BANGLADESH AT CROSS ROAD
So Bengalis of Bangladesh have won the first round. By giving capital punishment to Bangla Bhai, Khaleda led BNP had shown a no-nonsense attitude. The Islamic terrorism in BD faced a set back with the death of Bangla Bhai. Credit for this definitely goes to BNP & Khaleda. But due to political compulsion, BNP kept on maintaining a close link with Jamaat and raised doubts in the minds of secular/progressive Bangladeshis about the ulterior intension of Khaleda and Co.
MALAYSIAN MUSLIM ALLAH
Malaysia's Ulema have recently issued fatwa that the word 'Allah' cannot be used in Malaysian Bible and seized hundreds of such Bibles. In other words, 'Allah' word has been patented by the Muslims. Malaysia is heading for more Islamic intolerance. Islam recognizes the people of Books (Christians & Jews) and label Qur'an as continuity and ultimate culmination of old and new testaments. But Malaysian Ulema have decreed that the Arabic word 'Allah' is the exclusive monopoly of Muslims alone.
QUADER MOLLAH TEST' OF BANGLADESH
AL is historically the party which brought independence to the country. But before getting rid of war criminals and Pakistani collaborators, it submerged into corruption and nepotism. It was criminal offence on the part of AL to deny Bangladeshi people a good governance and progressive development at that time. The Paki collaborators and ISI took the chance and poisoned the mind a group of mid level Bangladeshi army officers and rest is history of emergence of BNP and Jamaat-Shibir.
BANGLADESH - THE OTHER SIDE OF COIN
An important and basic issue with Islam is its mandatory 'religious teaching' for children. A teacher who imparts Islamic religious teaching to small children is called Hujur in Bangladesh. Children's minds can be molded as the Hujurs want. Hujurs, who were taught by their Hujurs, teach a new generation of Muslim children about Islam and prophet. The teaching is one way. Children have to believe what Hujurs teach or tell. Any question is reprimanded. The Islamic 'Iman' comes in handy for Hujurs to suppress any doubt in the minds of children about Islam or prophet. Many false and dangerous things are taught by the Hujurs under the protection of 'Iman'. The teaching methods adopted by these Hujurs are also harsh. Qur'anic 'iqra' was aimed at making bands of regimented followers. Such Islamic teachings are mostly given in local mosques. Some wealthy families do it in homes.
HEIGHT OF MADNESS
Reports from India say that Sachin Tendulkar, the legendary cricketer who very recently retired from the game at the age of 40 years, has been awarded "Bharat Ratna" the highest civilian award in India. Sachin has been an idol in India and cricketing world. His performance in the game of cricket was un-parallel. In his 24 years career as India's cricketer, Sachin has achieved many peaks. He has been non-controversial to the point of being silent in his classical politically correct posture. Such posture reflected escapism at times. From cricket he has earned a lot and shall do so through endorsements and cricket commentary also even after retirement. I am not aware of the conditionalities about "Bharat Ratna". But:
PROPHET-HOOD IN ISLAM & ALLAH
When Muslims think or talk about the prophet of Islam, they accept apriori that his prophet-hood was true and absolute. The system of 'prophet-hood' had been in the culture of Middle-East Asia in earlier days. If we look at the history of the area, it becomes clear that barring aside the accepted list of prophets starting from Adam (mythical to me), there had been a long list of claimants of prophet-hood who were not accepted as prophets by the large main stream population of the time and place. Even during the time of prophet of Islam, there were at least five other prophet-hood claimants. Judaism and Christianity also had their share of such claimants. Among all such claimants, only a few (including Mohammad) succeeded while the rest of vast majority failed. This success or failure had nothing to do with truth or falsity of prophet. It was something like modern day election campaign. Ultimately one would win in one time and place. The false and, at times, impossible promises made by today's politicians to be-fool people and win election were similarly used by the prospective prophets of old time to get public recognition and acceptance of his prophet-hood. Islamic 'paradise' is one such false promise. It was ultimately the survival of the fittest (not the best) prophet claimant. There was nothing divine about it.
Bengali Quran
Girish Chandra Sen was the first Bengali to translate Qur'an in Bengali language during 1886. He was not an upstart but a scholar who read extensively about Islam for some years before embarking on the translation of Qur'an in Bengali. He was a Brahmo missionary and did so at the behest of Brahmo leader Keshub Chunder Sen (Keshab Chandra Sen). The latter also asked other three Brahmo scholars to study and understand Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity respectively. The very idea was to find converging aspects of all major religions of India.
A FEW QUESTIONS TO JAMAAT-SHIBIR
Jamaat-Shibir has been fighting to impose Sharia in Bangladesh as a first step to recreate old 'golden period' of Ummah in near future under a Caliph. This calls for a relook into a few aspects of Islamic history to find out if the endeavor of Jamaat-Shibir is justified or not.
BANGLADESH - Dar al-Islam Vs Dar al-Insaan
A big proportion of educated Muslims in Bangladesh read Qur'an without knowing the meaning and background of the verses. As true Muslims, they just believe that Qur'an contains the words of Allah (which is the highest knowledge of the world) and also includes science and miracle. They just believe whatever the Alim tells them about Qur'an. And why an Alim should dilute the absolute importance of Qur'an from where all his authority comes? So Qur'an is sacrosanct to vast majority of Bangladeshi Muslims (many educated and all uneducated) without being understood at all.