[mukto-mona] Re: Mukto-Mona's dumping practices: My response to Mr. Gani

Dear Members,

 

I have read Mr. Gani's lengthy piece and I would like to appreciate his patience even though he feels that he has been discriminated. I would like to disagree here on what he wrote.

 

After his first appearance in Mukto-Mona on April 19, 2006, Mr Gani penned numerous articles on various topic and all of his articles have been duly published in MM. I have searched by giving Mr. Gani's name and it came out with about 130 articles and responses. If this is the matter of discrimination, I have nothing much too say. Let the data decide. Mr. Gani could not provide any factual proof of discrimination, other than telling us that he had been received cold feet after sending the article(s).  

 

Mr. Gani accused MM for spreading especially racially motivated (on Muslims) and aggressive comment. In his words- "MM moderators have freely been disseminating those views of expressive harms without any remorse."

 

Such Accusation of Mr. Gani is not new.  He wrote similar lengthy piece in NFB on NFB; 01 Sept. 2006 accusing MM for hurting billion Muslims in Bangladesh and beyond. Our moderator Jahed Ahmed refuted such allegation  by saying –

 

 

"Mr. Gani thinks, mukto-mona is hurting the sentiments of millions of people in Bangladesh, destroying family values, and we are forcing people into recanting ancestor's beliefs/religions. So flattering for us to learn, we exert so much influence on peoples' mind! Yet I need to make a point here. At mukto-mona, we mainly deal with issues that we believe are dogmatic, irrational and unscientific. If any such issues coincides with some one's own definition of a "family value", "religion", "religious ritual" etc, we simply won't stop from doing it. We know, even icons like Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, Ram Mohan Roy, Kazi Nazrul Islam were once accused of having "destroyed religions/cultures", etc. What if they stopped? Would the necessary reformation/change have taken place? Or take the example of Mary Wollstonecraft's "A Vindication of the Rights of Women." Didn't many say she was putting whole order of the society up side down by espousing equal rights for women? Same holds true for late Quazi Abdul Wadud, Quazi Motahar Hossain, Prof. Ahmed Shariff, Aroj Ali Matubbor et al of Bangladesh." (MM Message #36096)

 

I found Mr. Ganis new article was nothing but the old, unpalatable, empiricist wine in a new bottle, which we had refuted many times.  I would like to respond to this accusation one more time perhaps.

 

We have seen time to time that Muslim fundamentalists certainly think of mukto-mona just as a creation of some "anti-Muslim" gang with vested interest.  Mr. Gani's view is in-line of that view. However, If Mr. Gani was smart enough; he would have noticed that Hindu and other fanatics also curse Mukto-Mona for favoring the Islamists. Just few days ago, one devout hindu was accusing MM writers for becoming "Al-Mahmud" and "Anwar Zahid", the reason was, MM core members and moderators were very vocal against unjustified Iraq war and racial approach against Muslims. If we were so racist against Muslims then why did we protest? You cannot have both ways, Mr. Gani.

 

The answer is quite clear. We were against all kinds of social injustices, religious and oppressive dogmas, doctrines, and discriminations.  We critiqued everything that hindered people's access to civil liberty, freedom, democracy and secularism.  We took a strong stand against all kinds of human rights violations such as oppression of ethnic/religious minority community and gender-based discriminations against women, homosexuals and others, and we have proven it time to time.  Our project, our past petitions and the articles are the proof. We had written petition when hindu fanatics destroyed the Babri mosque,  appealed for Gujarat Genocide Trials, against Hindutva Vandalism on Renowned Artist M F Hussain's Paintings etc.  What type of racism is Mr. Gani talking about?

 

Mr. Gani is 'so anxious' for hurting religious sentiment of the Muslims.  Let me site quote from History. The great Humanist Thomas Paine once uttered about Bible -

 

"...The Bible is a book lies, wickedness and Blasphemy. As for the book called Bible, it is actually blasphemy to call it the word of god. ...This book is too ridiculous even for criticism" ( Ref. The age of reason; Thomas Paine, p 88).

