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Monday, August 20, 2012

[mukto-mona] Fwd: AN APPEAL TO WORLD'S CONSCIOUSNESS



This story is at the height of human hypocrisy. Mr. Lenin was a communist and a student leader of Chhatra Union at Dhaka University, when I was there. I have attended so many meetings, where he espoused his profound dedication to socialist ideals.

 

I also had several private meetings with Salam Azad, when he was in the USA, as an exile, during the Khaleda-regime. He is a superb journalist, writes in the international journals. He is a true humanist. He has sacrificed everything in his life to speak for the oppressed people, especially in Bangladesh.

 

I could never envision that - a communist leader will attack another progressive person for standing alongside the oppressed people, until now. Think about this - a communist leader joins hands with the religious radicals to grab property for him from the minority community. What's next - a communist leader incites a communal riot in Munshigonj for accummulating personal wealth?


Jiten Roy



--- On Mon, 8/20/12, PABITRA CHOWDHURY <pchow26@gmail.com> wrote:



An Appeal to World's Consciousness

Do Not Let Another Journalist be Dragged to the Fate of Daniel Pearl


Humanist, secular , human rights activist , fair minded journalist is a rare breed in Bangladesh , as in other 56 Islamic countries.

During the blood-soaked days of Mrs. Khaleda Zia's fundamentalist regime,

2001- 2006 , writer Salam Azad narrated the harrowing reports of death, eviction, rape ,abduction and murder of minority Hindus. Thereby he incurred the wrath of too many.

So he had to go in exile. After new moderate Begum Hasina Government came to power , he returned to his home Bangladesh . Since then he is under constant threat .


It is his indomitable spirit that refused to bow down. Spirit is not enough .

Security is the need. Government showed deliberate negligence to the safety

Of Salam Azad. It is the truthful , honest , humanist approach to the horrific

persecution of minority Hindus ,by Salam and persons like Shariar Kabir, Humayun Azad ,

Humayun Ahmed, Shamsur Rahman , Muntasur Mamun. Abdul Gaffar and some others brought to the consciousness of the Nation, somehow , at least for a short period of time , the wrongfulness of anti-Hindu Jihadist frame of mind of the large Islam majority religious country. The resultant temporary awakening of mind changed the equation of Election result and brought victory to moderate Begum Hasina. But after being the Prime Minister , she preferred to look the other way , much to the dismay of minorities and the progressive people. It delighted the Islamists and their large following. We know the fate of Humayun Azad and Shamsur Rahman . We know crippling injury to Shahriar Kabir is permanent.


Salam Azad needs your support. Please see if you can do something , to

save him from Islamic Gallows, like the one young journalist Daniel Pearl faced,

In Pakistan.

Please read attached appeal from Salam Azad


.Placed below the contact information of the Offices , who can make difference

and be effective to the security of Salam Azad. Our request ,please let your views known to them , before any harm strikes Salam Azad .

Pabitra Chaudhuri M.A.,M.S.

Vice President

Indian American Intellectuals Forum Inc

Director,

Human Rights Congress for Bangladesh Minorities Inc.

-------------------------------------------------



Contact info of offices to approach for security of Salam Azad :

US Ambassador Dacca : Hon' Dan Mozena : HamiltonEH@state.gov

Prime Minister's Office
Address:
Old Sangsad Bhaban
Tejgaon, Dhaka-1215
Bangladesh
E-mail: info@pmo.gov.bd This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
E-mail: info@pmo.gov.bd This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
E-mail: info@pmo.gov.bd This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
E-mail: info@pmo.gov.bd This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
1.Email of Prime Minister Sk. Hasina: info@pmo.gov.bd
2.Email of Home Minister Advocate Shahara Khatun: minister@mha.gov.bd
3.Email of Home Minister (State) Advocate Shamsul Hoque Tuku :msh.tuku@gmail.com




AN APPEAL by SALAM AZAD

My book (Fiction) BHANGA MATH ( Destroyed "Hindu" Temple ) was banned by Bangladesh Government on July18, 2004.

There was no other charge by Govt , like Blasphemy against me.

Scenario onward 2010

Mr Nuh-ul Alam Lenin, is former pro-Moscow communist and presently Publicity Secretary of Bangladesh Awami Legue. He grabbed ten acres of Hindu land in 2010,on the plea of vested property of the Govt. It is in my area (Balasur, Sreenagar, Munshigonj) with three Hindu Temples on this land.

