Rally To Save Afghani Christian From Those Who Want "To Cut Him Into Little Pieces" For His Faith

Cam Edwards at RedState.org has initial details of a rally at the Afghanistan Embassy in D.C. on behalf of Abdul Rahman Friday at noon. I'll be there, will you?

UPDATE: Democracy Without Freedom?

The answer is no, according to Daveed Gartenstein-Ross at The Counterterrorism Blog. Democracy simply cannot exist without freedom of speech, thought, press, assembly and religion:

"But voting rights will not serve as an effective counterbalance to extremism if voting is simply superimposed over the current Middle Eastern political systems, with their lack of basic political freedoms.

"The most crucial freedoms for creating true democracy in the Middle East are freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of religion - and of these, the lack of freedom of religion in the region is the most dramatic."

Go here for the rest of a vitally important post.

Gartenstein-Ross pinpoints the crucial significance of the "Apostasy Problem" if the U.S. is indeed serious about pursuing the democratization of the Middle East. Put another way, Islamism can never be considered a "religion of peace" so long as it maintains its historic injunction on its faithful to kill all "unbelievers."

UPDATE II: Successful Rally

A morning meeting in connection with my pending move over The Washington Examiner went a little longer than I expected (my fault - I enjoy listening to smart people talk), so I was unable to make it to Rahman rally.

But Mary Katharine Ham was. And here. I'll post more links from attendees as they appear.