Afghan Clerics Support Death Penalty for Journalist

Whooee! Well friends an' foes, the Afghan journalist sentenced to death for humiliating Islam is another step closer to the gallows.

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.

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.”
(Source)

Yep. That's the sorta place to which we're sending our best and bravest to die. Maybe General Hillier get get up on his hind legs and tell us how this is none of our business; Afghanistan is a sovereign state and we should stay out of their internal affairs.

While many other world leaders spoke up early on and condemned this insanity, Canada officially stood silent until passing an NDP motion yesterday.

The wording of Jack Layton's motion:

That this House condemns the proposed execution of the Afghan journalism student, Sayed Pervez Kambaksh, and calls on the Government of Canada to intervene with the government of Afghanistan to have all criminal proceedings against Sayed Pervez Kambaksh immediately abandoned.
(Hansard)

Kudos to NDP leader Layton for showing leadership and getting unanimous consent for this motion.

We can only prop up this draconian regime for so long before the abuses and repression come back and bite us in the ass. If Kaambakhsh/Kambaksh is executed, getting unanimous House consent for abandoning Afghanistan completely will be the next step.

Not in my name!

Change the climate in Parliament.

JimBobby