Dear friends,
It is a sigh of relief, and we are glad that young Arifur is released. We should express our thanks to Sara Hossain and her legal team who worked hard for this cause. But I must alert everyone not to bark up the wrong tree. It is not 'religious bigotry' of a handful of mullahs that we should be complaining about. Religion will be used again again as an effective smokescreen for dirty, anti-democratic politics IF we let it be used as such.
Arifur Rahman would have suffered the hardship of unlawful imprisonment and the unspeakable indignity in vain unless we take a lesson. Please read what I wrote for my fellow human rights activists in India:
In October last year, an innocuous cartoon strip ruffled the feathers of some Islamist political goons in Bangladesh. The Govt. promptly put the young cartoonist in jail. Later, the Khatib of Baitul Mukarram, the arch villain of the incident asked for calm in the national TV, etc. I asked a Madrassa principal what his opnion was about the innocent cartoon, and whether he thought there was any implied insult to the Holy Prophet. His reply was: "Sister, we don't do politics." In other words, the real religion or even the 'religious' population have nothing to do with the civic disturbance that was generated by the Islamists. It was pure, unadultrated politics of oppression of people's citizen's rights.
I wrote the following which is contextual in Taslima's case though Taslima herself is politically tone-deaf:
Like many, I too was utterly dismayed by Prathom Alo's grovelling acqiscence in failing to defend the content of the cartoon and the cartoonist Arif.
To pit the concept of "freedom of speech" against the fatuous construct of 'hurt religious feelings of millions' is a winning card in the hands of religion-brokers all over the world. We've seen the worst spectacle of it during the Rushdie Affair. This time in Bangladesh the secularists were flummoxed by it, and an artist is rotting in jail. A mighty shame indeed!
I will write more on the matter.
The cartoonist is freed from jail now though he may still have to face the charges of "hurting religious feelings" at court.
Farida Majid
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Sign the Petition : Release the Arrested University Teachers Immediately : An Appeal to the Caretaker Government of Bangladesh
http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/university_teachers_arrest.htm
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Daily Star publishes an interview with Mukto-Mona
http://www.mukto-mona.com/news/daily_star/daily_star_MM.pdf
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MM site is blocked in Islamic countries such as UAE. Members of those theocratic states, kindly use any proxy (such as http://proxy.org/) to access mukto-mona.
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Mukto-Mona Celebrates 5th Anniversary
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/5_yrs_anniv/index.htm
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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
http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/kansat2006/members/
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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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