Silenced: How Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes Are Choking Freedom Worldwide (83 page)

39
. Danna Harman, “Despite Opposition, Afghan Christians Worship in Secret,”
The Christian Science Monitor
, February 27, 2009,
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0227/p04s03-wosc.html
.

40
. Amir Shah and Heidi Vogt, “Afghan Gov’t Destroys Books It Says Insult Sunnis,”
AP
, May 27, 2009,
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=7689287
.

41
. Jonathan Steele, “Female Minister ‘Is Afghan Rushdie,’ ”
The Guardian
, June 18, 2002,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/jun/18/afghanistan.jonathansteele
; Kathy Gannon, “Female Afghan Official Fears Threats,”
AP
, June 23, 2002.

42
. “Afghan Woman Minister Hits Back,”
BBC News
, June 18, 2002,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2051612.stm
.

43
. Gannon, “Female Afghan Official Fears Threats” (n. 41 above).

44
. “Afghan Judiciary Denies Depriving Former Woman Minister from Post,” Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mashhad, translated and supplied by BBC Monitoring, June 24, 2002; “Third Woman in Afghan Government,”
BBC News
, June 27, 2002,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2069560.stm
.

45
. “Afghanistan: Karzai Fails on Press Freedom,” Human Rights Watch news release, June 24, 2003. Mahdavi has started his own blog (
http://mhmahdavi.blogspot.com/
), where “Holy Fascism” may be read, although the English translation is poor.

46
.
Afghanistan—2004 Annual Report
, Reporters Without Borders,
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=10144
.

47
. Mir Hussain Mahdavi, “Editor Flees Certain Death in Afghanistan,”
The Hamilton Spectator
, May 5, 2007; “Afghan Supreme Court Denies Handing Down Death Sentence in Blasphemy Case,” Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mashhad, via BBC Monitoring International Reports, August 8, 2003; “Jailed Afghan Editor-in-Chief Defends Right to Express Ideas,”
Arman-e Melli
via BBC Monitoring, June 20, 2003.

48
. “President Karzai Orders Release of Two Journalists,” Reporters Without Borders, June 25, 2003,
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=7288
; Amir Shah, “Protestors in Afghan Capital Call for Authorities to Try Journalist Accused of Blasphemy,”
AP
, July 3, 2003;
2003 World Press Freedom Review—Afghanistan
, International Press Institute,
http://www.freemedia.at/cms/ipi/freedom_detail.html?country=/KW0001/KW0005/KW0109/&year=2003
; Jake Rupert, for CanWest News Service, “Afghan Editor Forced to Flee to Canada,”
National Post
(Canada), October 27, 2003. The 2004 State Department religious freedom report says the charges were not dropped; the State Department human rights report says they were; the
National Post
article, written after his arrival in Canada, says Mahdavi was acquitted of insulting Islam under Afghanistan’s old press law, but Shinwari was pressing to have him and Sistany tried and convicted under sharia.
Aftab
had its power cut in April 2003, by order of Agriculture Minister Sayeed Hossein Anwari, after it published articles critical of
mujahideen
leaders and Islamist political parties, as well as the article “Secularism as a Third Approach.” When approached by the paper’s editor for an explanation, Anwari said he could not tolerate “talk against Islam.” Mahdavi also faced death threats over articles criticizing Abdul Rabb al-Rasul Sayyaf, leader of the
Ittihad-e-Islami
party and a close Shinwari ally; see “Killing You Is a Very Easy Thing for Us: Human Rights Abuses in Southeast Afghanistan,” Human Rights Watch, July 2003,
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/afghanistan0703/10.htm#_Toc46287030
.

49
. Kim Barker, “Editor’s Jailing Tests Afghan Democracy,”
Chicago Tribune
, November 26, 2005; Wahidullah Amani, “Writer Could Face Death Sentence,” Institute for War & Peace Reporting, November 29, 2005,
http://www.theasiamediaforum.org/node/380
.

50
. Amani, “Writer Could Face Death Sentence.”

51
. Griff Witte, “Post-Taliban Free Speech Blocked by Courts, Clerics,”
Washington Post
, December 11, 2005,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/10/AR2005121001138.html
.

