President Bush yesterday struck just the right note in respect of the case of Abdul Rahman, who is being tried in Afghanistan for converting to Christianity. Speaking in West Virginia, the president said he is “troubled” at the prospect that Mr. Rahman could be executed by an Afghan court for converting 15 years ago. “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,” Mr. Bush said. All Americans share his view. Indeed, this may be one of the most serious tests Afghanistan’s nascent democracy has faced yet of how serious it is about shedding the malignant legacy of the Taliban.

Prosecutors are pursuing Mr. Rahman for apostasy. This newspaper does not belittle the seriousness with which a number of the great religions view that charge. It is among the most serious of religious offenses and can have, even in our tradition, significant consequences. But one authority whom we consulted yesterday evening could think of no modern instance in which any sort of state legal action has been meted out for apostasy in a civilized country. Religious authorities have long since learned how to deal with this in the arena of dialectic and words, rather than through the use of the gallows.

Mr. Rahman converted after working at a Christian-run refugee center in Pakistan. He has now attracted the attention of prosecutors, who intend to use his copy of the Bible as evidence against him if the case goes to trial. Human rights advocates outside Afghanistan are aghast, as our Josh Gerstein reported earlier this week. It is also unclear how many Muslims believe apostasy should be a capital offense, even though hard liners point to passages in the Koran that they argue support their desire to execute former coreligionists.

The Afghan government may be allowing the trial to proceed out of fear that stopping it would alienate one of the country’s many warlords. It’s not an excuse that will be credited by anyone in America. The wires were reporting yesterday afternoon that Mr. Rahman may yet escape execution with a ruling, which the court is considering, that he is mentally ill, or something on that order. The judge in the case, Ansarullah Mawlazezadah, recently told ABC News that “We will ask [Mr. Rahman] if he has changed his mind about being a Christian. If he has, we will forgive him, because Islam is a religion of tolerance.” This case is a test of whether that tolerance will extend far enough for a modern democracy of the sort that Afghanistan aspires to be. The world will be watching to see what happens if Mr. Rahman doesn’t change his mind.