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.
We must honour our dissenters - An interview with Maryam Namazie
In a personal conversation with Maryam Namzie I shared the story of Mukto-mona, discussed on key global issues what sort of future we envisage.
A Crowd Puller and his Zombies - The Indian government has been silent on snakes in their backyard.
By: Chris Emmanuel Dsouza
Epigraph for the Freedom of Thought Report
Rafida Ahmed writes in the preface to the 2015 edition, "once a country silences and intimidates its intellectuals and freethinkers, a vicious cycle of terror and extremism becomes inevitable". We must not let that happen. Freedom of Thought Report: 2015
Remarks for Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission Briefing on Human Rights in Bangladesh
Announcement of the briefing from Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission website
Bangladesh - the Killing Field
In the Killing Field that Bangladesh has become, brutal assassination of Faisal Arefin Dipan, and attempted murder of Ahmed Rashid Tutil, Ronom Dipam Basu and Tareq Rahim, as heart-breaking and depressing as it is, it is not surprising; and less so is the reaction of Dipan's father, who has, as reported by the media, refused to seek justice for his son's killing; (I understand Avijit's wife also made a similar statement). I do not know the man, but I think he probably actually understands. You see, his son's death has been preapproved by the highest authorities in the country, that is, by the same people who are supposed to bring to justice the killers of Dipan (and nearly killed the other three) this time, and more before. Every time a blogger is killed, the regime in power holds the bloggers responsible for their own death! What is it but condemning anyone who has ideas other than what the insecure, cravenly power hungry, morally bankrupt political leaders who have ruled this country for few decades now? What is it but an invitation to the savages – the so called Ansar Al Islam, a criminal enterprise that interprets religion as it pleases to serve their foreign financiers to brutally kill talented young people, because these ignoramus fanatics and the regime in power have no answer to the questions these young people raise? The latter is doing everything it can to appease the former while sacrificing the best of this country's new generation who have the courage of their conviction and insist on exercising their right to free speech, a universally guaranteed fundamental human right, and have not rented themselves out as mercenary gundas posing as students that the regime maintains.
The reason for the collusion of the regime with these killers is important to understand. Based on its refusal to reinstate the secular commitments of the country as was encoded in the original constitution, today's Awami League is not any different from the Jatya Party or the Bangladesh Nationalist Party in this regard: all are Islamist in various degrees. It is further supported by AL's well know attempts to form alliances with various Islamist parties; it also maintains a subordinate group that is hardly distinguishable from the Jamat i Islam. All indications are, if it could get away with it, bloggers would be shut out, but it does not have the guts to prosecute the bloggers if they are in violation of the constitution. Fundamentalist criminal interpreters of religion are being used in some twisted machinations, the motive of which is only visible in the public expression of what the regime is trying to achieve: keep its hold on political power, permanently if possible. But there might be other use of the plot as well: perhaps because legally denying freedom of expression by a trial would might make it difficult for the Prime Minister to get the Noble Peace Prize, as one of her close confidante, another sycophant, and obviously, a member of the cabinet, recently announced to be the main objective; that, and making Bangladesh a 'middle income country'! One wonders where does the confidence the regime exudes come from, the support of the agents of RAW and the FBI, making sure the world (and perhaps the Noble Prize Selection Committee) remains persuaded that Bangladesh continues to be known as a 'moderate' Muslim country? Surely killing of people who foolishly thinks Bangladesh is a democracy and therefore they have the right to exercise their freedom of speech can't be that important to them & their protectors whose geo-political ambition conveniently intersects with that of the ruling class in Bangladesh.
Blaming the bloggers for their actions – helps to hide another more insidious truth. Religious fundamentalism, sanctioned by the regime, is pervasive in the country, and along with remittance from the Middle East, Hijab Culture, deliberately promoted, has become just as widespread and is slowly corroding away whatever shreds of liberalism the country once had. The regime and the classes it represents have shielded themselves from being exposed to the influence of modernity, gift of the bourgeois democratic revolution in the west, the influence of which wafted to these parts on the wings of colonialism and played an important role in introducing notions of all that is potential under democracy. Its influence on the culture remains limited, however. Anecdotal information suggests wide spread sympathy among the middle class for the self-appointed enforcers of Islam and very little for the critic of the irrational, the absurd, the exaggerated claimants and the unquestioned authority of secret criminal enterprise to decide who is to be executed next. The ability of these organized criminal enterprises to carry out their 'program' by publishing list of their next victims, is proof of a failed government; if not, implication that the regime at least indirectly approves of and considers it necessary to purge the bloggers because of the fear of their potential influence, is frighteningly unavoidable. What is important to note that these killers, their enablers occupy some social place, i.e., they exist among other people; and, surely, some one knows them and if not direct supporters, they must be aware of what these people are preparing to do. Should these people be also held accountable for being accomplices in the crimes of the assassins for not coming out and warning people of the potential impending danger?
