On conservatives, liberals and the people in between (Part-1)
Jahed Ahmed
"They deserve it." I was astonished and shocked when a fellow non-believer and a former Muslim said it about the atrocities and killings of ordinary Muslims in Gujrat. Does forsaking the beliefs and myths of one's former religion necessarily mean an intensified hatred even toward the ordinary and poor members of that religion? I was thinking. I was aware that the person who said was not a sadist; and he holds a Ph.D. from a reputed American university.
Another true incident: "This Malu,"—a demeaning term often used by some Bangladeshi Muslims to allude to the Hindus—he continued, "is a nasty person." The gentleman (if you call him so) is known as a 'secular activist' and a journalist among Bangladeshis in New York, and his name, picture often appear many local Bangla newspapers published from New York.
This story I heard from the noted Journalist and secular activist Mr Shahriar Kabir. A progressive and 'secular' woman of hindu origin came to visit her fellow 'secularist' Muslim friend, also an woman. "Bhabi, this beef that YOU guys cook," she said, "really tastes great." "And you know, Boudi, WE can never cook vegetables like YOU folks do," the 'progressive' Muslim friend responded.
Did these two women target each other deliberately? Most likely, no; but one thing is clear: Racism, chauvinism do not die off easily. In our day to day life, if observed carefully, we would find plenty of examples of the 'progressives,' 'non-religious' and 'atheists' who often turn out to be not significantly better than their counterparts: The racists, the chauvinists and the religious fundamentalists.
To the contrary, I had seen people who openly practice their religions and its rituals, yet they have no problem in befriending with people of 'other faiths' and those with no faiths at all.
2.
A few days ago, the New York Times published an interesting article, backed by research, on how we often commit blunders when we try to judge people based on indirect communications: e-mail, chat or the telephone conversations. Although 'knowing a person thoroughly remains always a difficult task' is a well known dictum in philosophy and psychology, yet the research showed that talking to a person face-to-face about a topic is much more effective than talking to the same person about the same topic through the indirect means.
On a personal level, it happened to me more than once: My judgment and opinion of an individual I came across online had radically changed when I met him/her in person at a later time. But we know, it is always not possible to know a person through the fist-hand experience. In that case, what could be possibly done in order to minimize the risks of misjudging a person? We will come to that after a while.
(To be continued.)
New York 03.09.2008
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Articles/jahed/liberal_conserv100308.htm
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Jahed Ahmed is a co-moderator at www.mukto-mona.com
and writes from USA. He can be communicated thru : worldcitizen73@yahoo.com
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