Begali elders had a funny way to putting things in context. When we attempt to see a pioneer like Begum Rokeya/Nawab Faizunnisa with Taslima, I have to say, " Kothai Agortola at Kothai Chaukir tola.." (Comparing place under your bed with Agartola).
Americans would politely say it is like comparing apples and oranges.
Rush-die hasn't clarified if his "Satanic verses" is a fiction or non-fiction. Those who read it said it was more like a rant against Islam, white women (called all white women "Whores", British PM (Called her a bitch in that book!) and many other things. Still this idiot got many "Appreciation" because he said untrue stuffs against one of the most successful leader in human history (From secular point of view) who died over 1400 years ago!!
Brave? Nah he was going for quick buck and gotten plenty of them.
Last night I was watching an interview on top Indian talk show (@ NDTV with Burkha Dutt) with Salman. He blamed Indian government for banning him from India instead of Muslims of India. He said it was about getting political scores before election and had no valid threats against him. It was a long interview where he was allowed to talk a lot and got his points across. I was blaming Muslims for it but I guess that was not the case.
Those who are interested can watch a short lecture on Salman by a Muslim scholar who did not want him to die!! Click here.
From: Jiten Roy <jnrsr53@yahoo.com>
To: mukto-mona <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thu, Jan 26, 2012 7:05 am
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] FW: Rushdie cancels visit, angry authors read Satanic Verses
To: "mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com" <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2012 11:43 PM
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] FW: Rushdie cancels visit, angry authors read Satanic Verses
From: Farida Majid <farida_majid@hotmail.com>
To: mukto-mona <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, January 23, 2012 6:30 PM
Subject: RE: [mukto-mona] FW: Rushdie cancels visit, angry authors read Satanic Verses
But in 1993, when confronted by the fundamentalists, I was shocked by the way she just chickened out. Her cowardice was visible in her body language (coy looks and min-min voice) and the stupidity of repeating over and over again the same dumb, unexamined Bangla translations of the Qur'an and calling them "religion" was simply stupefying! How can anybody be so scared to lose basic cultural sense, or an idea of what political game was being played? Her narcissism was then as now is too blatant.
She did more harm to women's ongoing movements in Bangladesh by emboldening the Jamaati factions. Almost every woman activist I've met in the field says so. Today there are more hijabized women in BD than they were in 1993 and Taslima's fiasco in 1993 is partly to blame.
As an old communalism combatant I can tell you that Taslima is just another rotten piece of wooden chip in the fire of communalism. I work with a team of communalism combatants and none of us singles out a particular religion and attacks it indiscriminately. Even the die-hard atheists and religion-haters amongst us has learned (the hard way) not to pick on "religion" as the root cause of communalism despite the fact that religion is the main vehicle of their hate-mongering machine.
Her novelette 'Lajja' is a badly written account of Hindu persecution in Bangladesh in the sense that its central message is a cowardly whimper (the Hindu hero managing to slap a Muslim street prostitute as his climactic act of protest!). Had Taslima really cared about humanity the message could have been bolder in that novel, and more politically or even artistically meaningful in sensitizing us about the root causes of communalism.
Just as I, a Muslim, would not go on and on about the flaw in Hinduism regarding its caste system, my Hindu or Christian team-mates are discouraged from talking about 'jehadism' as a part of Islam and as if every ordinary Indian or Bangladeshi Muslim lives by it.
Combating communalism and religious fundamentalism is not as easy as it seems superficially. It is a rough ride and it gets rougher the more deeply you get involved. It requires a thorough knowledge and understanding of our subcontinental history and culture.
Taslima has done well with her narcissism, and I applaud her. But please do not call her a "champion" on women's issues or a sincere anti-communal activist. She is a sneaky, manipulative coward, the opposite of 'brave'.
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Thursday, January 26, 2012
Re: [mukto-mona] FW: Rushdie cancels visit, angry authors read Satanic Verses
When Criticism is based on factual information, that should be tolerated. However Taslima is NOTHING like Begum Rokeya. Their goals were VERY different. Begum Rokeya wanted to add "Light" to lives of Muslim girls who were not given chance. Taslima is into making stuff up when talking about religion. If she is not "Smart" enough to understand what she is attempt to criticism, she should understand her limits and invest time needed to learn history first then get into criticism "Business".
Shalom!!
-----Original Message-----
Why critiquing a religion is so hard to bear for its believers.
I know criticism of communism is forbidden in the communist countries. If anybody does so, he will not be heard of again. Communism requires total subjugation and control of the masses to make that system work. That can't be the reason behind prohibiting criticism of religion. Then again - there are civil laws prohibiting criticism of religion in many countries. So, the motive may be the same in both systems. In fact, these two systems may be the flip-sides of a coin.
More or less all religions demand total subjugation of their followers to the God. In some followers even feel proud of calling themselves as slaves of God; slaves are not in a position to criticize the system. So, they don't. But, not everybody is happy to assume this role. For those who do not want to be a slave - let them go free. God will deal with them. OK?
Some people say criticism of a religion hurts the feelings of its followers. All criticisms hurt feeling. When my father scolded me in my childhood, it used to hurt my feeling; I used to question his love for me during that transient period. When my teacher criticized me in front of my fellow classmates, it used to hurt my feeling badly. You cannot go after the person just because he hurts your feeling. That's totally uncivil manner. Yes, Rushdie and Taslima may have hurt feelings of the believer. So what? Deal with it, as you do with any other hurt-feelings. That's a mature and civilized way to deal with it.
Jiten Roy
From: Sukhamaya Bain <subain1@yahoo.com>
What is 'middle-class concerns on women's issues'?
Taslima Nasrin could be the culprit behind increasing 'hizabization' of women in Bangladesh, what an absurd argument! I can understand that the Jamati's would resist any movement that advocates women's rights. One way to suppress such movements would be to hizabize more women. If Bangladesh fell for that, it was because the country did not have enough educated people to advocate women's rights, not because the women's rights activists were wrong or imperfect in executing their movement.
I do not think a truly secular person would downplay "Lajja" by branding it 'a badly written account of Hindu persecution in Bangladesh'. 'Badly written' and 'badly executed' are the kind of excuses that are made by people who do not wish to support the fight against the persecution in question. It would also be pretty uneducated of anyone reading the book (Lajja) and finding that the 'central message' was a cowardly whimper of the Hindu hero managing to slap a Muslim street prostitute as his climactic act of protest.
I agree with Ms. Majid on one point. A Hindu should not criticize Islam (or any other non-Hindu religion), and a Muslim should not criticize Hinduism (or any other non-Islamic religion). The religious fools need to see the silliness in their own religions. To be a neutral critique of religions, one should promote himself/herself to a Human first. I do not identify myself in terms of any religion. However, I still avoid picking up a religious book and trying to find faults in it. That is because it is obvious that a thousand years back people were less civilized, and knew less. We can not go back in time to fix anything; it is better to focus on recent and current hatred and injustices.
Talking about Taslima Nasrin's successes with her narcissism, are we feeling bad that our own narcissism did not give us such successes? I think we should control our personal attacks on people who are writing in this forum as well on people who are not writing in this forum.
Sukhamaya Bain
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Taslima was a good columnist. I used to be a fan, though i often found her to be a bit too confined to her middle-class concerns on women's issues. I supported her views when she blamed religious beliefs, customs and other superstitions for the plight of women in our society.
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