Watch out of arch-conservative Hindus masquerading as nationalists
A.H. Jaffor Ullah
Mukto-mona forum came into being in May 2001 to promote secular values among South Asian Internet-goers. The first Internet forum that made a splash was NFB forum (News From Bangladesh Readers' Opinion Page) in late 1996 with which this scribe was affiliated. Of course, we had another forum by the name Bangladesh Newsgroup (soc.culture.bangladesh) that goes back 2-3 years prior to NFB's birth. But the focus of those forums was socio-political vis-à-vis Bangladesh. NFB however should be credited for opening a healthy dialogue and debate on Muslim fundamentalism. A handful of NFB alumni decided to join Mukto-mona in 2001 when Avijit Roy, then a grad student from Singapore, spearheaded this secularist forum. Undoubtedly, much water has flown through Padma-Meghna since the inception of Mukto-mona.
Initially, the forum's main thrust was on Islamic fundamentalism. Then after the blasting of twin tower on September 11, 2001 by Arab terrorists, the forum received a shot in the arm which catapulted it to stratospheric height. Many of the earlier posts in Mukto-mona dealt with the evils of Jihadism; therefore, when 9-11 took place, there was a vindication of the group's tenet vis-à-vis the ills of religious fanaticism especially that of Wahabi brand of Islam. This forum that espouses secular humanism as a guiding principle for modern world had became a watering hole, so to speak, for many freethinkers from South Asia. A few westerners have also joined this Internet congregation and the rest is what most folks would say history.
Mukto-mona took up some causes starting from October 2001. One of these was the repression against minorities in Bangladesh on the wake of the nation's parliamentary election. Scores of articles and protest notes were posted in the forum on this perennial issue. There were however many detractors of Mukto-mona in the cyberspace who labeled the forum-goers as alarmists who are simply the proverbial faultfinders of Islam. Some even showered the epithet – Forum of Islam Bashers. The forum lends its support to the thesis propounded by three foreign journalists namely Bertil Lintner ("Bangladesh: A Cocoon of Terror," April 2002), Alex Perry ("Deadly Cargo," October 2002), and Eliza Griswold ("Bangladesh: The Next Islamist Revolution," January 2005) who wrote that a brand of radical Islam is growing in Bangladesh. A torrent of protests deluged the newspapers in Bangladesh demonizing these western writers. However, a handful of Mukto-mona forum members congratulated the western reporters for their fine reporting; indeed they called a spade a spade.
In Bangladesh throughout early 2000, a spate of homemade bombs was blasted in political rally, musical soiree, secular programs, and movie theaters. A handful of Mukto-mona writers including this scribe boldly asserted that the bombings in Bangladesh were the handiworks of Islamic fundamentalist groups aided by the Islamic-leaning political parties that made an alliance to rule Bangladesh from 2001 to 2006. On August 17, 2005, the Islamists detonated about 400 or so homemade crude bombs simultaneously allover Bangladesh and only then did the editors of Dhaka's newspapers join the ranks of Lintner, Perry and Griswold to denounce the Islamic radicals.
As the spates of bombings were continuing in Bangladesh starting from 1999, there were other developments that took place, which needs elaboration. The radicalization of Islamic preachers and students at madrassahs were continuing unabated and we witnessed how this evil force made their affronts to secular elements of the society. In early 1990s the Islamists campaigned to oust Taslima Nasrin, a feminist writer, from her birthplace. And they were very successful in their effort to send her in exile with the help of some political parties in Bangladesh. In February 2004, Prof. Humayun Azad, an outspoken critic of religious fundamentalism were attacked by a band of Islamists goon right outside the February Book Fair inside Dhaka University campus. The injured professor never did recover fully from the attack and he died few months later in Munich, Germany on August 11, 2004. The Mukto-mona forum again raised its voice by writing articles, publishing them in Dhaka's newspapers, and translated Dr. Azad's last write-up that he penned before visiting Munich Germany.
We also gave the forum's intellectual support to the struggling and protesting people of Kansat (Chapai Nawabganj, Rajshahi, Bangladesh) in April 2006 where the rural folks were deprived of their legitimate demand of securing electricity to perform myriads of agricultural operation.
The emergence of Bangla Bhai and Islamist goons in western edge of Bangladesh in 2004 brought a deluge of condemnation from Mukto-mona writers. In fact, it was the forum writers who through their writings publicized the cause in the West. The lawmakers in America and EU learned about the evils of JMB goons who operated in Rajshahi, Bogura, Noaga area with the able help of police under the directive of BNP-Jamaat alliance who were in powers when Bangla Bhai/JMB started their campaign and reign of terrors.
Mukto-mona's stature as a think-tank organization went up when in October 2006 a caretaker government was formed in Dhaka. Many members voiced their concern over the selection of President Iajuddin Ahmed as the chief of caretaker government because he was a overtly partisan man. Again when the military-backed caretaker government set its foot in the catbird seat of power on January 11, 2007 many Mukto-mona scholars wrote articles demonizing the evil influence of Bangladesh military in politics. The forum vigorously protested the heavy-handed dealings of the military-led government to muzzle the voice of Garo Hills people. The forum protested the death of a minority community leader, Cholesh Rachill, in the hands of the military.
