Afghanistan's U.S.-backed government has banned a private publication for running articles judged blasphemous in this deeply conservative Islamic country, an official said on Wednesday.
Mir Hussein Mehdavi, chief editor of the Aftaab publication, has also been arrested by a governmental judiciary body for publishing the articles, added a second official, who declined to be identified.
"Several articles in Aftaab's latest edition were sacrilegious," Abdul Hamid Mubariz, deputy information and culture minister, told Reuters.
"For example, it said if Islam was a complete and lasting religion, then why do its followers violate it? And in another place it stated: Religion plus governance is equal to despotism'."
"These are sensitive and blasphemous issues about which we cannot remain indifferent, and that is why we stopped the printing of the publication."
Mubariz said the contents of the articles raised doubts about Islam's holy book, the Koran.
Aftaab staff could not be contacted for comment, and copies of the weekly journal have been confiscated from shops where they are usually sold, shopkeepers in the capital said.
Mubariz said the Information and Culture Ministry had summoned Mehdavi and the attorney's office was expected to interrogate him. The supreme court has the right to put him on trial and decide on his punishment.
It was not immediately clear what kind of punishment the supreme court could order for Mehdavi.
Mehdavi, who is in his mid-thirties, is said to be a follower of a branch of communism. He is also known for his outspoken criticism of some government officials.
Issues involving Islam and its interpretation are highly sensitive in Afghanistan, where the hardline Taliban regime imposed strict sharia religious laws until it was ousted by a U.S.-led military campaign in late 2001.
What version of Islam the country now adopts will be set out in a new constitution due to be finalized in October. Public consultations on the document have just began.