An Afghan who converted to Christianity some 20 years ago has been arrested in Afghanistan and faces execution for leaving behind the Muslim religion he used to be part of. The only defence he has that might save him is pleading insanity. Apparently he 'doesn't speak like normal people', which gives rise to the judges thinking he might be insane.

Maybe he speaks like a Christian... I'm sure, for Muslims, that's grounds for insanity just there. What seems more likely though, is that the US-sponsored government, in the face of global criticism, is trying to find a way out of executing him and yet maintaining their religious laws.

Uncommon Sense has an interesting opinion...

...the imperative is to protect ourselves, America, and indeed, rational and freedom-loving people worldwide from clearly conveyed threats. I mean, that's an imperative, to outweigh all other considerations, no matter how grave. It will be fine with me to let those dirt-scratching primitives deal with one-another as the misogynist, mystical, pre-conceptual organisms they are. I don't know if they are prepared to keep to their primitive ways, and I don't know if the seeds for any sort of eventual Enlightenment have yet been sown.

To execute a man because of his religious beliefs, via the organized power of the state, with the citizenry cheering you on...? And they're breeding and reproducing misogynist, mystical, pre-conscious offspring by the millions...?

Well, those who speak the language and desire Enlightenment for the Muslim world had better get on the ball, because with this wide of a gulf between primitivity and modernity, with some of these regimes getting awfully close to nuclear and/or biological weapons technology, this just might not end well for them; and, as I said: there is the imperative.

I'll leave it at that, the implications being clear.

The imperative, which he implies clearly enough, seems to be kill all those 'dirt-scratching primitives' before they kill Americans.

I can understand this fear causing the belief that everyone who's a 'dirt-scratching primitive' should be exterminated before they cause the deaths of a few Americans.

But then again, I can also understand that these 'primitives', hearing about how so many (Republican - see comments) Americans want to exterminate them, might feel forced to resort to 'pre-emptive defence', which America has already shown is 'fair and legitimate'.

It's attitudes like this which (Republican) America has caused, which is the real reason for the problem in the first place.

• (Republican) Americans: "We have to defend ourselves by killing everyone else, before they can attack us."
• Everyone else: "Hmmm. Obviously we have to defend ourselves first, before they have the chance to defend themselves!"

The flaws behind this (Republican) American logic (is that an oxymoron?) is what's causing the 'terrorist problem' in the first place.

Those who are oppressed will always rise up against their oppressors, to fight for their freedom.

It seems that most (Republican) Americans just don't get it. They don't understand that they are the oppressors, believing their way is the right way, and that they are forcing everyone else to fight for their rights, and their freedoms, which (Conservative) America seems so determined to take away.

This idiocy will only stop when (Republican) Americans become more tolerant of non-Americans, or when they're exterminated themselves, because it seems quite obvious that to them, anyone who's not American, who doesn't have (Republican) American values, is a threat to them.

And that means pretty much the entire world.