Rough Stone Rolling

I try to be careful about who I recommend The Passion of the Christ to. It’s a heavy, brutal, unsettling film and loiters around an area that can be construed as either exploitive or inspiring. I happen to be a fan of Mel Gibson (Apocalypto brought the Lamanites to life) and felt Passion was an insightful, disturbingly accurate portrayal of the Lord’s trial, torture and execution. I accepted it as a gift because it gave me the opportunity to more fully appreciate the extreme suffering He received on my behalf– more than prose could offer, perhaps more than anything short of a vision could give. It portrayed the high priests as mob instigators to such a convincing length, I believed this must be how it played out. I also liked Mel’s portrayal of the adversary, an homage to the Death character in The Seventh Seal, that stirred monstrous rage wherever he lurked.

Because the movie had such an impact on me, it’s not surprising that I was reminded of it when I read this article:

I Was Tortured to Confess, Pervez Tells Appeal Court

By Kim Sengupta

Monday, 19 May 2008

Pervez Kambaksh, the Afghan student sentenced to death after being accused of downloading internet reports on women’s rights, yesterday pleaded innocent to charges of blasphemy. He told an appeal court in Kabul that he had been tortured into confessing.

Mr Kambaksh, 24, vehemently denied that he had been responsible for producing anti-Islamic literature. He insisted the prosecution had been motivated by personal malice of two members of staff and their student supporters at the university in Balkh, where he was studying journalism. He was convicted in proceedings behind closed doors in a trial which he said had lasted just four minutes and where he had been denied legal representation.

Yesterday, in the first public hearing of the case, the prosecution claimed that Mr Kambaksh had disrupted classes at the university by asking questions about women’s rights under Islam. It also said he distributed an article on the subject after writing an additional three paragraphs including the phrase “This is the real face of Islam … The prophet Mohamad wrote verses of the holy Koran just for his own benefit.”

In a highly emotional statement, Mr Kambaksh said: “I’m Muslim and I would never let myself write such an article. These accusations are nonsense, [they] come from two professors and other students because of private hostilities against me. I was tortured by the intelligence service in Balkh province and they made me confess that I wrote three paragraphs in this article.”

Mr Kambaksh represented himself because his family are having difficulties finding a lawyer to represent him after threats by fundamentalist groups that anyone taking on the job would be killed. The head of the panel of three judges at Kabul, Abdul Salaam Qazizada, adjourned the trial until next Sunday to allow Mr Kambaksh further attempts to find a lawyer. As of last night they had not succeeded.

The original trial took place in January. Mr Kambaksh’s appeal was moved to Kabul at his own request, amid fears for his safety in Mazar after international outrage at the sentence. A petition by The Independent to secure justice for him has attracted more than 100,000 signatures.

Prosecutor Ahmad Khan Ayar told the appeals court that the primary provincial court sentence to hang him was “the right decision” according to Islamic law and the Afghan constitution. “Kambaksh has insulted Islam by writing these paragraphs, and he has insulted the Prophet Mohamed. I ask the appeals court to uphold the decision of the primary court of Balkh and sentence him to death.” Under Islamic law, stipulated in Afghanistan’s constitution, blasphemy is punishable by death.

Two other Afghan journalists, accused of blasphemy and sentenced to death, escaped prison and have been given asylum in the West. Mr Kambaksh’s case has been raised with President Hamid Karzai by Foreign Secretary David Miliband and the US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice.

Of course I’m not saying Mr. Kambaksh is like the Savior, but rather that the Deceiver– our fallen brother– can still be seen peeking through the curtains of another ridiculous road show.

Speaking of ridiculous road shows, I’m not going to go into what I think about the Idol results.

The stake blood drive was held again yesterday. Our ward’s representative is an 80-something sister who used to be something of a crooner back in the day, and more recently can be spotted in films like Princess Diaries. I get giddy when I see her name on the sacrament program as giving the invocation because she reads them from 3 x 5 cards (once she even stopped in the middle of the prayer, rapped on the mike and asked, “Is this thing on?”), she always delivers her lines with Oscar-performance passion, and by the time she’s done asking blessings for everyone from President Bush to Britney and K-Fed, a quarter of the meeting’s already over. But when the blood drive is back in town, she’s relentless in getting sign-ups, and kind of creeps me out when she begins each plea with “I want your blood.” That glint in her eye– I believe she really does. I arrived at the stake center at 7pm and started checking off the little squares on the clipboard. A few of us were quipping as we checked: “No, I haven’t accepted money for sex since 1977″ … “Yes, I have HIV, but I love the free cranberry juice and Lorna Doones.” One sister– totally serious– asked out loud, “Do you think they care if you’re menstruating?” I remained deeply engrossed in my questionnaire and moved over another seat.

Saw the high councilman in charge of the drive today when I walked into his sandwich shop. Turns out our ward easily had the highest turnout as we delivered over half the donors. The Red Cross really do have our number, though. Bring cookies and punch, and they come in droves.

Isn’t this picture of McCain and Mitt warm & fuzzy? Two amigos hitting the trail. The blogs are abuzz with musings of Romney being Brother John’s running mate. I dare not dream it, but it makes perfect sense. Mitt’s got the love of the RNC and too many power player buddies to list. Plus he’s already demonstrating he knows how to play the role of wingman (anyone see that episode of How I Met Your Mother? Miss D. and I are die-hard viewers). I read yesterday that if Hillary lost the DNC, up to 36% of her voters would retreat to McCain. On the other hand, if Obama lost 18% would turn into “Mac is Back” chanters. So… Go Obama! Heh-heh.

Since I last brought up the subject, I decided to come back home to the GOP. The Dems make me too nervous and Ron Paul doesn’t have a prayer. Now, Mitt Romney & Ron Paul– there’s a Dream Team. Yeah, and monkeys might fly out of my butt (as Miss D. likes to say). But John McCain up against Barack Obama… there’s a lot of pepper in that buckshot. I think America would ultimately go for the old warrior. But then again, what does America know? The older I get the less sure-footed I am to answer that question.

Damn you, David Cook fans! (Charlton Heston voice) Damn you all to hell!

Oops– did I say that out loud?