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Bangladesh

Taslima Nasreen relocated to US amid death threats

2015-06-03

[Dhaka Tribune] A New York-based non-profit educational, advocacy and research organization has relocated Taslima Nasrin to the United States, countering immediate death threats to the writer. The step to relocate Taslima has been taken in the wake of the murder of three secular bloggers, Avijit Roy, Washiqur Rahman, and Ananta Bijoy Das in Bangladesh, reported Times of India. US-based Center for Inquiry (CIF) took the step after Taslima was recently named as one of the next targets for murder by the faceless myrmidons who killed the three bloggers. However, corruption finds a dozen alibis for its evil deeds... the group said that her safety was only temporary if she cannot remain in the US, adding that they had set up an emergency fund to help her with food, housing and means for her to be safely settled. An appeal will be sent out on Tuesday to CFI supporters, asking them to donate to this cause, the organization said. "Taslima is a truly international role model, as her work and her courage inspire people of all ages to question tradition, challenge dogma, and fight for human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. ," said Ronald A Lindsay, president and CEO of the Center for Inquiry. "We could not stand by while her life was in danger, nor will we turn our backs on the other brave freethinkers in fear for their lives. I know our community will make a strong show of solidarity and give generously to this emergency fund," he added. The CFI has established an emergency fund to assist freethought activists whose lives are under threat by Islamic holy warriors linked to Al Qaeda in countries such as Bangladesh, where three secular bloggers have been murdered since February. On 26 February, prominent Bangladeshi-American blogger Avijit Roy, was hacked to death while walking through Dhaka with his wife.

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Olde Tyme Religion

Is Enlightenment Infecting the Islamic World

2010-11-22

The author of this is editor of a blog featuring posts of ex muslims and some infidel scholars that question sources and texts of Islam and point out the cruelty, the illogic and/or the absurdity of such texts and sources. One might expect such an editor to overvalue his impact on the world but his opinion is still important. First, to the question of helping Muslim leave Islam or increasing the pool of Muslim apostates, when islam-watch was launched, one could only hear the names of Salman Rushdie, Ibn Warraq, Ayaan Hirsi, Taslima Nasrin, Anwar Shaikh, Nonie Darwish, Ali Sina, Abul Kasem, Sher Khan, Syed Kamran Mirza, Ayesha Ahmed and a few such apostates. But today, there are hundreds of testimonies of ex-Muslims floating on the internet. There are dozens of blogs, critical of Islam, started by ex-Muslims. There are former teachers of madrassas and imams of mosques, who have left Islam and writing actively or running anti-Islam blogs. My belief is: suppression of Islamic radicalism through means other than the critical examination of the Islamic core, i.e. without true enlightenment about Islam, would not offer us a lasting solution to Islam's scourge on humanity. And the razor-sharp criticism of the Islamic core in Website like ours will play the decisive role in subverting the Islamic design, if we ever win this battle. Islam-watch.org, I believe, has made a contribution to that end in some measure. Enlightenment about Islam and consequent abandonment of it, silently or otherwise, is occurring on a scale never seen in history.

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India-Pakistan

Two killed as Indian Newspaper Sparks Muslim Riots

2010-03-03

[Asharq al-Aswat] A curfew was imposed on a southern Indian town on Tuesday after two people were killed when Muslims rioted to protest against a newspaper article they said offended Islam, police said. One of those killed was shot by police, who opened fire as they tried to stop hundreds of Muslims attacking shops and vehicles in Shimoga town, its police chief S. Murugan said. The town is about 250 km (170 miles) from Bangalore, the nerve center of India's $60 billion outsourcing industry that runs services from software coding to managing computer networks and call centers. Bangalore is the capital of Karnataka state, ruled by the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, and if the violence spreads in reprisal attacks it could disrupt business. Hundreds of Muslims took to the streets on Monday after a local newspaper published what it said was an article by controversial Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasrin challenging the traditional Muslim veil as curbing women's freedom. Hundreds of Muslims took to the streets on Monday after a local newspaper published what it said was an article by controversial Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasrin challenging the traditional Muslim veil as curbing women's freedom. They vandalized shops and damaged vehicles. Protests also spread to Hassan town. Police said Hindus had retaliated at some places. Nasrin denied writing the article and said she suspected a deliberate attempt to malign her. "The incident that occurred in Karnataka on Monday shocked me," she told Reuters in an email. "I learned that it was provoked by an article written by me that appeared in a Karnataka Newspaper. But I have never written any article for any Karnataka newspaper in my life. The appearance of the article is atrocious." She added: "In any of my writings I have never mentioned that Prophet Muhammad was against burkha (Muslim veil)." Nasrin's work has sparked trouble in India in the past. She fled Bangladesh for the first time in 1994 when a court said she had "deliberately and maliciously" hurt Muslims' religious feelings with her Bengali-language novel "Lajja", or "Shame", which is about riots between Muslims and Hindus. At the time, thousands of radical Muslims protested against her, demanding that she be killed for blasphemy, and some have continued to threaten her life ever since. She spent about a decade in Western Europe and the United States before arriving in India in 2004 on a temporary residential permit. Periodic protests by Indian Muslim hardliners have erupted against the doctor-turned-writer, who describes herself as a secular humanist, and criticizes religion as an oppressive force. In 2004, a Muslim cleric in India offered a $440 reward to anyone who was able to successfully humiliate her by blackening her face with shoe polish or ink or by garlanding her with shoes. Several of her books have been banned in India and Bangladesh because they upset hardline Muslims. The European Parliament awarded her the Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought in 1994.

