The Associated Press reports:

KABUL - No one knows who brought the book to the mosque, or at least no one dares say.

The pocket-size translation of the Quran has already landed six men in prison in Afghanistan and left two of them begging judges to spare their lives. They’re accused of modifying the Quran and their fate could be decided Sunday in court.

Many clerics rejected the book because it did not include the original Arabic verses alongside the translation. It’s a particularly sensitive detail for Muslims, who regard the Arabic Quran as words given directly by God. A translation is not considered a Quran itself, and a mistranslation could warp God’s word.

The country’s powerful Islamic council issued an edict condemning the book.

“In all the mosques in Afghanistan, all the mullahs said, ‘Zalmai is an infidel. He should be killed,’” Zalmai recounted as he sat outside the chief judge’s chambers waiting for a recent hearing.

{via Muslims Against Sharia}

I recently posted an item about Penguin Classics bringing out an edition of Steal This Book this summer. That reminded me of something I posted on my site The Memory Hole several years ago, regarding the lost sequel to Steal This Book:

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In one of Hoffman’s last interviews (published in Pranks! from RE/Search Publications (1987)), Andrea Juno asked him: “Have you ever considered writing a sequel to Steal This Book?” He replied:

I did–it was 500 pages long. I submitted it to a publisher who went bankrupt and lost it–the only copy. I was totally heartbroken because it was the definitive work on counterfeiting, jewel smuggling–you name it. It’s what people think Steal This Book is.

In the introduction to Steal This Book, Hoffman gave some hints about what else could’ve been in the lost sequel:

Watch for a special edition called Steal This White House, complete with blueprints of underground passages, methods of jamming the communications network, and a detailed map of the celebrated room where according to Tricia Nixon, “Daddy loves to listen to Mantovanni records, turn up the air conditioner full blast, sit by the fireplace, gaze out the window to the Washington Monument and meditate on those difficult problems that face all the peoples of this world.”