September 12, 2015, is the 44th birthday of secular, humanist writer Avijit Roy. Before he was murdered by Islamists Extremist group this February 26th, the founder of the Mutko-Mona platform Avijit Roy was involved in furthering many issues including science, free thought, humanism, and literature. He introduced the free thought movement in Bangladesh to the international arena. Avijit Roy not only wrote online, but also wrote and edited ten books in Bengali. He was, and will remain, a true friend to freethinkers, and liberals everywhere.
In his short but intense life Avijit Roy had inspired numerous readers in freethinking through his work and writings. He inspired many to break out of the barrier of age old superstitions and religious dogmas. Today he is not with us physically, but we who carry a part of his light in our heart are celebrating his life and work in this event of his 44th birthday. This celebration is not only an opportunity to express our love to the memory of Avijt Roy, but also a declaration that the fire that Avijit gave his life to light has now spread all around!
As part of this celebration we asked MuktoMona readers, writers and well-wishers to write about how Avijit's work and writings had inspired and enlightened them. And we have received a huge response to this last minute call. According to our previous announcement we are publishing a Bengali and an English webpage commemorating Avijit's life, work, and writings. These pages also contains all the writings that we have received from you for this event. An e-book will be published containing a selected few of these articles and later a printed version of the book will be published in the Ekushey Boi Mela (The national book fair 2016, Bangladesh). We are also happy to publish two of his books as free e-books for our readers.
We end this announcement with our favourite quote from Avijit Roy, "Mukti Ashuk Juktir Aloy" (Let the light of reason free us).
MuktoMona Editor.