Abdul Rahman has been released. The case hasn't exactly been dismissed, but this is a positive development.

Nevertheless, the case isn't over, if these quotes from other Afghans are typical:

Many Afghans want to kill him.

"He should be hanged in a square," said Aqa Gul, 40, a baker.

"He should be stoned to death," said Sayed Saber, 32, a construction worker.

Rahman was the major topic of conversation across Kabul on Friday. In a restaurant, influential leaders met with a group of young people from Panjshir province, where Rahman is from. The young men talked about what would happen if Rahman is released.

"Anything could happen--whether a big demonstration, even the possibility of killing him," said Shojah Mostaqel, who organized the meeting. "Everyone knows what Islam says. Bush and his friends are trying to interfere in an Islamic country."

At Pol-e-Kheshti mosque, Kabul's largest, more than 10,000 people listened to cleric Maulavi Enayatullah Baligh talk about Rahman. They yelled, "God is great!" after Baligh said Rahman deserved death.

"If this Abdul Rahman does not come to Islam and does not repent, even if the government does not sentence him to death, then the people of Afghanistan will kill him," said Baligh, 50, also a lecturer in Islamic law at Kabul University.

Baligh stressed that if the international community intervened on Rahman's behalf, it could cause civil unrest in Afghanistan because of possible violent protests.

The case highlights the contradictions in Afghanistan's Constitution, which protects the freedom of religion but also says that Islamic law is the law of the land unless otherwise specified.

I wonder how many Americans have converted to Islam?

What would the Afghans say if we threatened to do the same to these people?