A Gaping Wound Needs More Than Band-Aids

I hear that Abdul Rahman is probably going to be released due to "lack of evidence." Case dismissed.

So am I happy? Not entirely.

In other articles I've been reading this past week, it became very clear that the Afghani people in general were in favor of him being put to death. The imams were also emphatic in their calls for his execution. If the government simply lets him go free, his life is in danger on the streets of Afghanistan. So no, I am not happy about that.

Again, the problem here goes deeper than this one man's case, and I cannot stress that enough. If Islam is not reformed, we are going to keep running into this issue. We need to face it head-on, and this case provides our chance, and we are BLOWING IT by letting Afghanistan simply dismiss the case and let him go, as a measure of appeasement. I don't want to be appeased! I want to to see CHANGE!

It's time for Western countries to realize the truth: that we are not at war simply with corrupt regimes. We are absolutely embroiled in an ideological war, and the ideology we are fighting is so inherently tied to a religion, that you can't tell where one begins and the other ends.

The U.S.'s failure to acknowledge that fact is a big reason for our continued failures in all of our dealings with the Middle East, throughout history. We have no excuse to continue in our ignorance. The case of Abdul Rahman has revealed the truth, and if we don't learn from it, we will pay for it.

And so will countless others.