Turning back to political developments in America, many Mukto-mona writers opposed the Iraq War in late 2002 when Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Wolfowitz gang was trying to campaign for invasion in Iraq under the pretense of a bogus claim of Saddam amassing a huge amount of WOM (Weapons of Mass Destruction) to destroy western societies. These articles and posts are still there in Mukto-mona archive. In November 2004, a majority of writers in Mukto-mona supported the candidacy of Senator John Kerry over President George W. Bush citing the invasion of Iraq on a false pretense. Quite a few articles were written in those tumultuous days supporting Senator Kerry's candidacy. It turns out that Mukto-mona writers had a unique perspective as far as Iraq War was concerned. Needless to say, these writers are liberals of high order.
In a nutshell, after 6-7 years of existence, Mukto-mona forum had gained its reputation for championing liberal causes. The forum became a proverbial waterhole for secularists and liberals from not only South Asia but also from western nations. Under this backdrop an interesting development took place in February/March of 2008. I will describe this new development as I saw it unfolding right before our eyes.
The presidential election in America is only 8 months away and knowing the power of the US president to shape the political events in the world many of us took interest in the political debates that go on in America in the days during the primaries. Due to Bush's failed policy the American government started a war in Iraq that is costing about 500-600 million US dollars everyday. On top of it, America lost about 3000 GIs in this unpopular war. Consequently, the Republican Party was losing grounds in popularity contest. Is it a small wonder that the Congress changed hands from Republicans to Democrats in 2004? The independents who really decide the outcome of the election were becoming disillusioned with George Bush and his failed policies. In the meantime, the sub-prime woes and the fear of recession had gripped the nation. The financial market had trodden a downhill journey and there is a sense in the nation that George Bush's unsound economic policy that resulted in 15 trillion dollars national debt is hardly working anymore. Couple this negativity with uncertainty in Iraq and you get a dismal picture of the infirm economy. Hard economic times mean voters' dissatisfaction. Therefore, the voters in America are in no mood to elect a conservative to the White House. Under this dire backdrop, the Democratic leading candidates, Senator Obama and Senator Clinton, were making headlines in newspapers and TV news. Of the two Democrats running in the primaries the young and first time voters were attracted to the message of hope given by Senator Obama. The independent voters who helped George Bush to become the president in 2004 in a tight contest are now siding with Senator Obama. On top of it, the African American voters were lending their support overwhelmingly for Barack Obama. This alliance of young voters, independents, educated white voters, and blacks have helped Obama to win in many states. The results of the primaries thus have evoked an interest among Mukto-mona forum-goers. Quite a few of the writers including this scribe have openly supported the candidacy of Senator Obama.
Seeing this new development in Mukto-mona, a few conservatives who normally maintain a safe distance from ultra-liberals of this forum have decided to post their write-ups. One of them had written his ad hominem commentary telling the forum-goers why he thinks Senator John McCain will be elected in the fall election. When a deluge of posts started to grace the pages of this secularist forum we saw how quickly a debate was spawned between the supporters of the Democratic and Republican Parties.
Thus far, two Hindu gentlemen from New York City supported the candidacy of Senator John McCain and they said that they are conservatives. Mind you, there is nothing wrong being a conservative. However, the trouble started to brew when one of the Bengali conservatives started pontificating in our forum telling us the hallmarks of being a liberal and conservative human being. When the secularists took the person to task for being so blunt about who qualifies to be in liberal or conservative camp. Many of us in the liberal camp thought that the criteria put forth by one of the Bangladeshi neo-cons need to be further analyzed and critiqued. Before one could hardly count ten, a full blown debate was spawned. Ultimately, no one was talking about John McCain or the Democratic candidates, Obama or Clinton, but the debate went for who qualifies as liberals or conservatives.
The liberals were anathematized by two Hindus from New York City who also proclaimed that they have an open mind when the issues are of socio-political nature. In the course of the debate the liberals received a severe black eye from the conservatives. Liberals were called delusional by one of the debaters who borrowed lines from Michael Alan Weiner who uses pen name "Michael Savage" to write books and host conservative radio talk show.
More and more it looked as if these two conservatives have some hidden agenda when they boisterously mocked the liberals. Later, the debaters started to call themselves Hindus, strictly from the social point of view. They lambasted two groups, namely, the secularists and the communists of Bengal. This scribe has given one of the Hindus enough rejoinders but later it became quite obvious that these people came with a mal-intent. They were coming down hard on Muslims while no unkind words were spoken against Christians, Hindus, Jews, etc. One does not have to be a rocket scientist to fathom out that these debaters have a hidden agenda. They simply wanted to take down secularists along with the communists and Muslims. These so-called savants knew that there is no direct or indirect connection between the Mukto-mona secularists and Islamists but they took a broad swath against three groups of people namely, the communists, the secularists, and the Muslims.
Realizing that no good results will emanate from this worthless debate, Professor Ajoy Roy sounded the alarm bell. It however did not elude the mind Prof. Roy that these two Hindus have come to Mukto-mona forum to roil us all. I hope others in the forum will clearly see the modus operandi of these two participants. Furthermore, it has not escaped the rapt attention of this scribe that there may be one or two more persons who are very eager to join the debate on behalf of the Hindu alarmists but thus far they are submitting innocuous posts in the same thread that spawned the big debate.
In summary, the two arch conservative Hindus who came to Mukto-mona forum masquerading as nationalists and conservatives are indeed the haters of communist, secularist, and Muslims. The sooner we unmask their demeanor, the better it would be for forum-goers. This article is an attempt by this scribe to expose these extremists who tried to confuse many of our readers by submitting their recondite write-ups.
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A.H. Jaffor Ullah, a researcher and columnist, writes from New Orleans, USA
