Muslim Heretics Conference

An Afghani journalist has been sentenced to death for writing an article on women’s rights, which was construed as offensive to Islam. Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh, 23, from the northern Balkh province, was detained last October on charges of blasphemy and defaming Islam.

He allegedly wrote articles on the role of women in Muslim society and quoted verses in the Quran about women. The family said the articles were not authored by the journalist. They said he took them off the Internet and distributed them.

Dr. Hussein Yasa, editor-in-chief of an independent English daily in Afghanistan, told The Media Line that Afghani journalists are facing pressures and intimidation, especially in the north of the country. “Talking or writing about religious issues is very difficult in Afghanistan,” he said.  However, Yasa stressed that the situation is better now than under the Taliban, who would burn archives and hang television sets from trees.

“We did not have the concept of free journalism that exists now in Afghanistan. The concept of free media in Afghanistan only started after the fall of the Taliban in early 2002,” he said.

The sentence is being condemned by freedom of the press organizations. Kambakhsh’s family said the trial took place in secret and the journalist had no lawyer defending him.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said it was “appalled” by the death sentence meted out on Tuesday. “That a journalist should face execution is an utter disgrace to any democratic nation,” the organization said. It called on Afghan President Hamid Karazai to press for his immediate release.

The Institute for War and Peace Reporting says it was possible Kambakhsh was being punished to pressure his brother also a journalist, who has written extensively about alleged abuses by powerful commanders of armed groups.  Reporters Without Borders said the death ruling on Kambakhsh reflects the growing influence of fundamentalist Islam on intellectual debate. The blasphemy charges, it said, were a tool used by the authorities to restrict press freedom.

Death penalty for Afghan journalist ‘Insulting Islam’ by Media Line

Dutch Muslims urge calm over Qur’an film

By Michael Corder, Associated Press Writer

Houston Chronicle

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — A Dutch Muslim group appealed Thursday for calm at home and abroad in reaction to an anti-Quran film a right-wing politician says he is making.

Geert Wilders, leader of the far-right Freedom Party, says his film will portray the Quran as a “fascist book” that incites violence and intolerance of women and homosexuals.

The Dutch director of a previous film critical of Islam was murdered by a Muslim radical on an Amsterdam street in 2004, prompting a backlash that included the torching of several mosques.

The moderate National Moroccan Council said Thursday it will try to “neutralize the threat” posed by the upcoming film, which Wilders says is still under production.

“At the moment, practically all Muslim groups … are working to ensure a peaceful and responsible reaction” to the film, said the group’s chairman, Mohamed Rabbae, at a news conference in The Hague.

“We will have succeeded if, after the film, Mr. Wilders is frustrated,” Rabbae said. “If he sees there are no riots and Muslims are cleverer and more democratic than he thinks.”

Wilders has yet to find a broadcaster prepared to air the film once it is finished. But he has said that if he cannot find one, he will post it on the Internet.

Even though it is uncertain the film will ever be broadcast, the government has put cities on alert for possible violence. It has also warned its overseas embassies about a possible reaction similar to the one that erupted across the Muslim world over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad printed in a Danish newspaper in 2005.

“That a 10-minute film that’s never been shown may lead to riots, boycotts and other bad things, says everything about the nature of Islam,” said Wilders in an open letter Thursday. “Nothing about me.”

Wilders’ party holds nine of the Dutch parliament’s 150 seats.

In the past, he has said that half the Quran should be torn up and has compared it with Adolf Hitler’s book “Mein Kampf.” He has claimed the Netherlands is being swamped by a “tsunami” of Islamic immigrants.

Wilders said his film will not closely resemble “Submission,” the short film written by right-leaning former Dutch lawmaker Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

“Submission” criticized the treatment of women under Islam, citing Quranic verses that appeared to justify abuse.

The film’s director, Theo Van Gogh, was murdered in 2004. A Muslim extremist shot him numerous times, slit his throat and used a knife to pin a letter to his chest threatening the life of Hirsi Ali. She now lives in the United States under 24-hour guard.

Rabbae said his group represents the majority of the more than 850,000 Muslims living in this nation of 16.3 million.

The group also will call on Dutch Muslims who feel victimized or insulted by the film to file criminal complaints against Wilders for racial or religious vilification.

Dutch Muslims urge calm over Qur’an film- by Michael Corder