Afghan Reporter Asks Questions, Must Die: Afghanistan Court, House, Senate, Defend Islam Against Discussion

"Afghan reporter to die for insulting Islam"

The first two paragraphs of this AP story, posted on WTOL-TV, Toledo, Ohio:

"Afghanistan's upper house of parliament lauded the death sentence handed down against a local journalist who was found guilty of insulting Islam, an official said Wednesday.

"In a statement signed by Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, the chamber's chairman, the Senate also condemned what it called "international interference" to have the sentence annulled, spokesman Aminuddin Muzafari said."

Please consider this post more "international interference."

The journalist with the death sentence is Sayed Parwez Kaambakhsh. He's a 23-year-old journalism student, from what I can gather from the news.

He's guilty of passing around an article he found on the Internet. He gave the copies to journalism students and teachers at Balkh University.

The article raised an interesting question: since Islam (according to Islamic fundamentalists, anyway) allows men to have four wives, why can't wives have four husbands?

I suspect that the article's being from a Farsi website didn't help Sayed's chances of survival.

I'm no expert on Afghani or Islamic law, but the case seems open-and-shut. Sayed Parwez Kaambakhsh raised a question about Islam that encourages thought and discussion. From what I've seen, a simple death sentence is a mild and humane judgment under Islamic law.

That doesn't mean that I approve of the sentence. Human rights groups across the world are protesting the sentence: a gutsy position, considering that they're 'attacking Islam' in the process.

One of them is the U.K. "Independent." has an online petition (www.independent.co.uk/petition), asking the British Foreign Office to "put all possible pressure on the Afghan government to prevent the execution of Sayed Pervez Kambaksh."

The Press Gazette (U.K.) offers an explanation for this outburst of Islamic passion: The Institute of War and Peace Reporting says that the Kaambakhsh case was arranged by Northern Afghanistan warlords. The target is the young reporter's brother, Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi, another journalist. Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi's investigative reports have exposed human rights abuses.

I mentioned this outburst of Islamic sensitivity in Afghanistan before, in "With Friends Like These, Does Islam Need Enemies?"

I keep trying to believe that America's infidel president was right, when he said that "Islam is a peaceful religion." The actions of Muslims and their application of Islamic law make this increasingly difficulty to do.

---

(Balkh University is Afghanistan's second-largest.)

"Chemical Ali," Slaughter, Sunni Sensitivities and Iraq

"Chemical Ali" was tried and convicted of genocide and war crimes: along with two other Hussein-era bosses. U.S. forces are holding on to him, until the Iraqi government sorts out what they want done with this mass-murderer.

"Chemical Ali" and two other Saddam helpers are facing a death sentence: Hussein's Defense Minister, Sultan Hashim al-Tai; and Saddam's Iraqi armed forces deputy operations director, Rashid Mohammed.

As usual, it's a complicated situation. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani opposes the death penalty, and says he won't sign off on the execution of "Chemical Ali," at least. (The Associated Press (AP) story I'm getting this information from focused almost exclusively on al-Majid.)

Kurds, as a group, would like to see "Chemical Ali" dead. I can't say that I blame them. On the other hand, President Jalal Talabani is a Kurd.

Here's where it gets howling-at-the-moon crazy.

President Talabani is also a Sunni Muslim, but not, I trust, one of the "Sunni leaders" the AP was talking about: "Sunni leaders pressed to delay the hangings, saying they could incite violence and cripple already fragile bids to improve ties between Iraq's rival groups."

You see, the Sunnis in central Iraq (obviously not the Kurdish Sunnis in the north) apparently just loved Saddam Hussein. He was their good buddy, and sent lots of money and favors their way. Great guy, from a Sunni point of view.

At least, that's what we seem to be expected to believe.

Maybe it's true. Maybe the Sunni Muslims - at least the ones in central Iraq - are so greedy, so ignorant, and so short-sighted that they don't realize that

• Uncle Saddam is no longer around
• Their ride on the gravy train is over
• That they've got a chance at having a piece of the action in post-Saddam Iraq -
  IF they don't act like a bunch of fools

I sincerely hope that "Sunni leaders" who are trying implicitly threatening violence to save a man guilty of genocide are a minority of dolts, and that they are shortly going to get an intense exposure to reality.

I also hope that most of the hold-up in the disposition of "Chemical Ali" and the other detritus left over from Hussein's rule is more a matter of thrashing out correct procedures by a very new government that's under intense pressure.