Only time, I criticize any religion is when a religionist tries to impose his 'truth' on me. I started it about thirty years ago in Vancouver, B.C., when a young christian boy wanted me to follow him and establish a 'just society' on the model of Jesus. I queried if he would ever be able to pay the society back what he had already consumed, he gave up on me.
I am a human first, searcher of truth next. Buddha advised his followers to judge everything they heard, even if he said it. The followers of Abraham are less liberal, they would send every critic to 'afterlife' and try to convince others that they would bring peace on earth. People in the modern age are smarter than these followers think.
On Wed, Jan 25, 2012 at 10:43 AM, Sukhamaya Bain <subain1@yahoo.com> wrote:
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****************************************************
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 VersesTaslima 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.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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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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"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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