Journalist ( "Women's Rights" ed.) Convicted of Blasphemy in Afghanistan

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: Journalist Convicted of Blasphemy in Afghanistan
By ABDUL WAHEED WAFA
and CARLOTTA GALL
Published: October 23, 2005


KABUL, Afghanistan, Oct. 23 - For the first time since the fall of the Taliban's Islamic government four years ago, a journalist has been convicted by a Kabul court under the country's blasphemy laws.

Ali Mohaqiq Nasab, the editor of "Women's Rights," a monthly magazine for women, was sentenced on Saturday to two years in prison by Kabul's primary court. The sentence will automatically be reviewed on appeal.

The sentencing came after a strenuous battle between Kabul's conservative judges, led by members of the Supreme Court, and the liberal Minister of Information and Culture, Sayed Makhdum Raheen, and reveals the strains between moderates and conservatives in the government of President Hamid Karzai.

The prosecutor called for the maximum sentence of death, accusing the editor of apostasy, so the two-year sentence appears to have been a compromise. But it is a reminder that Afghanistan is still ruled by Islamic Shariah law and that, on issues of religion, conservatives are determined to enforce it....

***

The prosecution contended that the magazine had run two articles in its latest issue about apostasy that violated the law by saying that while apostasy was taboo, it was not a crime under Islam. The authorities apparently ordered the issue removed from newsstands....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/23/international/asia/24cnd-afghan.html

[MnFats]

1. well, we can certainly be glad the Talaban aren't running things..

...any more.
Well, really. She'd probably have been executed by now. but two years for saying apostasy is not a crime?


Hey George, think that's a little steep?
has democracy and freedom spread around enough in Afghanistan for now? weasel.

[DeepModem Mom]

3. Interestingly, the editor, I believe, is a man --

"Mr. Nasab, an Afghan who lived in Iran as a refugee, is an Islamic scholar and holds degrees from more than one Islamic university there, Mr. Raheen said. He was arrested on Oct. 1 and had won two postponements, one to find a lawyer and a second when he said he was ill."

[silverweb]

2. Go, U.S.A.!

Yeah!!!

Keep invading those foreign countries and spreading "democracy" around!

Bomb them to shit to save them from the evils of... uhmm... from evil!

Yeah!


:sarcasm:

:cry:

[rodeodance]

4. mandatory death sentence!! good gawd!! is this what our troops are

dying for!!

[DeepModem Mom]

5. Good question! " IS THIS WHAT OUR TROOPS ARE DYING FOR?" nt

[Malva Zebrina]

6. Really--we should send Laura Bush there again to straighten them out

She is the champion of women and their rights in Afganistan and that is her signature claim to fame--right? Nail polish is now worn by all women in Afganistan without fear of having their fingernails torn off.

I say send Laura. In only five hours on the ground, she can straighten them all out and look like a real feminist.

[Igel]

7. Unless something happened to the Supreme Court in

Afghanistan in the last year or two, it means that the Taliban-appointed judges are still there.

They overthrew the government (i.e., executive/legislative branches) but not the courts.

[newswolf56]

8. More "democracy" as defined by George Bush, the advocate of...

theocratic tyranny (and all its torture-chamber savagery) -- whether by JesuNazis in the United States or Jihadists in the Middle East.

[acmavm]

9. Hey Laura. What about all the good shit you were gonna do for these

women? What happened?

Laura is 100% bullshit. That's why here and the faux pResident have such a good marriage. Birds of a feather and all that.