Fatwa for 'Blasphemy' Journalists

The fatwa department of Afghanistan’s supreme court has recommended that two journalists from a weekly newspaper that published articles some people consider blasphemous be put to death.

After protests by religious students in Kabul targeting the Aftab paper, the highest court in the land ordered its fatwa department - which employs Shariat law and deals with important religious issues - to look into the case.

Its members overwhelmingly backed the proposed death penalty for Aftab chief editor Mer-hossin Mahdawi and his colleague Ali Raza Payam. The 10-page recommendation to the judiciary, seen by IWPR, gives detailed citations from the Koran and hadiths to support its ruling, and quotes from portions of the two articles that criticised Islamic practice.

The decision also cites a cartoon illustration to one of the articles, which shows a monkey evolving into a man slumped over a computer, accompanied by the words, “Government plus religion equals cruelty.” Showing humans as evolving from apes is against the Koran, the ruling said.

The proposal ends with the declaration, “The Islamic Transitional Government of Afghanistan is obliged to give the death penalty to the people who have abused or made fun of Islam, and also to the ones who cause public disruption.”

The Bonn Agreement requires the government to adhere to the essentially secular 1964 constitution - at the time viewed as the most advanced for a Muslim country - but it is debating a new one, which is to be approved by the Loya Jirga in October. This constitution must resolve the difficult issue of whether Islamic or secular law will have precedence.

The fatwa department’s ruling appears to be its attempt to draw a clear line in the sand on that issue. The head of the department, Mawlawi Abdul Qadir Waris, told IWPR that their decisions don’t need to abide by the secular law of the land “but are made through the Islamic Shariat, which overrules all the laws in Islamic countries. Fatwa means strength, that is why it is the strongest decision.”

The decision - signed by all members of the fatwa department with the approval of the head of supreme court, Chief Justice Fazil Hadi Shinwari, a noted conservative - was issued on July 17 with little fanfare. A copy has been sent to Kabul city court, which is considering framing charges against Mahdawi and Raza Payam.

When the two were arrested, President Karzai ordered the case to be reviewed by a commission on journalists’ rights within the ministry of information and culture, and said that the two should not be sentenced until it gives its report. After the supreme court began to work on the case, Karzai said it should first go through the lower courts. Since the latter have yet to try the two journalists, the fatwa department’s ruling appears to be an attempt to override Karzai.

When the protests over the articles first erupted, Mahdawi and Payam were arrested, then released, but have been ordered to appear before the court.

It is not, however, known if the men are still in Afghanistan, with rumours that they have fled to Pakistan. Their relatives, reached by IWPR, said they didn’t know anything about their whereabouts.

Ahmad Asim, the head of Kabul city court, says that they make their decisions according to the law of the land but the Shariat will be taken into account.

Asim added that there is nothing about punishment for blasphemy in criminal law of Afghanistan, but directed IWPR’s attention to the 39th article of the media law, which says that if there is a press-related crime, and there is no punishment specified in law, the decision is to be made according to the Shariat.

However, a member of the Independent Human Rights Commission for Afghanistan, Ahmad Nadir Nadiri, insists there are no provisions for the fatwa department to wield such power. He said the 102nd article of the 1964 constitution states only the courts can mete out justice.

Belquis Ahmadi, coordinator for the International Human Rights Law Group, fears that powerful conservative forces are behind the latest legal moves, seeking any way they can to persecute Mahdawi who has previously written stories critical of Islam.

Karzai has the power to appoint the members of fatwa department upon the recommendation of the chief justice and he also has the authority to remove them. However, the president does not want to defy Shinwari, as top-level appointments in the current administration reflect a delicate balance between various political and ethnic factions. Getting rid of one of the few Pashtuns and one so strongly pro-Islamic could create serious problems.

Ahmadi argues that a truly independent judicial system is vital for Afghanistan, “Not like this, with the fatwa department sending its decisions to the courts for them to implement.”

Rahimullah Samander is an IWPR editor/reporter in Kabul.