Goofball
02-07-2008, 18:03
Just read this story:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080207.wafghansentence0207/BNStory/Afghanistan/home
Clerics urge Kabul not to interfere with death sentence
AMIR SHAH
Associated Press
February 7, 2008 at 6:37 AM EST
KABUL — Conservative clerics and elders demanded Thursday that the Afghan government not interfere with a controversial death sentence handed down to a young journalist convicted of insulting Islam for distributing a report questioning polygamy.
Sayed Parwez Kaambakhsh, 23, was sentenced to death on Jan. 22 by a three-judge panel in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif for handing out a report he printed off the Internet to fellow journalism students at Balkh University.
The article questioned why men can have four wives but women cannot have multiple husbands.
Mr. Kaambakhsh has appealed his conviction.
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More than 100 tribal and religious leaders convened Wednesday in Gardez, the capital of the conservative eastern province of Paktia, and demanded that the government support the sentence.
“Kaambakhsh made the Afghan people very upset. It was against the clerics and Islam. He has humiliated Islam,” Khaliq Daad, head of the Islamic council of Paktia, said Thursday. “We want the Afghan president to support the court's decision.”
Mr. Kaambakhsh's case sparked a protest in Kabul last week and an international outcry, with a number of organizations demanding the case be annulled and Mr. Kaambakhsh set free.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice planned to raise the case with President Hamid Karzai in talks here Thursday. Ms. Rice flew to the Afghan capital along with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband to deliver a joint message of support and to prod Afghan officials as the United Sates continues a drive to recruit more NATO troops for Afghanistan.
A government spokesman said this week that Mr. Karzai was concerned about the death sentence, but would not intervene until the courts have their final say.
Mr. Daad criticized the government and various organizations that have come out in Mr. Kaambakhsh's defence, accusing them of interfering with the judicial process.
He said the clerics and elders worried that Mr. Kaambakhsh would be let off the hook like Abdul Rahman, a Christian convert imprisoned in 2006 on charges of apostasy who was whisked off to Italy, where he had been granted asylum.
The Committee to Protect Journalists reiterated its call for Mr. Karzai “to have the case transferred immediately to Kabul and expedited through the appeals process so that he can be officially exculpated.”
Reporters Without Borders, another press rights group, also pressed the Afghan government to transfer the case and the conviction “quashed.”
As sickening as I find their sense of "justice," it begs the question: should the west be interfering? Especially in Afghanistan, where we are already seen as occupiers, if not oppressors. Obviously, the sentence is brutal and stupid, handed down by a bunch of old men desperately trying to maintain their hold over people through religion.
But from what I understand, it's the law of the land, and our interferance could further destabilize the already fragile Afghan government if we force them through political pressure to intervene and overturn the sentence.
Thoughts?
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080207.wafghansentence0207/BNStory/Afghanistan/home
Clerics urge Kabul not to interfere with death sentence
AMIR SHAH
Associated Press
February 7, 2008 at 6:37 AM EST
KABUL — Conservative clerics and elders demanded Thursday that the Afghan government not interfere with a controversial death sentence handed down to a young journalist convicted of insulting Islam for distributing a report questioning polygamy.
Sayed Parwez Kaambakhsh, 23, was sentenced to death on Jan. 22 by a three-judge panel in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif for handing out a report he printed off the Internet to fellow journalism students at Balkh University.
The article questioned why men can have four wives but women cannot have multiple husbands.
Mr. Kaambakhsh has appealed his conviction.
Related Articles
From the archives
Afghan journalist sentenced to death over brother's writings (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080123.wafghanjourno0123/BNStory/Afghanistan)
Internet Links
Full coverage: Canada's mission in Afghanistan (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/afghanistan)http://images.theglobeandmail.com/v5/images/icon/icon-digital-leaf-small-red.png
More than 100 tribal and religious leaders convened Wednesday in Gardez, the capital of the conservative eastern province of Paktia, and demanded that the government support the sentence.
“Kaambakhsh made the Afghan people very upset. It was against the clerics and Islam. He has humiliated Islam,” Khaliq Daad, head of the Islamic council of Paktia, said Thursday. “We want the Afghan president to support the court's decision.”
Mr. Kaambakhsh's case sparked a protest in Kabul last week and an international outcry, with a number of organizations demanding the case be annulled and Mr. Kaambakhsh set free.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice planned to raise the case with President Hamid Karzai in talks here Thursday. Ms. Rice flew to the Afghan capital along with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband to deliver a joint message of support and to prod Afghan officials as the United Sates continues a drive to recruit more NATO troops for Afghanistan.
A government spokesman said this week that Mr. Karzai was concerned about the death sentence, but would not intervene until the courts have their final say.
Mr. Daad criticized the government and various organizations that have come out in Mr. Kaambakhsh's defence, accusing them of interfering with the judicial process.
He said the clerics and elders worried that Mr. Kaambakhsh would be let off the hook like Abdul Rahman, a Christian convert imprisoned in 2006 on charges of apostasy who was whisked off to Italy, where he had been granted asylum.
The Committee to Protect Journalists reiterated its call for Mr. Karzai “to have the case transferred immediately to Kabul and expedited through the appeals process so that he can be officially exculpated.”
Reporters Without Borders, another press rights group, also pressed the Afghan government to transfer the case and the conviction “quashed.”
As sickening as I find their sense of "justice," it begs the question: should the west be interfering? Especially in Afghanistan, where we are already seen as occupiers, if not oppressors. Obviously, the sentence is brutal and stupid, handed down by a bunch of old men desperately trying to maintain their hold over people through religion.
But from what I understand, it's the law of the land, and our interferance could further destabilize the already fragile Afghan government if we force them through political pressure to intervene and overturn the sentence.
Thoughts?