Return of the Islam-bashing!

I've had less cause lately to rant against hardline Islamism, but every once in a while a story like this catches my eye:

An Afghan court on Tuesday sentenced a 23-year-old journalism student to death for distributing a paper he printed off the Internet that three judges said violated the tenets of Islam, an official said...Kambaksh had been sentenced to death under Article 130 of the Afghan constitution. That article says that if no law exists regarding an issue than a court's decision should be in accord with Hanafi jurisprudence. Hanafi is an orthodox school of Sunni Muslim jurisprudence followed in southern and central Asia.

So much for Afghanistan being liberated. Dubya's 0 for 2.

At the Washington Post, Irshad Manji points out that this is not the first such instance in Afghanistan's short post-Taliban history. She wisely urges the Islamic world to move, as the Christian world did centuries ago, toward separation of church and state.

This is exactly right. Muslim countries will not become rich, will not become secure, will not become powerful until they embrace the separation of church and state. It's a big political innovation, bigger even than democracy, and it's one of the prime reasons that Christian countries are now many times wealthier than Islamic countries. Come on, Muslims, wake up. The Christians have lapped you. Time to ditch sharia law and put the clerics back in the mosque where they belong.