The Harbingers of a Bygone Utopia
Hizb ut-Tahrir stands out from the myriad of pan-Islamic political organisations for its fundamentally consistent methodology, its neutral stance on the issue of sectarian conflicts in Islam and its explicit refusal to the use of violence. As a global Islamic movement, Tahrir seeks an intellectual revival across the Islamic world in its aim of establishing a unitary Islamic Caliphate. Reza Pankhurst's book, Hizb Ut-Tahrir: The Untold History of the Liberation Party provides an erudite account of the history of the liberation party which over the years has remained rather abstruse to comprehend. Based on personal interviews conducted across several countries, ardent studying of party documents and materials Pankhurst seeks to fill the void in understanding the implications of Tahrir's intellectual culture and its adopted methodologies in Tahrir's aim of establishing the Islamic Caliphate. Pankhurst book delivers a perception-shifting yet coherent narrative on an incredibly resilient political movement that continues to thrive withstanding tremendous state repressions across the globe.
Avijit Roy - The Gadfly voice of reason
Avijit Roy(1972-2015) was a voice of reason in an age when people boast of their ignorance and lies are claimed as alternatives to universal truths. A software engineer by profession and a writer by passion Avijit Roy was a leading Bangladeshi-American human rights activist, author and a pioneer in Bengali free-thought movement.
Remembering the life and legacy of Avijit Roy
A software engineer by profession and a writer by passion Avijit Roy(1972-2015) was a leading Bangladeshi-American human rights activist, author and a pioneer in Bengali free-thought movement. In 2001, Avijit launched a virtual discussion group of freethinkers of mainly Bengali and South Asian descent. This small discussion group would eventually lead to the inception of the first secular humanist website in the Bengali language, called 'Mukto-mona.' The literal English translation of 'Mukto-Mona' is 'Free-thinker.' As an Internet congregation of freethinkers, rationalists, skeptics, atheists & humanists Mukto-Mona gave a platform for the secular ethos of Bangladeshi culture to be reinvigorated. In an interview with a daily newspaper, Avijit described his organization's aspirations by the following lines,
The Hague showing solidarity to people who are putting their lives on the line for freedom of expression
Press Release 21/02/2017
Bonya Receives Freedom From Religion Foundation's 'Forward' Award 2016
Thanks to Freedom from Religion Foundation for the Forward Award. Thanks for being a partner at this critical time, helping the freethinkers in Bangladesh from half the world away. Let me introduce myself first and then I will come to the situation in Bangladesh.
The American Dream -- An Illusion or Reality?
In two pages, Fitzgerald epitomized the desperation that has fueled the American Dream for centuries. It was not greed for more money that started the dream, but a more tragic catalyst: a hope for a better future. This being said, Gatsby shows that the "Dream" was not cultivated by the rich, but by the poor – people whose drives to make something of themselves stem from the fact that they were born from nothing. Gatsby's infatuation with Daisy is then interpreted as the infatuation that the poor have with money, because it is the gateway to a brighter future:
(Re)Reading Taslima Nasrin
My essay, Woman Alone, on feminism, Taslima Nasrin and my development as a writer and as a woman is also in there. The article was previously published in Mukto-Mona.