52
. Ibid.; Barker, “Editor’s Jailing Tests Afghan Democracy”; Daniel Cooney, “U.N. Criticizes Afghan Editor’s Jailing,”
AP
, October 24, 2005.

53
. Witte, “Post-Taliban Free Speech Blocked.”

54
. “High Court Allows Release of Journalist Ali Mohaqiq Nasab,” Reporters Without Borders, December 21, 2005,
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=16006
.

55
. Golnaz Esfandiari, “Afghanistan: Imprisoned Journalist Says Freedom of Expression Under Attack,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, December 29, 2005.

56
. Khaled Hosseini, “Journalism Is Not a Capital Crime,”
Wall Street Journal
, February 1, 2008,
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120182626320733755.html
; “Afghanistan: Journalist on Death Row Gives First Interview,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, February 26, 2008; Nora Boustany, “Afghan Reporter’s Death Sentence Draws Wide Condemnation,”
Washington Post
, January 25, 2008,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/24/AR2008012402995.html
.

57
. “Journalists Under Attack in the North,” Institute for War & Peace Reporting, December 11, 2007,
http://www.iwpr.net/?p=arr&s=f&o=341348&apc_state=henh
; “Afghan journalists seek release of colleague,” Reuters, January 12, 2008,
http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKSP33543520080112
.

58
. Amir Shah, “Afghan Journalist Sentenced to Death for Distributing Paper ‘Against Islam,’”
AP
, January 22, 2008,
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20080122-1125-afghan-journalist-deathpenalty.html
.

59
. “Afghan ‘Blasphemy’ Death Sentence,”
BBC News
, January 23, 2008,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7204341.stm
.

60
Kim Sengupta, “Lifeline for Pervez: Afghan Senate Withdraws Demand for Death Sentence,”
Independent
(U.K.), February 2, 2008,
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/lifeline-for-pervez-afghan-senate-withdraws-demand-for-death-sentence-777188.html
; Jerome Starkey, “Afghan Government Official Says That Student Will Not Be Executed,”
Independent
(U.K.), February 6, 2008,
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/afghan-government-official-says-that-student-will-not-be-executed-778686.html
.

61
. “Afghan Journalist Charged with Insulting Islam Appeals Death Sentence,”
Fox News
, May 18, 2008,
http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/site/article/afghan-journalist-charged-with-insulting-islam-appeals-death-sentence/
; Jean MacKenzie, “Saving Parwez Kambakhsh,” Institute for War & Peace Reporting, June 16, 2008,
http://www.iwpr.net/index.php?apc_state=hen&s=o&o=p=arr&s=f&o=345224
.

62
. “Kambakhsh to Fight On,” Institute for War & Peace Reporting, October 23, 2008,
http://www.iwpr.net/?p=arr&s=f&o=347301&apc_state=henparr
.

63
. Kim Sengupta. “Clerics and Hardliners Vent Their Fury at Pervez Release,”
The Independent
, September 8, 2009,
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/clerics-and-hardliners-vent-their-fury-at-pervez-release-1783406.html
; “‘Blasphemy’ Journalist Released from Jail,”
The Herald Sun
, September 8, 2009,
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/blasphemy-journalist-released-from-jail/story-e6frf7k6-1225770420956
.

64
. Hafizullah Gardesh, “Koran Translation Provokes Controversy,” Institute for War & Peace Reporting, December 6, 2007,
http://www.iwpr.net/?p=arr&s=f&o=341229&apc_state=heniarr2007
; “Koran translation angers Afghans, publisher arrested,” Reuters, November 5, 2007,
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSISL15790820071105
.

65
. Hafizullah Gardesh, “Koran Translation Provokes Controversy,” Institute for War & Peace Reporting, December 6, 2007,
http://www.iwpr.net/?p=arr&s=f&o=341229&apc_state=heniarr2007
.

66
. “20 Years’ Jail for Errors in Koran Translation,”
AFP
, September 13, 2008,
http://www.afghanistannewscenter.com/news/2008/september/sep132008.html#14
.

67
. “Student’s Long Blasphemy Term Upheld in Afghanistan,”
International Herald Tribune
, March 12, 2009,
http://article.wn.com/view/2009/03/12/Students_long_blasphemy_erm_upheld_in_Afghanistan/
.

