The Savage Lands

There are a couple of news stories that I want to bring to your attention.

First, many of you will remember my coverage last year... Of Somali pirates! Well, the U.S. Navy has deployed a squadron of ships to the area in and around Somalia in order to fight the pirate menace. They fought an engagement this weekend (CNN, BBC) and took a number of pirates into custody. The pirates are claiming that they were patrolling in search of illegal fishermen; the Navy found small arms and RPGs, and Somalia doesn't have a government. You be the judge.

Second, an Afghan man has been arrested for converting to Christianity (Fox, BBC, and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty under Sharia law, which is the basis for Afghanistan's legal system. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. As far as I'm concerned, he's got several things going for him.

He converted sixteen years ago, which means that he's hopefully exempt from punishment since his "crime" preceded the Afghan government's existence by more than a decade, which means that they (hopefully) have no jurisdiction to punish him in the first place.

He converted in Pakistan, which means that the "crime" didn't even happen within the borders of Afghanistan; therefore, it's once again outside their jurisdiction.

Now, I'm not sure whether issues of jurisdiction such as those I've noted have any basis in Sharia law. I also don't know whether Afghanistan has any such thing as a statute of limitations. As I said before, it will be interesting to see how this plays out. A couple of additional thoughts:

As much as we all love him saying that American troops should assassinate Hugo Chavez, or that Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine retribution for Israel's unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, it would be really nice if Pat Robertson grew a pair, got some class, and ponied up the dough to pay for this guy to get first class legal representation. Christians are called to seek justice, and take care of our own; this would be a great opportunity to do it. Since Robertson doesn't have enough class to fill a thimble, I hope someone else goes to bat for this guy.

I have no problem with the legal systems in predominately Islamic nations being based on Islam; after all, the legal systems in the West, up until the time when multiculturalism and hippy bullshit started squeezing their way in, were/are based on Christian ideals. However, part of the problem associated with Islamic law in particular becomes apparent in cases like this, and that's why there have to be provisions for religious freedom inherent in the constitutions of nations that seek democracy.

I think that we can all agree on one thing: for carrying around a Bible in Afghanistan, and for refusing in public to convert back to Islam, Abdul Rahman should get some sort of award for being pretty much the bravest dude I've heard about in a long time. May God protect and guide him, and may Hamid Karzai step in and bring some order and sense to this travesty.

Oh, and by the way, I bet you can't guess what the one commonality between lying Somali pirates and bloodthirsty Afghan prosecutors is. Well, maybe you can if your name is Mo-Licious.