WHY WE ARE FIGHTING IN AFGHANISTAN

WHY WE ARE FIGHTING IN AFGHANISTAN

{SDR: I have not altered a word from the
the folowing A. P. story]

2 Afghans Face Death Over Translation of Quran
Published: February 6, 2009

KABUL (AP) -- No one knows who brought the book to the
mosque, or at least no one dares say.

The pocket-size translation of the Quran has already
landed six men in prison in Afghanistan and left two
of them begging judges to spare their lives. They're
accused of modifying the Quran and their fate could be
decided Sunday in court.

The trial illustrates what critics call the undue
influence of hardline clerics in Afghanistan, a major
hurdle as the country tries to establish a lawful
society amid war and militant violence.

The book appeared among gifts left for the cleric at a
major Kabul mosque after Friday prayers in September
2007. It was a translation of the Quran into one of
Afghanistan's languages, with a note giving permission
to reprint the text as long as it was distributed for
free.

Some of the men of the mosque said the book would be
useful to Afghans who didn't know Arabic, so they took
up a collection for printing. The mosque's cleric
asked Ahmad Ghaws Zalmai, a longtime friend, to get
the books printed.

But as some of the 1,000 copies made their way to
conservative Muslim clerics in Kabul, whispers began,
then an outcry.

Many clerics rejected the book because it did not
include the original Arabic verses alongside the
translation. It's a particularly sensitive detail for
Muslims, who regard the Arabic Quran as words given
directly by God. A translation is not considered a
Quran itself, and a mistranslation could warp God's
word.

The clerics said Zalmai, a stocky 54-year-old
spokesman for the attorney general, was trying to
anoint himself as a prophet. They said his book was
trying to replace the Quran, not offer a simple
translation. Translated editions of the Quran abound
in Kabul markets, but they include Arabic verses.

The country's powerful Islamic council issued an edict
condemning the book.

''In all the mosques in Afghanistan, all the mullahs
said, 'Zalmai is an infidel. He should be killed,'''
Zalmai recounted as he sat outside the chief judge's
chambers waiting for a recent hearing.

Zalmai lost friends quickly. He was condemned by
colleagues and even by others involved in the book's
printing. A mob stoned his house one night, said his
brother, Mahmood Ghaws.

Police arrested Zalmai as he was fleeing to Pakistan,
along with three other men the government says were
trying to help him escape. The publisher and the
mosque's cleric, who signed a letter endorsing the
book, were also jailed.

There is no law in Afghanistan prohibiting the
translation of the Quran. But Zalmai is accused of
violating Islamic Shariah law by modifying the Quran.
The courts in Afghanistan, an Islamic state, are
empowered to apply Shariah law when there are no
applicable existing statutes.

And Afghanistan's court system appears to be stacked
against those accused of religious crimes. Judges
don't want to seem soft on potential heretics and
lawyers don't want to be seen defending them, said
Afzal Shurmach Nooristani, whose Afghan Legal Aid
group is defending Zalmai.

The prosecutor wants the death penalty for Zalmai and
the cleric, who have now spent more than a year in
prison.

Sentences on religious infractions can be harsh. In
January 2008, a court sentenced a journalism student
to death for blasphemy for asking questions about
women's rights under Islam. An appeals court reduced
the sentence to 20 years in prison. His lawyers
appealed again and the case is pending.

In 2006, an Afghan man was sentenced to death for
converting to Christianity. He was later ruled insane
and was given asylum in Italy. Islamic leaders and the
parliament accused President Hamid Karzai of being a
puppet for the West for letting him live.

Nooristani, who is also defending the journalism
student, said he and his colleagues have received
death threats.

''The mullahs in the mosques have said whoever defends
an infidel is an infidel,'' Nooristani said.

The legal aid organization, which usually represents
impoverished defendants, is defending Zalmai because
no one else would take the case.

''We went to all the lawyers and they said, 'We can't
help you because all the mullahs are against you. If
we defend you, the mullahs will say that we should be
killed.' We went six months without a lawyer,'' Zalmai
said outside the judge's chambers.

The publisher was originally sentenced to five years
in prison. Zalmai and the cleric were sentenced to 20,
and now the prosecutor is demanding the death penalty
for the two as a judge hears appeals.

Nearly everyone in court claims ignorance now.

The mosque's mullah says he never read the book and
that he was duped into signing the letter. The print
shop owner says neither he nor any of his employees
read the book, noting that it's illegal for them to
read materials they publish.

Zalmai pleaded for forgiveness before a January
hearing, saying he had assumed a stand-alone
translation wasn't a problem.

''You can find these types of translations in Turkey,
in Russia, in France, in Italy,'' he said.

When the chief judge later banged his gavel to silence
shouting lawyers and nodded at Zalmai to explain
himself, the defendant stood and chanted Quranic
verses as proof that he was a devout Muslim who should
be forgiven.

Shariah law is applied differently in Islamic states.
Saudi Arabia claims the Quran as its constitution,
while Malaysia has separate religious and secular
courts.

But since there is no ultimate arbiter of religious
questions in Afghanistan, judges must strike a balance
between the country's laws and proclamations by
clerics or the Islamic council, called the Ulema
council.

Judges are ''so nervous about annoying the Ulema
council and being criticized that they tend to push
the Islamic cases aside and just defer to what others
say,'' said John Dempsey, a legal expert with the U.S.
Institute of Peace in Kabul.

Deferring to the council means that edicts issued by
the group of clerics can influence rulings more than
laws on the books or a judge's own interpretation of
Shariah law, he said.

Judges have to be careful about whom they might anger
with their rulings. In September, gunmen killed a top
judge with Afghanistan's counter-narcotics court.
Other judges have been gunned down as well.

Mahmood Ghaws said that even if his brother is found
innocent, their family will never be treated the same.

''When I go out in the street, people don't say hello
to me in the way they used to,'' he said. ''They don't
ask after my family.''


S D Rodrian
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All religions are local.
Only science is universal.


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date: Sun, 8 Feb 2009 05:52:18 -0800 (PST) author: unknown