Sharia Alert: “Afghanistan: Death penalty call for man who spread Koran translation,” by Syed Saleem Shahzad in AKI, June 23:
Islam of course carries the death penalty for any number of “transgressions,” but one wonders if Muslims ever ask themselves why it is that so many would-be reformers and organizations are bent on “reinterpreting” their Koran? Is it simply because they, as this article states, are trying to turn Muslims into “Christians and atheists”? If so, why isn’t there a Western campaign trying to reinterpret the scriptures of Hindus and Buddhists, to turn them into Christians or atheists as well? In fact, the vast majority of non-Muslims could care less whether Muslims perform their “five” pillars; it’s the animosity, hatred, and violence towards those who don’t want to perform them””i.e., non-Muslims””not to mention those misogynistic “tendencies” that are behind the international desire to reinterpret the Koran. Go figure.
Karachi, 23 June (AKI) — An Afghan journalist accused of distributing an unacceptable translation of the Koran should be put to death, says former Prime Minister Ahmad Shah Ahmadzai. Former journalist Ghows Zalmay, who was also the spokesman for Afghanistan’s Attorney-General, was arrested in November last year for distributing a translation of the Koran into Dari, one of Afghanistan’s two official languages. Ahmadzai, who ran in the 2004 presidential election against current President Hamid Karzai, told Adnkronos International (AKI) he supported the death penalty for Zalmay. “Today Afghanistan is full of vices. Several Afghan restaurants serve liquor, despite it being illegal and on top of it, such material is distributed,” Ahmadzai told AKI. “I am in favour of his death.”
If this eager-to-slay-a-“blasphemer” Ahmadzai was a contender for the Afghan presidency””after the overthrow of the Taliban””and its current Prime Minister, one wonders what the “average” man on the Afghan street thinks. Incidentally, this same Ahmadzai fled Afghanistan when the Taliban came to power and is prime minister now thanks only to Americans (“infidels”).
Muslim scholars in Afghanistan reportedly said that the new version of the Koran misinterpreted verses about alcohol, begging, homosexuality and adultery [“¦]
In other words, it did not portray them as capital offenses worthy of draconian punishments? Actually, there is room for interpretation in the Koran regarding these topics: there’s a verse which speaks well of wine (now “abrogated”); many Koranic interpreters have taken the beautiful “serving” boys in paradise as representative of homosexuality; polygamy or sex with conquered concubines can actually be deemed “adulterous.”
Ghows, 50, is reportedy in jail after being accused of blasphemy and his lawyers say he risks the death penalty. He is expected to face charges in an Afghan court within the next week. “This is all an American conspiracy to deviate Afghans from their faith,” said Al-Hajj Farooq Hussaini, [“¦]
“American” only? Why so modest? What about the Jews, Christians, the papacy, apostates, secularists, puppets, cartoonists, et al, who are also on the litany list of “conspirators” against Islam??
“They want us to be converted Christians or simply atheists [“¦]
Not so: we merely want you to grant people the freedom””the right“”to be “Christians or simply atheists.”
Hussaini also referred to the case of Abdul Rahman, an Afghan Christian convert who was granted asylum in Italy in 2006. Rahman escaped a possible death sentence in Afghanistan for becoming a Christian. “Earlier they protected Abdul Rahman who left Islam and converted to Christianity and now they are encouraging the distribution of the fake translations of Koran,” said Hussaini who is also the leader of a group led by Ismail Khan, Afghanistan’s Energy Minister.
In the mind of Afghan’s Energy Minister (technically, a “friend,” and no doubt benefactor of the US) converting to Christianity is as bad a crime as intentionally distorting and adulterating his god’s words””the greatest crime. Why again did we overthrow the Taliban?
“Ghows Zalmay should be given an exemplary punishment for his crime,” he said.
Death.