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Europe

Paris to house exiled writer Taslima Nasrin

2009-01-04

The Paris mayor's office says it has decided to provide exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasrin with a rent-free apartment in the French capital. A spokesman says the writer asked the city for help after being made an honorary citizen. The spokesman said Saturday that she will move into a former-convent-turned-artists' residence in February. Nasrin left Bangladesh in 1994 after Islamic extremists accused her of insulting Islam in her writings and threatened to kill her. In March 2008 she moved to Sweden from India to seek medical assistance. The spokesman says he doesn't know what motivated Nasrin to ask for a place to live and write in Paris. In Stockholm, Maria Modig, a spokeswoman for Nasrin, declined to comment about Paris' decision, or to say whether the author was still in Sweden.

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Great White North

Mark Steyn is Not Alone by Jack Engelhard

2007-12-19

There's a definite chill in the air and this cold front comes to us from Canada, where author Mark Steyn finds himself in trouble for speaking his mind. Steyn is a brilliant writer and many of us have been amused (he is often hilarious) and enriched by his commentaries upon our culture in general and, in particular, what awaits us if we don't face up to terrorism. He's written a book on that very subject, America Alone, and this book is a bestseller in America and number one in Canada - and it's also the number one reason he's being summoned for "hate crimes." Steyn, by the way, is a passionate friend of Israel, and no, he is not Jewish. Two "human rights" panels, the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal and the Canadian Human Rights Commission, have him on trial for his alleged claim that Islam does not square with Western ideals. Whatever the outcome, we're all on notice that Big Brother is watching. The word "tribunal" itself reeks of an Orwellian nightmare and Soviet gulagism. From my own days in Montreal, I remember singing these words from Canada's national anthem: "O' Canada, Glorious and Free." Those words may have to be expunged. But is Steyn alone? Can't happen here in the US? Well it has been happening here. Conservative, pro-Western and pro Israel commentators like Robert Spencer (Religion of Peace? his latest), Daniel Pipes and David Horowitz consistently get shouted down from campus to campus. Some get physically roughed up and require bodyguards and double security when they dare to deliver a message that displeases peace-loving professors and students. Some, like Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld, are being sued in British courts. Ehrenfeld wrote the book Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is Financed - And How To Stop It, and though the book was not published in the UK, it's still being taken up by the courts over there for defamation. Ehrenfeld refuses to recognize British jurisdiction and is fighting back through America's court system. If Canada is on the verge of being "glorious and free" no more, "America Alone" (as Steyn has it) is being asked to remember that it is still the "land of the free" and "home of the brave." That's Steyn's thesis in a nutshell. He's counting on America to save the world from a campaign of tyranny being waged against words spoken and words written. Bangladeshi novelist Taslima Nasrin is another writer in jeopardy, and on the run somewhere in Europe, after her words provoked riots among jihadists. Recent reports had it that she was rewriting a novel for fear of her life, but according a late posting on her web site, "Come what may, I will never be silenced." This, then, is war, but it is not a war of words - it is a war against words. Israel has its own laws and tribunals for those who "insult public officials." Israel's political and cultural leaders, who whimsically define the word "insult" to isolate dissent from "right-wing" Israelis, may wish to consult Hatikvah for the stanza that summons the people "to be a free nation in our own homeland." All this - Steyn's Canadian fatwa and the attempts to muzzle all freedom of expression - is not quite the same as the short life of Theo Van Gogh after he produced the documentary Submission. Nor is it quite the same as the fate of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who scripted that film and was forced to escape the Netherlands. She has since moved to the United States, where, of course, she travels with bodyguards. Not quite the same, but close enough to remind us that Mark Steyn is Not Alone.

