"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."
I believe - Taslima has graduated from that school with distinctions. Won't you agree?
"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'."
These are news to me. I did not know that Taslima has done so well, hiding from place to place. All along - I was thinking that he must be living through a hell. I did not know that she is coward and dull also.
Then again, she gave up her good life as a Doctor and chose the life in the dungeon to talk about religious fundamentalism, bigotry, and religious persecution in Bangladesh. Only a dull person can do this. You be the judge!
This is a wow analyses, indeed. Won't you agree?
Jiten Roy
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
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
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.
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'.
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'.
To: mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com
From: subimal@yahoo.com
Date: Sun, 22 Jan 2012 09:57:34 -0800
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] FW: Rushdie cancels visit, angry authors read Satanic Verses
From: subimal@yahoo.com
Date: Sun, 22 Jan 2012 09:57:34 -0800
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] FW: Rushdie cancels visit, angry authors read Satanic Verses
Taslima is a champion of women's liberation and secularism or non-communalism. She is brave and uncompromising too. She deserves respect for that. She is definitely not a great poet or a novelist, although she is a good columnist. Her memoir made Ketaki Kushari Dyson weep (she said it in a message in Uttorshuri.) She is not a great scholar too. But she understood that religions in general discriminate against women and the current institutions (including the family) are also overtly or covertly on men's side. Araj Ali Matubbar had education only upto 10th or 12th grade, and understood the true role of religion in dealing with women. I think Taslima became most controversial by writing the novelette "Lajja". A very small section of the educated but communalist Muslims could not accept the portrayal of the persecuted Hindus by goondas of the rulin party. They made a propaganda that Taslima had been paid by BJP to write the book with the sole objective of tarnishing the "bhabmoorti" of Bangladesh. By doing this we have simply strengthened the hands of the communalists. Even if the propaganda was based on facts, the fact still remains that Hindus were persecuted.
From: Kamal Das <kamalctgu@gmail.com>
To: mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, January 22, 2012 10:47 AM
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] FW: Rushdie cancels visit, angry authors read Satanic Verses
To: mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, January 22, 2012 10:47 AM
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] FW: Rushdie cancels visit, angry authors read Satanic Verses
What is the difference between banning a book and burning it? By making criticism of 'holy preachers' blasphemous the law makers have made them even more vulnerable to criticism. The belligerent attitude towards blasphemy is a remnant of the dark age. Those who support it mentally belong there.
On Sat, Jan 21, 2012 at 10:13 PM, Farida Majid <farida_majid@hotmail.com> wrote:
Please make a note of the fact that these "readings" from the novel Satanic Verses at the Jaipur Festival did not cause any disturbance among the attendants which must have contained Muslims. This fact should also be added to the fact that Rushdie never followed up Satanic Verses with anything, either in his fiction or public writings, that could be considered anti-Islam, though he has always been expressly against religious fundamentalism.
Therefore, the novel Satanic Verses is not an anti-Islamic novel. It is, in fact, a pro-Indian Muslim novel with warm feelings towards the Prophet, Islam and the Qur'an. Rushdie is sufficiently knowledgeable in Islamic studies, which, incidentally, Taslima Nasreen is not. She does not even know what religious fundamentalism is by definition because she receives accolades and international prizes just by bad-mouthing Islam.
The whole Rushdie Affair was a very nasty and complex politics played on the world stage. The Fundamentalists and their secret supporters won that round, but only to "pay" for in later politics as we are probably witnessing now.
Farida
From: sukla.sen@gmail.com
Date: Sat, 21 Jan 2012 11:06:19 +0530
Subject: Rushdie cancels visit, angry authors read Satanic Verses
http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5770961
21/01/2012
Rushdie cancels visit, angry authors read Satanic Verses
The banned Satanic Verses cast its shadow at the Jaipur Literature
Festival on Friday with its controversial author Salman Rushdie citing
death threats pulling out of the event while some outraged authors
read out portions of the book.
Ending days of speculation over his participation in the event, the
India-born Booker prize winning author in a message to the organisers
stated that he had been told by intelligence sources in Maharashtra
and Rajasthan that "paid assassins" from the Mumbai underworld may be
on their way to Jaipur to "eliminate" him.
"While I have some doubts about the accuracy of this intelligence, it
would be irresponsible of me to come to the Festival in such
circumstances; irresponsible to my family, to the festival audience,
and to my fellow writers. I will, therefore, not travel to Jaipur as
planned," Rushdie said as the five-day literary meet kicked off today.
The 65-year-old novelist later said on Twitter that he would
participate at the event via video link.
The circumstances under which Rushdie had to cancel his India visit
outraged the literary community who said it is a "stain" on India's
reputation.
Darul Uloom Deoband, a leading Islamic seminary which had on January 9
asked government to bar Rushdie from coming to India as he had
allegedly hurt religious sentiments of Muslims, welcomed Rushdie's
decision.
As a mark of protest, two prominent authors--Hari Kunzru and Amitava
Kumar--used their session at the festival to read out portions from
"Satanic Verses", banned in the country shortly after it was published
in 1988, for allegedly hurting the sentiments of Muslims.
Kunzru and Kumar referred to the book during their own readings and
discussions and actually went on to read out portions from it.
In fact just before his reading, Kunzru tweeted:"About to defy bigots
and shoe throwers, reading @SalmanRushdie Satanic Verses on stage with
@amitavakumar at #jaipur #jlf (sic)."
They also read out Rushdie's tweet to the audience in which he had
thanked the two for reading from his work to a loud applause.
The organizers later asked Kumar not to go ahead with his reading.
Kumar initially agreed to the suggestion but later continued reading
from Rushdie's work.
Soon afterwards, authors Jeet Thayil and Ruchir Joshi said they too
would read from the Satanic Verses.
A perturbed Rushdie later tweeted: "@amitavakumar says organizers
asked him not to continue reading from Satanic Verses." Willie,
Sanjoy: why did this happen?". He was referring to William Dalrymple
and Sanjoy K Roy, the festival organizers.
Rushdie again tweeted: "Joshi too said they would be reading from the
Satanic Verses."
Earlier, outrage and resentment were the dominant emotions on the
first day of the Festival as writers, intellectuals and fans cried
foul over Rushdie calling off his visit.
Pakistan-based writer Mohammed Hanif, the author of "The Case of
Exploding Mangoes" and "The Lady of Alice Bhatti", said the
"controversy over the 'The Satanic Verses' has been blown out of
proportion and it should not have happened". Addressing the media,
writer William Dalrymple said "the whole episode was the result of
Chinese whispers."
"At least 262 authors are here to enjoy. Salman is a writer of
enormous depth. It is a great tragedy that he is not here," Dalrymple
said as writer Namita Gokhale said she was "personally very
disappointed that Salman Rushdie was not coming".
"I hope and believe that we will have him here another year," Gokhale said.
Eminent poet and lyricist Gulzar, who was at the festival, said, "It
is wrong to muzzle free speech". "Whoever is responsible for this
politics will pay. I regret that Rushdie could not come to the
festival," the lyricist said.
Novelist and playwright Kiran Nagarkar, who has also faced political
gag for his play "The Bedtime Story", lamented "the constraints on the
freedom of speech in a democracy". "I know the feeling," the writer
said.
Source: PTI/IANS
--
Peace Is Doable
__._,_.___