A Hospital and a girls high school are very much needed in that area. People of the locality started a movement to recover the land back from Mr. Lenin and build a hospital and girls school in the Hindu owned vested land.

Very few people are concerned about the plight of the Hindus. I protested against the land grab by Mr. Lenin. Slowly and naturally the people of locality placed me in the leadership of the movement . I told the local people, at first, we save the three Hindu temples and then recover the land They agreed with me. The movement still continues.

This effort to save the Hindu Minority interest is not of interest to the average, aloof middle-class and fundamentalists. Meanwhile Mr. Lenin, supposed to be a moderate, is hand in glove with Fundamentalists . On 22nd of June 2012 in Sreenagar stadium, about 50,000 fundamentalists gathered demanding vociferously to hang me . Some even went to my village home (village Damla, Police Station: Sreenagar, District: Munshigonj) and attacked my paternal home. It is very painful and horrific for me and my family.

Mr Lenin wants me out of his way to continue his sinister act against the minority Hindus.

The fundamentalists hated me for my writings on persecutions and ethnic cleansing of Hindus in Muslim Majority Bangladesh . To hoodwink his evil deed of land-grab Lenin tried to frame charges against me of Blasphemy , with the help of Radicals . The citizens in a Secular Democracy do not have the faint idea how dangerous it is to live in a fundamentalist place with the charge of Blasphemy, hanging over the neck. To silence me Lenin has taken this crooked path, to the delight of Radicals. Government also try not to displease radical elements , unless that is absolutely necessary for their own interest..

Mr Lenin filed two cases against me. One in Munshigonj Judicial Magistrate Court and another in Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court Dhaka. In both the cases he cited my banned book "BHANGA MATH". Radicals are extremely keen to punish anyone who is suspected of challenging any Muslim's acts or of way of life. That is why , to throw me out of the way Lenin used the peoples theocratic Islamic framework of mind . It worked.

He filed second case in Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court Dhaka on 4th June. Same day Court issued arrest warrant against me . Book was banned in 2004.

Many news papers published report on this arrest warrant .June 5, 2012 AFP (Paris based news agency)wrote:

''A Bangladeshi court has issued an arrest warrant for the writer of a 2003 novel that allegedly contains insulting remarks against the Prophet Mohammed, a lawyer said Tuesday.
The court in Dhaka issued an arrest warrant in response to a petition from a Muslim activist accusing author Salam Azad of hurting religious sentiment in his banned book "Bhanga Math" ("Broken Temple") published in 2003.
"We told the court that the book contained slanderous remarks against the Prophet Mohammed and Islam. The judge accepted the petition and issued a warrant of arrest," the petitioner's lawyer Ekhlas Uddin told AFP.
Dhaka police confirmed the warrant.
Azad told AFP the case was part of a smear campaign against him launched by a senior official from the ruling Awami League party."
"I became his target after I protested his grabbing of Hindu property. He has already filed a case against me," he said.
Azad, 48, said the book, published in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata, was banned for blasphemy by the Bangladeshi government in 2004.
The book is alleged to contain insulting remarks about the Prophet Mohammed and the Koran.''

I went for bail June 13,2012. But court refused me. However , arrest warrant is still not enforced. The bail

is now granted.

I am getting Death threats over telephone from Muslim fundamentalists. I reported it , with those telephone numbers to the Home Secretary, Government of Bangladesh. I also made general diary at local Police Station furnishing those telephone numbers. No action . Till today I didn't get any kind of protection from Government for security and safety of my family and me. I am in a dangerous situation and need protection.

SALAM AZAD

32 /6A, East Nayatola

Moghbazar, Dhaka 1217

Bangladesh

Phone: 0088 02 9339133

Cell: 0088 01733677184

Email: salamazad@yahoo.com













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               -Beatrice Hall [pseudonym: S.G. Tallentyre], 190




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Re: [mukto-mona] Let us not criticize religions, criticize religion-peddling



(Re-sent with minor changes)
 
I would like to talk about religions in generalized terms, even when I do recognize that all religions are not the same. Specifically, to me, the no God-fearing religion, Buddhism, looks superior to the God-fearing ones.
 
Of course, it gets harder to talk in generalized terms when someone keeps bringing up his own religion. Since I do not want to criticize/praise any particular aspect of any particular religion, let me try to maintain the generality.
 