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Bangladesh

Khelafat leader Habibur held for militant 'link'

2007-05-17

The joint forces detained Moulana Habibur Rahman, nayeb-e-ameer of a faction of Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish, from his father-in-law's house at the city's Jherjheri para early yesterday. Habibur was arrested on charge of having links with the militant groups and he was shown arrested under the emergency power rules, a police official said. After his arrest at 1:10am, the law enforcers took him to the Sylhet Kotwali Police Station where officials quizzed him. "Mahmoud! This is a Number 6! I distinctly asked for a Number 7 truncheon!" "Sorry, Sahib! You broke the Number 7 on Akter Hossein! There's a new one on order!" "Well, drive a nail through the Number 6, then! We'll just have to make due." "Right, Sahib!" At about 1:00pm yesterday, Kotwali police produced Habibur before the Sylhet Sadar cognizance magistrate's court, wherefrom he was sent to the jail lock-up. In 1994, 'Sahaba Sainik Parishad' run by Habibur announced Tk 50,000 bounty on the head of writer Taslima Nasrin. On October 13 that year, the man with several hundred people put blockade in front of the deputy commissioner's office to press for hanging Taslima. Habibur once told about his experience of joining training programmes in Afghanistan. However, after the emergence of militant groups like JMB, he started denying his links with and support for Afghan wars. Moulana Habibur Rahman, who is also the principal of Jameya Madania Islamia at Kazirbazar, used his students against Afsar Uddin, a lessee of the adjacent Kazirbazar cattle market, to 'extend' the madrasa in 2005. Habibur also grabbed some valuable lands of the LGED at the city's Bagbari in 1992 for setting up a Nurani Madrasa. However, the district administration freed the government lands shortly afterwards. Habibur Rahman, who was an ally of the BNP-led alliance government, later shifted his political line and managed nomination of the Awami League-led combine for Sylhet-6 constituency (Golapganj and Beanibazar upazilas) ahead of the election scheduled for January (later cancelled). The matter fuelled agitation among the rank and file in the AL-led combine. Beany Bazaar. Really. We did not make that up.

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India-Pakistan

Let's Burn The Burqa

2007-01-19

The Quran does prescribe purdah. That doesn't mean women should obey it. By Taslima Nasrin My mother used purdah. She wore a burqa with a net cover in front of the face. It reminded me of the meatsafes in my grandmother's house. One had a net door made of cloth, the other of metal. But the objective was the same: keeping the meat safe. My mother was put under a burqa by her conservative family. They told her that wearing a burqa would mean obeying Allah. And if you obey Allah, He would be happy with you and not let you burn in hellfire. My mother was afraid of Allah and also of her own father. He would threaten her with grave consequences if she didn't wear the burqa.

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Bangladesh

Shibir's death threat to Prof Hasan Azizul for talking secularism

2006-08-25

Islami Chhatra Shibir activists of Rajshahi University yesterday threatened Prof Hasan Azizul Haque with death for his speech on education and secularism at a seminar on August 21. “Shibir bigots said Prof Hasan would have to die like Prof Humayun Azad or leave the country...” Shibir bigots said Prof Hasan would have to die like Prof Humayun Azad or leave the country like Taslima Nasrin. The Shibir leaders made the threat in a rally where they branded the eminent litterateur 'Nastik and enemy of Islam', declared him unwelcome on the campus and burnt his effigy. The Shibir activists were infuriated apparently after two local pro-Jamaat newspapers, daily Natun Probhat and Naya Diganta, ran reports on the speech Prof Hasan gave at the August 21 seminar and they distributed copies of the newspapers among the students during the rally. Speaking with The Daily Star, Prof Hasan said his speeches were concocted by the newspapers. "Fabrication of my speeches and consecutive agitation by Shibir are clear indications of a dangerous plot". The Shibir rally was convened by Zulfikar Nayeem while Mahbubur Rahman, Mokhlesur Rahman, Abul Alim and Nomani spoke at the rally among other Shibir activists. Different teachers, students and cultural organisations including Progressive Teachers Society, Bangladesh Chhatra League, Samajtantrik Chhatra Front, Chhatra Union, RU Drama Association, Sammilito Sangskritik Jote, Anushilon Drama Group, Bangabandhu Sangskritik Jote and Udichi strongly condemned the threat by Shibir.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Clear and present danger to Team India

