/Andreas

I see what you mean about prosecution being carried out by the Afghan court rather than Islam, but even after America’s manifest democracy (as it were), there’s not much separation between church and state in Afghanistan. The constitution still says Islam is the official religion and apostasy is punishable by death. So in effect, there’s not much difference between religion and the state.

I don’t think the comparison to Christianity and women voting works either… until the 20th century women were 2nd-class citizens virtually worldwide, no matter what religious values were dominant in a given culture. In fact, it was western nations w/ Christian values who were first to formally recognize women’s rights.

But anyway, back to voting.. Your example would only work if Americans had been arrested (or sentenced to death, as the case may be) for questioning sexist voting laws. I think a better comparison to the Afghan situation would be Stalin’s Russia, where people were arrested, or worse, for disagreeing with the ideology of the regime.

Disclaimer: I’d likely argue if you said the earth revolved around the sun.

And that’s what you get for being nice enough to read my site and leave a comment. I hope you’ve learned your lesson.