Afghan Newspaper Editor Charged With Blasphemy

AFP reported yesterday that in Afghanistan, the editor of a small Kabul newspaper, Payman Daily, was arrested Tuesday on blasphemy charges. A a council of Islamic clerics and a government media disciplinary commission found that an article the newspaper published was "an insult to Islam." The article, not written by the newspaper staff but was taken from an Afghan website, argued that no religion-- including Islam-- was divinely revealed. The paper, even before the editor's arrest, had apologized for publishing the article. Punishment for blasphemy can range from a reprimand to the death penalty.