Despite the removal of the Taliban from power in Afghanistan, it's clear that the country once ruled by the worst sort of intolerant, Muslim fascists still has a long ways to go.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- An Afghan man is being prosecuted in a Kabul court and could be sentenced to death on a charge of converting from Islam to Christianity, a crime under this country's Islamic laws, a judge said Sunday.

The trial is believed to be the first of its kind in Afghanistan and highlights a struggle between religious conservatives and reformists over what shape Islam should take here four years after the ouster of the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban regime.

The defendant, 41-yer-old Abdul Rahman, was arrested last month after his family accused him of becoming a Christian, Judge Ansarullah Mawlavezada told The Associated Press in an interview. Rahman was charged with rejecting Islam and his trial started Thursday.

During the one-day hearing, the defendant confessed that he converted from Islam to Christianity 16 years ago while working as a medical aid worker for an international Christian group helping Afghan refugees in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, Mawlavezada said.

"We are not against any particular religion in the world. But in Afghanistan, this sort of thing is against the law," the judge said. "It is an attack on Islam."

According to the article, a dismissal of the case would be some sort of propaganda victory for the Taliban rebels still fighting a limited guerilla war in the country. Big deal. The U.S. State Department needs to lean hard on Hamid Karzai and bring Afghanistan a lot closer to modernity.

Religion of peace? Religion of pieces.