Is this what we're fighting and dying for in Afghanistan?

Daily Mail:

An Afghan physiotherapist will be executed within three days for converting to Christianity.

Said Musa, 45, has been held for eight months in a Kabul prison were he claims he has been tortured and sexually abused by inmates and guards.

Mr Musa, who lost his left leg in a landmine explosion in the 1990s, has worked for the Red Cross for 15 years and helps to treat fellow amputees.

He was arrested in May last year as he attempted to seek asylum at the German embassy following a crackdown on Christians within Afghanistan.

He claims he was visited by a judge who told him he would be hanged within days unless he converted back to Islam.

But he remains defiant and said he would be willing to die for his faith.

He told the Sunday Times: 'My body is theirs to do what they want with.

'Only God can decide if my spirit goes to hell.'

Defence lawyers have refused to represent him, while others have dropped the case after receiving death threats.

I suppose it's too much to ask that the Afghans leap from the 15th into the 21st century. But if we're fighting to make Afghanistan stable, do we have to give in to their barbaric ideas regarding freedom of religion? President Karzai has the power to pardon this Muslim apostate, and he should immediately be urged to do so. It is an insult to our troops to ask them to fight for a people whose idea of freedom is to execute those who choose to worship differently than they do.