 

James Harvey Johnson also once wrote:

 

"We see nothing worthwhile in this book. It is most evil, injurious, fallacious, divisive book ever written. It has caused more deaths, tortures and suffering than any other book ever written. It has been the most oft-used instrument for holding back human progress for thousand years. It has been the cause of more wars than any other book or tyrant or human characteristic" (Ref. 'Of the bible', James Harvey Johnson, The New Zealand Rationalist Humanist, vol XXXV)

 

Ancient Charbakas criticized Vedas in a very venomous language. Even today, If you go to any Dalit site for eg. http://www.dalitstan.org/journal/, http://www.dalitstan.org/books/index.html  etc, you would see how harshly they use to criticize Hinduism, and especially Bhrahminism.

 

The following lines indicate how an western critique criticized Abraham's character just few decades ago -

 

"Who was Abraham? An insane Barbarian patriarch who married his sister, denied his wife, and seduced her handmaid, who drove one child into desert to starve and made preparation to butcher the other" (Ref. Illustrias Biblical Personalities; Jhon E Remsburg.

Freethought, July 1997)

 

Bertrand Russell also attacked Bible in more or less similar tone in many of his articles including his famous book – 'Why I am not a Christian' . No body had saught head for Russell, Harvey, or Pane. None were accused for being "hate-monger" or "hurting sentiment" of billions of Christians. It looks Mr. Gani has a unique sense of "being hurt" always!

 

 

Religion is so entrenched in the mind of the people like Muhammad Gani  that they  have been able to foist off onto popular culture the notion that religion always deserves kid glove treatment!!! What an irony.  Republicans can criticize the political philosophy of Democrats and vice versa. BNP can criticize the polical ideology of AL, Jamat can criticize 'equal right for women' as they think it anti-islamic. Socialists and capitalists can criticize each other's basic worldview. However, to the people like Mr. Gani, religious beliefs must be above from any kind piercing criticism. If you criticize, you will be a hatemonger like"KKK". Eh…give me a break!

 

If his religious sentiment is being hurt by the criticism of MM writers, then be with it! There is definitely a time and place to make religion look as ridiculous as it actually is. Look at the news papers of Bangladesh- how mullahs are opposing the equal rights for women. Will be a hate, if we point out this? There is definitely a time and place to emphasize the opportunities awaiting a person who lives a life free of superstition. Mukto-Mona has been awarded prestigious Jahanara Imam Memorial Medal recently for making significant contribution in the movement for establishing humanism, rationalism and scientific mindset among the people. Many popular media including Daily star or German Bangla Radio have taken interviews and published those with due importance. MM books have already made a quick land marks Mr. Gani should ask himself  who is preaching real hate – is this Mukto-Mona or he himself - taking this onerous duty on himself to propagate name calling among Bangalee readers?

 

 

 

Lastly, I would also like to point out that while criticizing a particular dogma, it is also important to make the proper distinction between Muslims and Islam. Muslims are people, human beings like you and I and that's why many of our members voice for the rights of Palestine or Kashmiris or stood against Iraq war, even though they criticize Islam as a dogma. I wonder whether Mr. Gani will ever realize that!

 

Apparently, I have not seen Mr. Gani raising his voice when an atheist like  Prof. Humayun Azad's  neck had been chopped off, neither had he noticed anything when  religious fundamentalists issuing fatwas against the freethinkers of Bangladesh or calling  them Murtad and seeking death penalty. He does not think that anybody like us has right to get hurt when  Shamsher Ali  spreads lies to make his religion 'super-scientific' by capturing all the news and government media, and while state promotes it. Mr. Gani probably  will not find anything wrong when he sees that  the non-believers like us have to start our day listening so-called Quran-Telwat or other religious recitation, which we do not want to, but forced to by state-patronization!  He does not find anything wrong when state also patronizes Baitul Mukram's Khatib to spread Jihad against the infidels on each Khutba on Jumma. For him, so called 'sentiment' and 'ability of getting hurt' should only belong to a believer like him, and not to any infidel community. Indeed their 'religious sentiment' is so precious!

 

Avijit

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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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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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Some FAQ's about Mukto-Mona:

http://www.mukto-mona.com/new_site/mukto-mona/faq_mm.htm

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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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