Petition for Afghan Journalist Perwiz Kambakhsh

I apologize for not jumping on this story immediately. It has been pulled verbatim from an entry by Howie at The Jawa Report.

Come on now. Only 154 sigs and we're the only blog running this? A man's life hangs in the balance.

So sign the petition, call your public officials. Write about it

Thanks to all those who have already signed or ran the petition. To the rest of you, Get with it people!

Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh has been sentenced to death by the moderate regime in Afghanistan for blasphemy.

The Afghan Senate has just endorsed his death sentence.

Via AFP: KABUL (AFP) — Afghanistan's senate has endorsed a death sentence handed down by a court to a reporter and journalism student accused of blasphemy, the parliament media office said.

The senate, called the Meshrano Jirga (House of Elders), issued a statement Tuesday backing last week's decision by the Balkh province primary court and criticising international pressure over the case, an official told AFP.

The court sentenced Perwiz Kambakhsh, 23, to death for distributing articles downloaded from the Internet that were said to question the Koran and the role of women in Islam.

"The Meshrano Jirga endorses the Balkh primary court's verdict on sentencing to death Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh who has been sentenced over insulting Islam and misinterpretation of Koran verses," said the statement read to AFP.

The house also "strongly criticises those domestic and international organisations which are pressurising Afghanistan's government and legal authorities when pursuing such people," it said.

Remember, death sentences are often carried out very quickly in these countries. So time is very short and its critical that we act as quickly as possible. There are only a few legal steps left before he is executed

The death sentence must pass through various higher courts and be approved by Karzai, who has been called on by international and Afghan media rights organisations to intervene in the case.

The extremist Taliban movement that is waging an insurgency against Karzai's administration has also called for "severe punishment" for Kambakhsh, whom they called the "new Salman Rushdie"....

A petition to try and help Mr. Kambakhsh has been started here. Please sign it and spread it as far as you can. Hopefully we can help get Mr. Kambakhsh a pardon or a reduced sentence.

Never mind the absolute idiocy of allowing Afghanistan to enact a constitution based on Sharia law. If our soldiers fought and died to liberate Afghanistan we should have required they enact a better constitution like we did with Japan. I've been very disappointed with the new constitutions for both Iraq and Afghanistan.

More on that here.

Previous:
Good News: Journalist Could Get Death Penalty for Blasphemy in "Liberated" Afghanistan

Good News: "Moderate" Regime in Afghanistan Sentences Student to Death for Blasphemy

HELP is needed! Sign the petition.


[Update 02/02/08]

The Wall Street Journal has joined the cause. Here's an excerpt.

The real questions that must be asked are: Is post-Taliban Afghanistan a country that executes citizens for peacefully questioning some aspect of Islam? What about all the rhetoric of Afghan freedom and democracy? Wouldn't executing Mr. Kaambakhsh render it embarrassingly hollow? For how can Afghanistan claim that it is on the path to being a free, democratic state, and then put to death one of its own citizens for reasons that evoke, rather chillingly, the darkest days of the Taliban?

President Karzai has the final say.