Our friends the Afghans

One problem with supporting Democracy in Muslim countries is that the result may not be what we want. American blood and treasure was spilled in Afghanistan to promote a stable democratic society that would have the chance of bringing a backward theocracy into the twenty-first century. Concurrent with that goal was the hope that other institutions that we associate with democracy would also follow, one being religious tolerance. Instead we saw a man condemned to death for converting away from Islam. Now Afghanistan plans to bring back the religious police.

The cabinet also approved reviving the Department for the Promotion of Virtue and the Discouragement of Vice, a body that Afghan governments have maintained through much of the country's history. It became notoriously punitive under Taliban rule, from 1996 to 2001, when turbaned enforcers whipped women if their veils slipped and arrested men for wearing too-short beards or playing chess.

This leads me to wonder can Democracy and Sharia co-exist?