the [1] separation of church and state. As pundits and litigators rattle swords over beachhead issues like [2] prayer in schools and [3] Intelligent Design, it’s edifying to consider the logical outcome of theocracy. Afghanistan has provided a timely demonstration in the form of a Christian convert that faced the [4] death penalty for apostasy from Islam. While the Afghan court system cheated the question by tossing the case on a [5] technicality, Muslim religious leaders [6] prayed for the death penalty and threatened to whip up the anger of the people to tear the man who dared to turn away from their god “to pieces”.

Because Afghanistan is a theocracy, their government may not be able to adhere to their agreement to abide by the [7] Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They can’t let all converts off on a technicality. Perhaps they will try a variation of [8] Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell - though Afghan policymakers should take a hard look at how well that’s working for the U.S. armed forces first. Or should the U.S. offer [9] amnesty for all?.

Given the collapse of the [10] Human Rights Commission and the failure of the U.S. to incorporate Universal Declaration into its domestic legal system (not to mention our willingness to [11] resort to torture), there may be no genuine defenders of freedom of conscience left. It may be only a matter of years before we see people on trial for their religion in the U.S., complete with lynchings, witch burnings, and [12] crucifixions. It’s time to call on the U.S. government to restore the principle of separation of church and state in our own country, and lead by example in order to promote the wisdom of freedom of conscience throughout the world.

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URLs in this post:
[1] separation of church and state: http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/opinion/14187133.htm
[2] prayer in schools: http://www.theocracywatch.org/schools2.htm
[3] Intelligent Design: http://www.theocracywatch.org/intelligent_design.htm
[4] death penalty: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/03/26/EDGTDHT09E1.DTL
[5] technicality: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-060326afghan,1,500258.story?coll=chi-news-hed
[6] prayed for the death penalty: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1760304
[7] Universal Declaration of Human Rights: http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html
[8] Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/13/AR2006021302373.html
[9] amnesty for all?: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-immig26mar26,0,7628611.story?coll=la-home-headlines
[10] Human Rights Commission: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/23/AR2006032301071.html
[11] resort to torture: http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/story/14235202p-15056540c.html
[12] crucifixions: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/1901095.stm
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