FOR those of us who think that the Koran itself is one almighty blunder, there’s deep irony in the news that two people have been given lengthy jail sentences in Afghanistan for publishing a translation of the Muslim murder manual “containing errors”.
The translation of the Koran into the Dari language by former journalist Ahmed Ghous Zalmai led to his arrest last November after clerics and parliamentarians went into full outrage mode.
They claimed the translation contained errors and misunderstandings about issues such as homosexuality and adultery. Critics also complained the book did not include the original Arabic text as required by Islamic law.
The man who approved the translation, Mullah Qari Mushtaq was put on trial alongside Zalmai, and last week both men were each sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment.
According to this report, Afghan and international media rights organisations condemned the sentences and called on President Hamid Karzai to intervene.
Said Paris-based Reporters Without Borders and Article 19, another rights watchdog:
We appeal to the President’s spirit of tolerance and ask him to intercede on behalf of two men who have been given extremely severe sentences. Their aim was not to violate Islamic law, but only to promote the Koran among the Persian-speaking peoples.
Zalmai, expected to appeal, was a fairly outspoken TV journalist in the 1980s, Reporters Without Borders said. At the time of his arrest, he was a spokesman in the office of the attorney-general.
Another journalist is appealing a death sentence handed down by a primary provincial court in January for distributing an article downloaded from the internet which questions the Koran, particularly its views on women.
Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh
A reporter with the Jahan-e Now daily paper, Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh was detained after complaints from some of his university classmates. They claimed he had mocked Islam and the Koran, and that he distributed an article which said the Prophet Mohammed had ignored the rights of women.
Kambakhsh, 23, has been in jail for nearly a year after judge Moulvi Shamas-ul-Rehman Moomand, head of the Primary Provincial Appeals Court, sentenced him to death,
Afghanistan’s judicial system is based on Islamic Sharia law which forbids criticism of Islam and rules that the death penalty should be applied in cases of blasphemy.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
September 28th, 2008 at 7:35 am
Jeez, we’ve been translating the koran into lolspeak for months now. Sure glad I live here and not there.
July 23rd, 2009 at 12:06 pm
The translator and the mullah should not even have been jailed. It is disgraceful. It is hard to believe also that a young man of 23 has been sentenced to death for merely commenting on Mohammed ignoring the rights of women. What a medieval, oppressive regime. I haven't heard loud condemnation from the rest of the world.