Islam 'insult' student faces death

[OneAngryDemocrat]

Source: Times Online

A journalism student has been sentenced to death in Afghanistan for distributing a paper that allegedly insulted Islam.

Sayad Parwez Kambaksh, 23, who was said to have printed the paper off the internet, was sentenced by a three-judge panel in the northern province of Balkh. His family and the National Journalists Union of Afghanistan denounced the verdict, saying that the student had not been represented by a lawyer. He will remain in custody while his case is heard by the first of two appeal courts.



Read more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article3240538.ece

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Is THIS the government that American soldiers are dying for, defending?

Please visit my anti-war website, www.shockedandawful.com

[David__77]

1. The Soviet occupation has noble by comparison with the US occupation.

...

[Endangered Specie]

2. you're kidding right?

Thats a pretty far fetched comparison.

[David__77]

4. Not at all kidding.

Women could walk down the streets of Kabul unveiled without fear. Women were busy at all levels of the society's power structure. Land reform was conducted. A mass literacy campaign uplifted hundreds of thousands. Now the country is run by feudal fundamentalist theocrats.

[Endangered Specie]

5. assuming they are alive.... it is estimated that little occupation cost 1,000,000 civilians

their lives.... I'm willing to wager we haven't quite hit that number.

[Trajan]

6. I am not buying that line ....

The civil discord during the soviet occupation was BRUTAL .....

I would accept that NEITHER occupation bodes well for Afghani women, nor does the control of the nation by the Taliban OR the other muslim forces in the area do them much good ....

Comparing the two occupations is pointless .... BOTH are bad news ....

[customerserviceguy]

8. And both are bad news

because an extremely sexist male ruling class still hasn't moved out of the 7th Century. Not unlike the Muslim regimes we either cozy up to, or revile. The influence of a relatively free society has had no influence whatsoever on misogynous Muslim thinking.

[juno jones]

10. And you could listen to music, too. n/t

[14thColony]

13. It's not nearly as bad as under the Taliban government

Women still walk down the streets of Kabul unveiled. You can listen to music on the radio and buy it in the bazaars, along with current western and Indian films. They even had an American Idol style TV competition for several weeks, and if I recall correctly a girl won the last one. Women can go to university and be officers in the Army. Some things were better when the Soviets were there, some things were worse. It's a mixed bag. But pretty much all non-Pasthuns agree it's still WAY better than under the Taliban government.

There's a misconception in the west that there's a such thing as 'an Afghan' or an Afghan national identity. There isn't one. An Afghan is really a Tajik or an Uzbek or a Pashtun or a Hazarra or a Nuri, and how they act, how they treat women, how they view the idea of Afghan unity is all tied up in which tribal nation they are from. Tajiks and Hazarras tend to be more progressive, Pashtuns tend to be more conservative. But we're still talking progressive and conservative from a 15th century viewpoint, so even their progressives are our ultra-conservatives.

This will not change overnight. Changing a culture takes at LEAST decades, if not centuries, and if you're not willing to be there the whole time, there's not much point in being there at all.

[Duke Newcombe]

19. it was simply a matter of...

...if you screwed with the Soviets or failed to remain completely subservient to their will, you died...

Other than than, it was good times for all... ;(

Duke

[Xenotime]

23. Good point.

[INDIA]

15. ...

:crazy:

[bluestateguy]

3. I often wonder about these people's capacity to do democracy

Then again, it's not like we've exectly been the best teacher either.

[14thColony]

12. Their capacity is close to zero

because they have no real history of it beyoned the tribal jurga system. We have this attitutde that democracy is easy - "here's your pack of freeze-dried democracy. Just add water, stir, and serve with a side of prosperity and freedom!" We ignore the fact that American democracy was not made from nothing, but in fact drew on an English democratic tradition going back four cenuries, at least back to Magna Carta. And even with that long tradition, democracy in the US hasn't always been easy or inevitable.

Compare that to countries with no democratic tradition in which it's thrust upon them. Two I can think of right off: the Weimar Republic which led to the rise of the Nazi Party, and the Duma government which was so weak it could not prevent the takeover of Lenin and the Bolsheviks. In other words, we know what usually gets cooked up by this recipe for "instant democracy."

[kurth]

7. Now why in the fuck are we wasting billions on shitholes like this?

[fujiyama]

11. Between this and Iraq

We've probably flushed over 2 trillion dollars.

[OneAngryDemocrat]

14. Why?

Oil, natural gas, and greed.

Class is dismissed.

Please visit my anti-war website, www.shockedandawful.com

[rasputin1952]

9. All forms of government have a part in corruption, but it appears

that a theocracy is by far the most devoid of compassion, mercy and in most cases, sanity.

It comes with the territory...place deity here________, "says this must happen this way". Of course, no deity demands such things, but those that interpret incorrectly what they read, wreak havoc upon those might challenge an interpretation.

If there are angels...they weep...:(

[Doctor Cynic]

16. A picture is worth a thousand words...

The proposed gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistani ports and Indian markets...

[go west young man]

17. Americans aren't dying for that poor boy or those that will have him killed.

They are dying for the U.S.'s chance at that oil and natural gas.

[Duke Newcombe]

20. and your proof...

...oh, nevermind....

Duke

[TheWatcher]

29. I imagine you still beleive there were WMD's In Iraq as well

[UndertheOcean]

18. Religion of peace in action.

enough said

[ShortnFiery]

21. Yeah, us *peace loving" Christian Catholics loved "The Crusades and that "Inquisition?"

What a show! :evilgrin:

[ohio2007]

22. That was actually Spain. The US wasn't around until a few hundred years later

when the citizens of Massachusetts colony were burning witches at the stake


damn,
how old are you?
666 yrs old ?

[Critters2]

28. No witches were burned in Massachusetts.

19 innocent persons were killed by hanging or crushing. And their families were later provided with reparations.

As opposed to the European witch craze where "There are no reliable accounts as to the exact number of witches executed. Only estimates can be made. During the 150 year period of the Inquisition, in Germany where the most fierce witch hunts occurred, the minimum estimates range from 30,000 to 100,000." http://witches.monstrous.com/witch_craze.htm

[TankLV]

26. Still a valid observation you tried to reply to...

"but others do it too!" does not negate nor even lessen the original post...

[TankLV]

27. Indeed...

[saigon68]

24. Wonder what the "appointed" mayor of Kabul

Had to do with this.

What a sniveling bush groveler.

[TankLV]

25. Yep - we're defending and DYING for these ASSHOLES!

pathetic...