2004-12-06

The Indian government believes Bangladesh is a hot bed of Islamic terrorism and the threat to Indian cricket team may not be a hoax as is being claimed by the latter. The Centre is likely to take the final decision on sending the Indian cricket team for a two-Test series only after a three-member team of experts submit their report on the situation in Bangladesh. The Indian authorities have more than enough reason to cancel the team's trip as it has been repeatedly warned in recent times about the growing clout of Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI). HUJI is the most prominent terrorist outfit in Bangladesh, with a powerful network in south-east Bangladesh bordering Burma. The group is accused of drumming up death threat to prominent author Taslima Nasrin and attacking another major poet, stabbing a senior journalist, causing several bomb blasts, and carrying out at least one assassination attempt on former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. It possibly is also the group that attacked the US consulate in Kolkota in 2002. Although the Bangladesh government has described the militant outfit as "a paper organisation", Indian agencies believe that the group was set up with the help of Osama bin Laden in 1998. According to a recent report submitted to the Central government and available with the timesofindia.com, some of Harkat-ul-Jihad-Al-Islami's Afghan veterans, who have returned to Bangladesh after the Taliban regime fall, are staying in hilly terrains of Cox Bazar, Banderban and also along the no-man's land in the Bangladesh-Myanmar border. These veterans are receiving supports from Qaumi madrassas in Chittagong and militant groups among Myanmar refugees in Bangladesh (Rohingyas), the report with the government says. Among those underground leaders are HUJI idol Mufti Abdul Hannan, Mufti Qamarauzzaman and Mufti Saleh Ahmed - all three believed to be war veterans in Afghanistan and Chechnya. "Chittagong has become the headquarters from where the Bangladesh Islamic movement is coordinated," the report with the government points out. The Quami madrassas that have mushroomed in Cox's Bazar and Banderban areas serve as recruitment agents to various jihadi outfits, including HUJI. Illegal arms and ammunitions is freely flowing into Bangladesh, especially the lawless southeast, through the fishing harbour of Cox's Bazar, the report points out. The report says there has been "manifold increase" in activities of Islamic militant groups ever since the BNP government came back to power in 2001. Gee, ya suppose there might be a link? Another report on HUJI with the government has quoted a series of articles in Prothom Alo, a Bangladeshi newspaper, as saying that HUJI has established an "active network" through local NGOs and madrassas for its activities. The report says HUJI imparts arms training to groups among Rohingya Muslims and even some Indian groups. The Prothom Alo report quoted police officers as saying that HUJI has, in recent times, shifted its camps to Naikhangchari border in the no-man's land between Bangladesh and Myanmar. Coincidentally, Indian agencies also believe that the central command of the ULFA (United Liberation Front of Assam) and some other north-eastern insurgents such as NLFT (National Liberation Front of Tripura) and NDFB (National Democratic Front of Bodoland) are also based in that area. Indian agencies also believe that HUJI is using its influence with Bangladeshi Islamic political groups such as ruling Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Oikya Jote (Islamic Unity Forum) for carrying out its activities. Islamic politcal groups supporting islamic terrorist groups? Who knew? According to the reports, HUJI could have a staggering 15,000 members and its main aim is to bring about Islamic regulation in Bangladesh on the Taliban pattern with the greater objective of achieving international Islamic brotherhood in South Asia. They all want to be the first with their very own Caliphate. Indian agencies have drawn up a very scary picture of HUJI which must been of serious concern to the authorities as they evaluate threat to the Indian cricket team. They take their cricket seriously One of the reports with the government points out that the HUJI has maintained its links and gets funds from Pakistan's ISI, Osama Bin Laden's al Qaeda, Islamic NGOs like Servants of Suffering Humanity International and Al Farooq International Islamic Trust and Pak-based groups such as Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. The "usual suspects". Prothom Alo has quoted confessions of HUJI members to claim that several HUJI top leaders were involved in various bomb blasts in Bangladesh. One of reports with the government says in March 2002 the interior ministry of Bangladesh had instructed police to take action against madrassas and camps of HUJI but there was only a lukewarm response. However, after the new government, which is a coalition of Islamic parties that are not very friendly with India, came to power, "no more circulars" were issued against HUJI, the report points out. Tap, tap, nope.

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