Islamabad, July 25: Newsweek magazine is standing by a story about new interpretations of the Quran that Pakistan authorities have banned for allegedly being offensive to Islam. Pakistan's information minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said this week that customs authorities have been ordered to seize copies of the magazine's latest edition. "The article is insulting to the Quran," the minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, told the a news agency. He said officials fear the article could incite violence in a nation wracked by feuding between militant members of the Sunni and Shiite sects of Islam.

``The decision was taken to prevent religious violence and control the law and order situation.''

In New York yesterday, Ken Weine, a Newsweek spokesman, said the magazine stands by its story.

``This does happen in some places around the world with one of our 10 international editions,'' he said of the Pakistan ban.

Ahmed said the story was headlined: ``Challenging The Quran.'' An article with that title on Newsweek's web site deals with a new interpretation of Islam's holy book by a German scholar of Semitic languages, who uses the pseudonym Christoph Luxenberg.


He argues that the language of the Quran has been misinterpreted and that in verses detailing the rewards of heaven the text's original word, meaning ``white raisins,'' was mistaken for the word ``Houris,'' or dark-eyed virgins, the article says. Bureau Report