Killing is not the only way to do injustice to innocent people. Of course, my message was, "under the cover of divinity and unquestionability of religions, criminal people have been making life miserable for too many innocent people." While killing is arguably the most serious form of injustice, life of the killed cannot be miserable after that!!
 
In an attempt to educate people like Mr. Rahman, let me note that most God-fearing and 'complete code' religions have been unjust to women. Most God-fearing religions are also unjust to people who look at God with different belief systems and with no belief. These are just two examples; and I would let Mr. Rahman count how many people are affected by these two only.
 
Talking about the Assam problem, I have no doubt that lack of birth control is a factor there. Bangladesh has too many people also; and the government has a valid reason to discourage the Rohingya people to settle there. In fact, if we look at the population growth problem in Dhaka and in Bangladesh overall, it is like a huge bomb on a timer. Any idea, Mr. Rahman, how the religious beliefs are exacerbating/relieving this problem?
 
Sukhamaya Bain
=================================================
From: Jiten Roy <jnrsr53@yahoo.com>
To: mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, August 19, 2012 4:12 PM
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] Let us not criticize religions, criticize religion-peddling
 
When I heard the verse "Islam clearly said, if an innocent person is killed, it is like killing of all humanity ( Source: Al Qurán 5:32)" for the first time, I had the same reaction as Dr. Das. I was wondering how this verse could make sense, when Prophet was engaged in many wars. In a war, innocent people get killed. There is no denying about it. Then I realize that - devils are in the details of the term "Innocent Person." Who are those innocent persons? I can exclude almost everyone from that category. Therefore, this verse bears very little significance to me.

Jiten Roy

=============================================================
--- On Sun, 8/19/12, Kamal Das <kamalctgu@gmail.com> wrote:

From: Kamal Das <kamalctgu@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] Let us not criticize religions, criticize religion-peddling
To: mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sunday, August 19, 2012, 8:17 AM

 
"Islam clearly said, if an innocent person is killed, it is like killing of all humanity ( Source: Al Qurán 5:32)". Yet, it killed three of the rightly guided Caliphs and poisoned the first one. It decimated the Egyptians, Mesopotamians and the Persians during the reign of the second Caliph.
=============================================
On Sun, Aug 19, 2012 at 7:11 AM, qar <qrahman@netscape.net> wrote:
This post shows how hard it is to make a point when someone already made up their minds about a topic. For example, Islam clearly said, if an innocent person is killed, it is like killing of all humanity ( Source: Al Qurán 5:32 ). What more one person needs to attacking innocent people? Today we look at Assam and see targeted killings of minority population, because they are "Bengalis" and Muslims. If we take a dispassionate view of our history, we see a lot of conflicts without religion involved. As I said it before, religion, nationalism, tribalism, ideologies have been "abused" to gain POLITICAL goals. It is easy to point finger at religion but religion is not a one liner book. It is a complete code of life. Since every communities of this world have bad and good people, some verses discuss those issuies. But those turn good people into bad people (leaders) are the real criminals not religion. If I remove all criminal laws from the books of Bangladesh, it will not remove crime from this country. People have to change their thinking, attitudes etc to make that happen. Religion is an exceotionally good tool to make that transformation happen. There are plenty of secular criminals who also commit crime with different excuses. Often religion is only an exuse not the cause. There are reports from criminal land grabbers who snaches away lands from weak and poor people and build mosque on it. Religion does NOT support such acts but half literate people often don't know that and they are duped into the scam like many others scams coming out of Bangladesh in recent years. Many religious people are like many atheists I met here. They made up their minds and find silliest excuses to support their flawed ideas. Also some are very open and honest like any other group of people. A book with nice texts do not have any magic in it to change people. People have to make an effort to understand religion and practice it. While there are many bad people among religious groups, there are tons of great people in them too. Who sacrifice a lot to make an honest living, be kind to their neighbors, help poor people etc. Selective picking cannot give us the total picture. Shalom!
========================================
-----Original Message----- From: Sukhamaya Bain <subain1@yahoo.com> To: mukto-mona <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thu, Aug 16, 2012 5:41 pm Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] Let us not criticize religions, criticize religion-peddling
When Q. A. Rahman writes, "I think sometime religion looks "Bad" because we "Selectively" follow some ideas and don't follow others", I hope he realizes that while a brainwashed religious person might call it "looking bad", an honest, neutral and non-malicious person would probably call it "actually bad." For this, the religious person would have the burden of explaining that what looks bad is actually not bad, as opposed to branding the neutral person anti-religious. The way I see it, a lot of the religious books have too many 'teachings' that would not fly with truly honest and intelligent people.
In fact, spending too much time on finding contexts and explaining to neutral non-religious people is not a big problem, even when the neutral persons have no patience hearing the explanation.
The overwhelmingly big problem is when a bad teaching is followed by some people for doing bad things in the world under the cover of divinity and unquestionability. This has been making life so miserable for so many innocent people in the world.
I do not agree totally with Mr. Rahman's statement. I think religious people should follow selectively only the good teachings in religious books, and dump the bad teachings, without feeling guilty of not following the religion in its entirety.
 
