So says Said Mirhossain Nasri, senior cleric at Hossainia Mosque, one of the largest Shiite mosques in Kabul, in this AP story (thanks to Ray), which also contains many of the clerics’ reactions we posted here.
In the first place, this illustrates the Berlin Wall aspect of all this: they know there is no escape, and don’t want there to be an escape, because they know that in that case people will be streaming out.
It also shows what the Bush Administration should be doing. Instead of saying that all this is up to the Afghans, we should set an example — and say that we will not tolerate anything but full juridical freedom of conscience, and that if that means the Afghan Constitution must be revised to delete the Sharia provision, so be it. But we are not going to waste our arms and blood to prop up a state that institutionalizes the oppression of religious minorities and extinguishes the freedom of conscience.