ALMOST a year after he was sentenced to death for the ludicrous “crime” of “blasphemy”, a young Afghan journalist has had his sentenced commuted to 20 years in jail.
According to the Irish Times, Afghanistan’s appeal court jailed Perwiz Kambakhsh, 23, a reporter with the Jahan-e Now daily, for distributing an article that said the Prophet Mohammed had ignored the rights of women.
Perwiz Kambakhsh
He had downloaded the article from the Internet and distributed it to friends.
Said judge Abdul Salaam Qazizada:
The court has sentenced Perwiz Kambakhsh to 20 years jail for the crime he has committed. But this is not the final hearing, he has the right to appeal.
Under Islamic law - stipulated in Afghanistan’s constitution - blasphemy is punishable by death.
The arrest and sentencing of Mr Kambakhsh, also a university student, drew criticism from a number of Western nations, the Afghan media and rights groups.
We have just learned that Jordanian police today arrested a local writer for incorporating verses of the Koran, into his love poetryIslam Samhan, published his collection of poems, Grace like a Shadow, without the approval of the Jordanian government, and authorities say it insults the holy book.
Samhan has been charged with harming the Islamic faith and violating the press and publication law for combining the “sacred” words of the Koran with sexual themes.
If convicted, the poet could face up to three years in jail.
Jordanian law bans the publication of any books or articles that could be seen as harmful to Islam and its paedophile prophet.
More than two years ago, the court convicted the editors of two weekly newspapers of insulting Islam and sentenced them to two months in prison after they reprinted Danish newspaper caricatures of Mohammed.
Jordanian writers and artists urged the government in a collective petition to immediately release the poet, saying the arrest is a “retreat in the freedom of expression,” and called for an end to the “oppression of freedom and intimidation practiced against intellectuals.”
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
October 21st, 2008 at 11:58 pm
Doing my best Chris Rock imitation:
“Islam…has GOT to go!”
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:24 am
The military gets the credit, but guys like this are heroes in the war on terror. Every case like this takes another chip out of the foundation.
October 22nd, 2008 at 8:01 am
The views and actions of extreme fundamentalist Muslims are bringing Islam into disrepute throughout the non-Muslim world. Why are the voices of moderate Muslims not being heard? Those Muslims who do not oppose fundamentalist extremism are seen to be passively supporting it. There will be no peace between religions until the moderates unite.
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:57 pm
No wonder their culture has been stagnated for the last thousand years.
October 23rd, 2008 at 9:38 pm
“Moderate” is a difficult term, but there clearly are Muslim modernisers.
But as you can see, they are struggling against powerful and violent Clerical States. These “blasphemers” are seldom atheists, they just want to give their opinion. It’s not an unfamiliar story to Europeans, either, before “the West” starts feeling too superior.
As this story shows, democratically minded Muslims are not passively supporting authoritarian Muslims - they are being subjected to violence, abuse, legal harrassment, murder, imprisonment, censorship and repression.
Atheists should show solidarity with all those who seek to loosen the bonds of religion and think more freely, whether they are atheists or not.
Dan