President Bush’s reference today to the Abdul Rahman case during a previously scheduled public appearance in Wheeling, W.Va :

I’m troubled when I hear, deeply troubled when I hear, the fact that a person who has converted away from Islam may be held to account. That’s not the universal application of the values that I talked about. I look forward to working with the government of that country to make sure that people are protected in their capacity to worship.

Malkin calls it “mealy-mouthed” and “tepid.” It’s not terribly articulate (the “held to account” phrasing is awful) but so long as he means what he’s saying — and I think he does — it is, in fact, sufficient for the time being.

If President Bush came out and demanded, publicly, that Rahman be set free immediately, the only thing sure is that it would make many Afghans scream “insult!” and it would stir up an aggrieved nationalism with impossible-to-predict consequences. It would likely be bad for both Abdul Rahman and Hamid Karzai. Afghans of good will, and especially Karzai, need the space to attempt to resolve this in a positive way. I have no doubt as of today that President Bush is making it clear to Karzai how important it is that this man not be executed for his Christian beliefs.

Of-course, it’s also looking like the “insanity” clause is going to be invoked to try and save everyone’s feet from the fire. That would not exactly be a satisfactory resolution for Mr. Rahman, but the devil would be in the details, and, so long as he were free, it would certainly be substantially better than seeing him executed. It would only punt the broader issue down the line, but that’s much better than seeing everything go down the drain.

Addendum 4:49 p.m.: President Bush, at the same event referred to earlier, also received a very good question about Abdul Rahman’s case from a man in the audience:

Q President Bush, I’m a professional firefighter here in Wheeling, West Virginia.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, sir. (Applause.)

Q And back during 9/11, I lost over 300 of my brothers in New York. And I was glad that you were our President at that time and took the fight to the terrorists. But as I see you, I said earlier about the guy in Afghanistan that is going to convert to Christianity, he may get killed over there for doing that. Do you have an army of sociologists to go over there and change that country, or are you hoping that in a couple decades that we can change the mind-set over there?

THE PRESIDENT: I appreciate the question. It’s a very legitimate question. We have got influence in Afghanistan and we are going to use it to remind them that there are universal values. It is deeply troubling that a country we helped liberate would hold a person to account because they chose a particular religion over another. And so we are — we will make — part of the messaging just happened here in Wheeling. I want to thank you for that question.

No, I think it’s — we can solve this problem by working closely with the government that we’ve got contacts with — and will. We’ll deal with this issue diplomatically and remind people that there is something as universal as being able to choose religion.

So thank you for the question. I understand your concerns. I share the same concerns.

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