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Afghanistan’s desperate need for humanitarian aid has not deterred its militant Taliban movement rulers from harassing those who come to help. Eight foreign aid workers, two Americans and the rest German or Australian, are being held incommunicado for allegedly fostering Christianity in a country where it is a crime to promote any religion other than Islam. Detained with them were 16 Afghans working for the German-based Christian relief agency Shelter Now International.

Foreigners accused of proselytizing face expulsion. Afghans convicted of converting from Islam or converting others can be punished with death.

The arrest of the aid workers is another instance of religious purity taking precedence over international relations and alleviation of a suffering population’s misery. Last spring the Taliban’s destruction of ancient Buddhist artifacts, part of humanity’s cultural heritage, appalled the world. Earlier this year U.N.-subsidized bakeries had to close because the Taliban barred Afghan women from working for international agencies. This week the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice announced that all foreign institutions and nongovernmental organizations will be under strict surveillance to prevent them from advancing non-Islamic religious precepts.

Afghanistan is under U.N. Security Council sanctions for harboring the terrorist Osama bin Laden. It is internationally isolated, with only three countries recognizing the Taliban’s rule as legitimate. It sends emissaries abroad to plead for humanitarian aid and then persecutes those who respond. Clearly it’s not outsiders that Afghans must fear but their own fanatical rulers.