Sukhamaya Bain
==================================================
From: Jiten Roy <jnrsr53@yahoo.com>
To: mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2012 7:27 PM
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] Condemning Mumbai Violence
I agree mostly.
Religion is like a jungle; one can find delicious as well poisonous fruits there. The problem is - there is no guarantee that everyone will always pick the delicious fruits. This is what's going on with the religion. Some people are picking poisonous fruits either advertently or inadvertently. The deliberate use of poisonous fruits (of religion) is causing havoc around the world, and it is not decreasing; it's being used increasingly to settle religious group rivalries across religious boundaries or even within the same religious boundary.
I am convinced that – most of the evils that are happening around the world are somehow or other due to the religious divisions among us, irrespective of how good religious principles are. It's because – where there is division, there is competition and rivalry. This is one of our instinctive characteristics. You may keep it dormant for a while through proper education and training, but can't eliminate it. I criticize religion for its very existence in this day and age, not because it has nothing good to offer anymore.
After the scientific renaissance, science took over our lives and religion lost its utility. Morality in our lives comes from societal demands and environment. The populace in Bangladesh is devoutly religious, yet Bangladesh is one of the most corrupt countries in the world.
Jiten Roy
--- On Tue, 8/14/12, qar <qrahman@netscape.net> wrote:

From: qar <qrahman@netscape.net>
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] Condemning Mumbai Violence
To: mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com
Date: Tuesday, August 14, 2012, 10:03 AM

Some people are just reacting to what religion is feeding to them. Obviously, not everybody will react to the same extent, but - some will. Don't blame them for reacting.


>>>>>>>>>> I think sometime religion looks "Bad" because we "Selectively" follow some ideas and don't follow others. For example, Bangladeshi Muslims are pretty big on "Showing" they are Muslims, when it benefits them. However you check on most of them if they paid, obligatory charity (Zakat) or made sacrifices to make an honest living (Halal income), you will see plenty of hypocrites.

I have seen plenty of Muslims, foaming their mouth about their "Rights" but not so eager to worry about their "Responsibilities". Which is the very reason why "Religion" looks bad to many of us (Muslims and non-Muslims alike). When I look back to teachings of prophet Muhammad (PBUH), he was more worried about his responsibilities and often "forgave" others when it came to his rights over them (Muslims and non-Muslim alike). Most Muslims don't follow it and those who do, they don't make headlines.

This is the "Root cause" of problems we see when it comes to religion. So in one word, we are greedy and often we prefer money/power over God.

Shalom!


-----Original Message----- From: Jiten Roy <jnrsr53@yahoo.com> To: mukto-mona <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Sun, Aug 12, 2012 9:56 pm Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] Condemning Mumbai Violence

Most religious people are either unwise or fake. They are unwise because they can't visualize the evil done on earth by what religion. All they need to do is - look around the world with open eyes and minds, but – they can't.
I know – people will still say – religion is not to blame; it's the people, the so called misguided religious fundamentalists, to blame. That's hogwash; I don't blame anybody, but religion, for this. Some people are just reacting to what religion is feeding to them. Obviously, not everybody will react to the same extent, but - some will. Don't blame them for reacting.
So, please - no more blame, excuses, and double talks; try to analyze the root cause, if you can, and try to expose all evils of religion on humanity. Also, please don't tell me that some big-shot said - religion is the 'shuva-sanskar,' on earth, because I have seen enough of those shuvo-sanskars by now already. Don't show me anymore.
Jiten Roy


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Mukto Mona plans for a Grand Darwin Day Celebration: 
Call For Articles:

http://mukto-mona.com/wordpress/?p=68

http://mukto-mona.com/banga_blog/?p=585

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VISIT MUKTO-MONA WEB-SITE : http://www.mukto-mona.com/

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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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