Afghanistan's conservative parliament was in uproar Saturday over a translation of the Holy Quran by a government official they accused of trying to create division among Muslims.
Parliamentarians accused the official of misinterpreting the Muslim holy book on many issues including homosexuality and adultery in his translation into Dari, the second most used language in Afghanistan.
After an angry debate in both houses of parliament, MPs and senators agreed Mohammad Ghaws Zalmai, spokesman to the attorney-general, should not be allowed to travel outside the country until the matter had been investigated. "For years there have been plots to create divisions among Muslims," the speaker of the senate, Sebghatullah Mujadadi, told his colleagues.
"This translation and distorting of the Quran in the translation by Ghaws Zalmai is another such attempt," he said at a special session called to debate the issue.
Ghaws Zalmai was reluctant to talk to AFP about the translation, an interpretation of the holy book. Most other versions are word-for-word translations. The religious committee of the Upper House was ordered to do a thorough study of the translation.