Bangladesh bans magazine

It said the edition, published simultaneously from New York, Singapore and Malaysia, contained "misleading and objectionable" comments about the Koran, Islam's holy book.

A government statement said these comments might hurt the religious sentiments of the country's Muslims.

It added that all copies of the magazine's 28 July, 2003, edition in Bangladesh had been confiscated.

The government says it has taken this action in keeping with the provisions of the country's Criminal Procedure Code.

The official statement added that the sale, distribution and preservation of this particular edition of the magazine had been prohibited throughout the country.

The Newsweek office in New York did not have any comment on the ban.

Pakistani example

Although the government statement does not specifically say so, the ban is likely to have been triggered by a report titled "Challenging the Koran".

It explains how a German linguist has come to the conclusion that the Koran, believed by Muslims to contain divine messages revealed to Prophet Mohammed by the angel Gabriel, was originally written in a language closer to Aramaic than Arabic.

The linguist, who uses the pseudonym Christoph Luxenberg, says seen in this light, many verses of the Koran have been "misinterpreted" and "misunderstood".

Bangladesh has a population of about 130 million, more than 90% of whom are Muslims.

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