Afghanistan editor arrested for blasphemy

Our number mistake was to allow Afghanistan and Iraq to use shariah law as the highest authority. Now we have stories like Afghanistan wanting to execute a convert from islam to Christianity, an Afghan on death row because he stood up for woman's rights and this newest case of blasphemy in Afghanistan. AP

KABUL (AFP) — An Afghan news editor has been arrested for a publishing a newspaper article rejecting that religions, including Islam, were passed to humans through divine revelations, an official said Wednesday.

The news editor of a small Kabul newspaper, Payman Daily, was picked up Tuesday, days after the allegedly blasphemous article was printed, the deputy attorney general, Fazel Ahmad Faqiryar, told AFP.

"He was arrested for publishing an article in which he has rejected revelation. This is an insult to Islam and the rest of the religions," Faqiryar said.

The journalist, whom Faqiryar would not name, was being investigated. If found guilty under Afghanistan's law, which is based on Islamic Sharia law, he could face a sentence ranging from a reprimand to the death penalty, the official said.