Free Republic

Afghan journalist gets death for insulting Islam By David Blair, Diplomatic Editor Last Updated: 2:30am GMT 24/01/2008 The Taliban-style intimidation of Afghan newspapers came to the surface after a journalist was sentenced to death for distributing an article deemed to have "insulted Islam". Sayed Parwez Kaambakhsh's crime was to have passed around a piece taken from a website questioning why Muslim women cannot have multiple husbands in the same way as their menfolk can legally take four wives. Sayed Parwez Kaambakhsh, 23, sentenced to death for 'insulting Islam' Mr Kaambakhsh, who works for "The New World", a newspaper in Afghanistan's...

Jews and Christian are allowed to ascend the Temple Mount, usually through organized tours and only if they conform first to a strict set of guidelines, which includes demands that they not pray or bring any "holy objects" to the site. Visitors are banned from entering any of the mosques without direct Wafq permission. "You also can't bring anything with Hebrew letters, even secular Hebrew books. The Wafq confiscated many of my tour books. One time a guy pulled out the Hebrew edition of the [Jerusalem] Post, and they took that from him." Christians on the tour tried to enter...