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India-Pakistan

'Taslima must not be allowed to return'

2008-08-03

Syed Mohammad Noorur Rahman Barkati, Shahi Imam of Tipu Sultan Masjid here, said on Friday that External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers and Steel Ram Vilas Paswan considered Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen's return to India a serious threat to the country's secularism. "The Ministers acknowledged that the provocative text of the controversial Bangladeshi writer insulted not only Islam, but also people belonging to other religions," the Imam claimed. "Chances of Taslima's coming back to India are slim as people who are secular and respect all religions will not allow it," he said. "We will launch a massive campaign if she tries to return back by any chance." The Imam had previously issued a fatwa against Taslima in August 2007 to leave the country. She was forced to leave the city, where she was residing after being exiled from Bangladesh, on November 22, 2007 following widespread violence by All India Minorities Forum supporters demanding the cancellation of her visa. Taslima is now in Europe and recently expressed hope of returning to India.

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India-Pakistan

Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen says will leave India

2008-03-18

Exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen said on Monday she was leaving India because of failing health after being forced to live in a secret hideaway without any visitors for nearly four months. Violent protests by Muslim groups in November forced Indian authorities to rush out the controversial writer from her home in Kolkata where she lived for four years. After moving her around for a while, the authorities put her in an undisclosed "safe house" in New Delhi, where she only has a mobile phone, a laptop and a television set, but no visitors are allowed. "I have not been able to see a good cardiologist for the last few months and I have a serious heart problem," Nasreen, 45, told Reuters by phone. "I also cannot see properly and need medical attention immediately." Nasreen fled Bangladesh in 1994 when a court said she had "deliberately and maliciously" hurt Muslim religious feelings with her Bengali-language novel "Lajja", or Shame, in which she argued the Hindu minority in Bangladesh was poorly treated. Last month, she was rushed to a hospital in New Delhi after her blood pressure plummeted from an overdose of medicines to control high blood pressure. "I always had hypertension and now it is getting worse locked up in this place," she said. Despite the protests by Muslim groups, Indian authorities have extended her visa regularly, but not allowed her to leave the house, guarded round-the-clock by police.

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India-Pakistan

India refuses French award for Taslima

2008-01-25

Indian External Affairs Ministry has dashed French President, Nicholas Sarkozy’s plans to present a prestigious award to controversial Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen, citing recent violence in India over her writings. Nasreen, who remains exiled in Delhi after being thrown out of Kolkata in the wake of violence in the West Bengal capital for hurting feelings of Muslims, was named as recipient of Simone de Beauvoir award by the French government on January 9. France had proposed to honour her during Sarkozy’s two-day trip to Delhi. Disfavouring any such move, the ministry has conveyed to the French government that Nasreen was free to travel outside the country to receive the award to be presented to her for her writings on women’s rights.

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India-Pakistan

Taslima 'hiding in New Delhi'

2007-11-25

Controversial Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen remained in hiding in India on Saturday, fearing attacks from radical Muslims who see her work as blasphemous, officials said. The author was driven to the Indian capital New Delhi late on Friday under police escort and housed under tight security at an official residence, Indian media said. The Press Trust of India said Nasreen was at Rajasthan House, a state government guest house, but authorities declined to confirm her location. Federal cabinet ministers attended a meeting late on Friday to review security for the 45-year-old author, who has said her fugitive existence had pushed her to the brink of emotional breakdown. Security issues: “Keeping her (Taslima) safe is the most important task at hand in this case,” said foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee. The cabinet “discussed issues related to security for Nasreen’s stay in India in view of the threats issued by some fundamentalist Muslim organisations,” a senior official, who asked to remain unnamed, told AFP. Riots by thousands of Muslims in Kolkata calling for the writer’s expulsion from the country led to Nasreen being rushed out the eastern city late on Thursday. The Times of India said Kolkata police had informed Nasreen she was in imminent danger of an attack by Muslim extremists and moved her from the capital of the Marxist-ruled West Bengal state. Police in Kolkata put her on a flight to Jaipur in the western state of Rajasthan but the local government there told her to leave at dawn on Friday because of what it said were “security reasons.” The doctor-turned-author who was raised in a conservative Muslim family but now describes herself as a “secular humanist” said on Friday the events had put a huge strain her. “I am mentally distressed. I am not well at all,” Nasreen told the Press Trust of India. “I am not in a position to talk. I am shattered.” “I have no place to go. India is my home, and I would like to keep living in this country till I die,” she said.

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India-Pakistan

Indian Muslim clerics issue 'death warrant' against Taslima

2007-08-18

Muslim clerics in eastern India issued a 'death warrant' against Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen on Friday, threatening her life if she did not leave the country where she lives in exile. They're actually making the assumption that they live in an uncivilized country, the kind where holy men aren't held to the same standard of beheavior as normal people, where they can issue such decrees without being charged with incitement to murder. I guess the rest of us will find ou if that's the kind of country they live in or not. The threat came after a meeting of dozens of clerics from prominent mosques in Kolkata - where the writer lives - who said she had invited their wrath through her 'repeated criticism' of Islam in her books and speeches. There's a growing number of people world-wide who're inviting their wrath. The reason so many people are inviting their wrath is because of the misplaced arrogance of the holy men, who attempt to impose their own laws on the rest of mankind when the rest of mankind would as soon see them in hell. While one prominent cleric said Nasreen had a month to leave, another said she had 15 days. They weren't real good on arithmetic or even time keeping back in the madrassah, were they? Neither is in the Koran. Anyone who killed her would get cash reward of Indian Rs 100,000, they said. "Anyone who executes the warrant will also be given additional rewards," said Nurur Rehman Barkati, a cleric of one of the biggest mosques in Kolkata. The move by the clerics came a week after Muslims in Hyderabad attacked Nasreen during the launch of a translation of one of her novels. Police said they had stepped up security around Nasreen's house in Kolkata. Nasreen said their illegal order destroyed India's secular image. "I have never hurt religious sentiments and strongly believe in freedom of speech," she said.

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India-Pakistan

Muslim activists attack Taslima

2007-08-10

Muslim activists on Thursday attacked controversial and self-exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen at a book launch in southern India, police and witnesses said. Nasreen was on the stage at the press club in Hyderabad, capital of Andhra Pradesh state, when about 60 protesters from a regional Muslim political party forced their way in. The Majlis-e-Ittehadul-Muslimeen activists, led by three state legislators, broke up the function, police said. The Majlis-e-Ittehadul-Muslimeen activists, led by three state legislators, broke up the function, police said. Television footage showed activists hitting Nasreen with a bunch of flowers, throwing a satchel at her and threatening to lob chairs. Activists also snatched copies of her translated book lying on a table and threw them at her, witnesses said. The Bangladeshi author has been living in India since fleeing her homeland in 1994 after radical Muslims decried her writings as blasphemous and demanded her execution. A visibly shaken Nasreen was shielded by several organisers and escaped when police arrived and bundled her into a car, witnesses said. They reported slight bruising. One of the men protecting Nasreen sustained injuries, police and witnesses said. The Bangladeshi author has been living in India since fleeing her homeland in 1994 after radical Muslims decried her writings as blasphemous and demanded her execution. The activists shouted slogans against Nasreen, condemning her for allegedly un-Islamic writing, as they overturned chairs and broke flowerpots and vases at the venue, witnesses said.

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