The ultimate litmus test for freethinkers a la N. N. Sarker
A.H. Jaffor Ullah
"If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the
corridor in the other direction. -- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in 'The Way
to Freedom'
Lately, Mr. N.N. Sarker has devised the litmus test that will set
apart bona fide freethinkers from the ones who pretend to be a
freethinker. The test is a very simple one. Just ask the person who
is masquerading as a freethinker a simple question. Do you support
the candidacy of Barack Obama for the highest public office in the
US? If the unequivocal answer is yes, then you are not a true
freethinker. If the answer is a negative one, then by golly you are
a true and tested freethinker.
For the life of him Mr. Sarker could not figure out how a true
freethinker could support Senator Barack Obama. Many pretending
freethinker in Mukto-mona including this scribe fell victim to Mr.
Sarker's broadside. Just by asking a simple question Mr. Sarker has
unmasked us all! I don't know what to make out of Mr. Sarker's
recent discovery. Should we exit Mukto-mona en masse? Or, should we
stand our ground and prove that his simplistic assertion has no meat
whatsoever?
Many of us here in Mukto-mona discussed the candidacy of Barack
Obama. None of us had factored in the senator's ancestry. America
is becoming a patch quilt nation of immigrants and the ones who
descended from immigrants. Therefore, many folks believe that a
biracial human being becoming the president could bring all the folks
from diverse genetic makeup together. It is about the time that a
non-white person becomes the president. What is so wrong in Obama's
candidacy? Or is that our caste system's curse that Mr. Sarker has a
problem with a biracial man?
Interestingly, the British had left South Asian subcontinent nearly
sixty years ago but still many of us subconsciously believe in the
supremacy of a white man. Ms. Farida Majid had written about it
rather eloquently in her post; to add more will be utterly redundant.
Mr. Sarker took upon himself this ornery task of defining who is a
true freethinker solely based on one criterion. I wish him a lot of
luck. For, there will be others who will point to his platitudinous
remarks.
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Sign the Petition : Release the Arrested University Teachers Immediately : An Appeal to the Caretaker Government of Bangladesh
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Daily Star publishes an interview with Mukto-Mona
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Mukto-Mona Celebrates 5th Anniversary
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Mukto-Mona Celebrates Earth Day:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Earth_day2006/index.htm
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Kansat Uprising : A Special Page from Mukto-Mona
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MM Project : Grand assembly of local freedom fighters at Raumari
http://www.mukto-mona.com/project/Roumari/freedom_fighters_union300306.htm
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German Bangla Radio Interviews Mukto-Mona Members:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/german_radio/
Mukto-Mona Celebrates Darwin Day:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/index.htm
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"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".
-Beatrice Hall [pseudonym: S.G. Tallentyre], 190
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