68
. “Afghan Editor Arrested for Alleged Blasphemy,”
AFP
, January 14, 2009,
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gzM1w-_aLYhmM2GTgfuG7P8QCB5Q
; “Why the Payman Daily Was Closed?”
Kabul Press
, February 7, 2009,
http://www.kabulpress.org/my/spip.php?article2964
.

69
. “
Payman Daily
Staff Arrest by Attorney General’s Office,”
Media Watch Report
, January 2009,
http://www.nai.org.af/IMG/pdf/Media_watch_News_Letter_44_English_Version.pdf
.

70
. In other incidents, at a
loya jirga
, Abdul Nasim criticized interpretations of Islamic rules that suggested that women are weak-minded and was warned, “you’re against
sharia
, you’re like Salman Rushdie,” and government officials said they could not protect him; see Elizabeth Rubin, “Kabul Dispatch,”
The New Republic Online
, July 8, 2002,
http://www.afghanistan-newscenter.com/news/2001/november/nov22f2001.html
. On the 2004 case of Abdul Latif Pedram, condemned by Shinwari for defending equal rights for women, see “Afghan Supreme Court Calls for Disqualification of Presidential Candidate over Alleged Blasphemy,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, September 2, 2004; Amy Waldman, “Poetic Justice for an Afghan
Gadfly: He’s on the Ballot,”
New York Times
, October 2, 2004,
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/02/international/asia/02fprofile.html?fta=y
.

1
. “Journalists Escape Prison over Jokes,”
New York Times
, January 16, 2007,
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9805EED81030F935A25752C0A9619C8B63
; “Editor and Reporter Receive Three-year Suspended Sentences; Newspaper Ordered Closed for Two Months,” Reporters Without Borders, January 16, 2007,
http://www.rsf.org/Three-year-suspended-sentences-for.html
.

2
. Barbara G. Baker, “Young Muslims in Turkey Murder Three Christians,”
Christianity Today
, April 20, 2007,
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/aprilweb-only/116-52.0.html
, and “Slain Evangelists Were Tortured, Say Doctor,”
Hürriyet
, April 21, 2007,
http://arama.hurriyet.com.tr/arsivnews.aspx?id=-604288
; “Turks in Christian Murder Trial,”
BBC News
, November 23, 2007,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7108607.stm
.

3
. “Turkish Court Seeks to Link Murder of Christians to Plan to Destabilize Government,”
Compass Direct News
, December 29, 2009,
http://www.compassdirect.org/english/country/turkey/13084/
.

4
. Carolyn Wendell,
The Right to Offend, Shock or Disturb: A Guide to Evolution of Insult Laws in 2007 and 2008
(World Press Freedom Committee, 2009), 127.
http://www.ifex.org/internatonal/2009/09/09/insult_laws/
.

5
.
Official Journal of the Algerian Republic
12 (March 1, 2006). See analysis by the
Grouping in Defense of Believers of a Faith Other Than Islam in Algeria
, April 20, 2006,
http://collectifalgerie.free.fr/english/Comment_gb.htm
.

6
. “Algeria: Why Authorities Have Begun Clamping Down on Christians,”
Compass Direct News
, May 27, 2008,
http://archive.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&idelement=5391&lang=en&length=short&backpage=archives&critere=&countryname=Algeria&rowcur=0
.

7
. Ibid.

8
. “Accuser in Blasphemy Case Linked to Islamists,”
Compass Direct News
, July 18, 2008,
http://archive.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&idelement=5477&lang=en&length=short&backpage=archives&critere=&countryname=Algeria&rowcur=0
.

9
. “Religious Rights Abuses Criticized at UN,”
Compass Direct News
, April 16, 2008,
http://archive.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&idelement=5334&lang=en&length=short&backpage=archives&critere=&countryname=Algeria&rowcur=0
.

10
. “Official Orders Closure of 19 Protestant Congregations,”
Compass Direct News
, March 28, 2008,
http://archive.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&idelement=5311&lang=en&length=short&backpage=archives&critere=&countryname=Algeria&rowcur=0
.