Sayed Pervez Kambaksh is an Afghan journalism student.
He distributed a report to fellow students and teachers at Balkh
University with the aim, he said, of provoking a debate on a matter.
A complaint was made against him and he was arrested, tried by
religious judges without being allowed legal representation and
sentenced to death.
Kambaksh was sentenced to death by an Afghan court, under the jurisdiction of NATO’s ally Hamid Karzai.
His crime: “blasphemy”.
The young man (23 at the time), had downloaded a report from an Iranian website on the internet.
He was found to be in possession of the report, which stated that Muslim fundamentalists who claimed the Koran justified the oppression of women had misrepresented the views of the prophet Mohamed.
He was also found to have actually read the report.
He was found to have distributed the report to fellow students and teachers at Balkh
University with the aim of provoking a debate on the matter.
A complaint was made against him and he was arrested and tried by
religious judges without being allowed legal representation.
His death sentence was imposed – not by the Taliban – but by the so-called “liberated” Afghanistan of the western ally President Hamid Karzai.
A government our young men and women are dying to defend.
Mr Kambaksh is now 24 years old.
Many months later, his death sentence was overturned on appeal, but nevertheless, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his “crime”.
President Karzai responded to a world-wide protest (by ordinary people I might add) and is reported to have said that Mr. Kambaksh will be freed.
However, because of the stigma attached to his “blasphemy” conviction, Mr. Kambaksh will have to live abroad if he hopes to survive.
If Barrack Obama and Stephen Harper and all the other wise men of the west can stomach this sort of behaviour then they must be abnormal.
If they oppose this behaviour by the courts and the government they are propping up in Kabul, then they have a duty to speak out loudly and clearly. Until now, they have all been silent.
And I believe that includes all the other Canadian leaders.
Failure on their part to speak out about this means that they are morally bankrupt.
This is the kind of crap that should make the ‘Commanders-in-Chief’, the military architects, and the boots on the ground ask themselves what, exactly, we are fighting and dying for.
As we speak, deals are being signed that trade ‘peace’ for Sharia law. ‘Culture’ ain’t going to change, no matter the tonnage of bombs dropped and the amount of candy handed out by fresh-faced Privates. In the meantime, our sons and daughters are dying for bugger all.
Sad and sick, as every intruder/would-be conqueror over the centuries has learned. We’re next. But at what cost?
Exactly, Doc.
Sometimes a few words are more powerful than a few bombs, but these western leaders seem reluctant to say what needs to be said.
Personally I am ashamed of Mr. Harper, Mr. Obama Mr. Ignatieff and all the others on this issue.
Very good article and exactly true!! Our leaders are treading heavily over human rights on our behalf and I’m am not a happy Canadian. I havn’t been for some time, as Jim knows. Our own Social Fabric is splitting at the seams due to many cut backs in the social sector and are now starting to be more noticeable. The waste of money and lives to support this “War on Terror” is insane. The whole thing from the start to now has been corrupt. They will never fully pullout from Iraq or Afghanistan for strategic reasons. The same ones as Israel had for building missile launchers in Georgia. Nothing has changed from the last administration regarding foreign policy and although Obama has tossed out a few crumbs, like the Guantanamo thing, I won’t hold my breath.