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MPs call for Academy of Sciences chief’s removal

MPs call for Academy of Sciences chief’s removal

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15 Sep 2013 - 19:53
MPs call for Academy of Sciences chief’s removal
author avatar
15 Sep 2013 - 19:53

KABUL Academy of Sciences head Suraya Popal’s removal and her referral to judicial organs for supporting the celebration of Babrak Karmal’s birth anniversary.

Babrak Karmal, the late leader of the Parcham faction of the Khalq Democratic Party, backed by Russians, stayed in power for a year.

Asalat, the official webpage of Karmal supporters, carried a message from Suraya Popal on the ex-president’s birthday in 2009 in Holland, said a senator from Kapisa province, Maulvi Mohiuddin Munsif.

“On behalf of Afghan mothers and sisters, I support the celebration of the prominent political figure of Afghanistan,” Munsif quoted Popal as saying in her message on the 80th birth anniversary of Karmal.

All people who organised or supported holding such functions should be sacked from government positions and referred to judicial organs, he demanded.

“Karmal was the most notorious figure in the Khalq Democratic Party,” alleged another senator from Balkh, Maulvi Mahmud Danishjo, who said marking the death or birth anniversaries of such people amounted to a betrayal of the jihad.

Supporting of such ceremonies is a plot against Islam, according to a lawmaker from central Logar province, Sifatullah Haqmal. Popal should be terminated and prosecuted, he said.

In the Academy of Sciences encyclopedia, Popal says human beings are a developed form of monkeys, according to a lawmaker from Takhar province, Abdul Wahab Irfan. “But the Holy Quran clearly mentions the creation of humans.”

Being a follower of the Darwinian theory of evolution and communism, Popal should be punished, the public representative said.

No one reserves the right to insult people’s sacrifices for the freedom of Afghanistan. I can’t tolerate the celebration of such individuals,” ruled Chairman Fazal Hadi Muslimyar.

He asked the government to prevent such celebrations as could have a bad impact on the Afghan culture and religion. A six-member commission had been appointed to investigate Popal’s remarks and present its report in a week, he said.

But Soraya Popal denied sending any message to be read out at the function, saying she had many namesakes and one of them might have made the remarks.

She was against communism, Popal insisted, explaining her views on the Darwinian Theory had been edited by the relevant commission of the academy. She said, if asked by the Meshrano Jirga, she would reveal the names of article writers and editors.

myn/mud

 

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