What is necessary to rescue the society from the plague of fundamentalist attempt to impose theocracy on the country is for the citizens who still carry in them the spirit of liberation to take up arms against these forces of regression, and eliminate them at their roots. But that is not easy, because of the head-start they had in growing those roots, by their presence in every village (and city) mosques, where the indoctrination in obscurantism starts. It starts in the form of teaching children to read religious texts without understanding, and never allowing questioning, for fear that they might rebel against things they might find do not reconcile with all the other virtues they are taught by the society, say for example, tolerance of diversity. This is institutionalized in the madrasas, especially in the qoumi variety, which seems to have the singular goal of subverting democracy. It is astonishing that the society sees no danger in the extent of proliferation of religious 'educational' institution in the country beyond any social control, encouraged by the autocratic military regimes, and vigorously supported by the two major political parties. Yet, there are ample indications that some of these are in fact training facilities where the ignorant young are turned into killers, trained psychologically and tactically to turn into murderers without a soul and kill in the most brutal way possible without a shred of remorse.
What is to be done? At least two sets of problems confront the people of Bangladesh. First is the regime in power. By sheer force of arrogance and complete disregard of norms that are subsumed in a democracy, it blatantly manipulated the election, under a leader surrounded by a cabinet that is a collection of sycophants, who tells her what she wants to hear. It seems all she cares about is staying in power, and according to some speculation, being able to hand it over to the crown prince. As the protector of the interests of the native bourgeoisie practicing a version of capitalism comparable to the brutality of the Ansar Al Islam, it is able to consolidate its hold. But it exists on the assumption of popular support, and hence people have the ultimate authority, if they choose to exert it, to decide who is best capable of dealing with the dangerously anarchic situation. To do so, it is necessary to be free from the opiate like dependency on false choices between the two established parties, both beholden to the same dominating socio-economic class, and with proven affinity for religious state. To counter this currently dominant trend, organizing alternate formation by shedding off petty difference among the progressive forces is the only hope for escaping the fate set by theocrats intent on dragging the country several centuries backwards.
Unfortunately, for dealing with Ansar Al Islam, the options are limited - and complicated by the uniqueness of those who are carrying out the killing operations - because of the success of the ruling class in keeping its opposition (not the nearly dismantled official opposition party), the left formations - disorganized and weak. The regime has enslaved most of the potential critics by trapping them in the snarl of largess it can supply to keep them straight and narrow.
What makes the task of eliminating the fundamentalists scourge in the country so difficult is that these people, and more so their foot soldiers, live in a reality they have concocted that has no relation to the one most of us live-in. You simply cannot have a rational discussion with these – ISIS, Taliban, Ansar Al Islam, etc. – for, they live in a place and time which most people would consider an asylum for the insane. Even the few religious leaders who have raised even the feeblest voices against the unreality of their goals and the crimes against humanity perpetrated by these demented religious fanatics, have not done well.
There is the problem: how do you peacefully and rationally resolve the problem among people who live in entirely opposite realities? Yet, without resistance and direct actions to eliminate the cancer, how would humanity survive? Do we not owe it to these heroes of our time who have sacrificed their lives in defense of freedom that we all deserve? Is it not essential that the coalition of the sane, the democratic, the progressives, set aside petty differences and respond to the onslaught and purposefully decide to do whatever is necessary before they kill our next friend and comrade in struggle?
As a first step, can we organize a million young bloggers to step up and practice freedom of speech, and begin their self-paced training in becoming the citizens of a modern progressive democracy? Will the assassins of Dipan and all others before him kill million bloggers?
Rafida Ahmed Bonya on the UN panel "Ending Impunity for Crimes against Journalists
The panel was organized on the 2nd International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, and just 2 days after the attacks on Avijit's publishers Faisal Arefin Dipon and Ahmedur Rashid Tutul, the attack that killed Dipon. https://www.unesco.org/new/en/EndImpunity
A Note on Peter Custers
My younger sister called the other night to tell me that journalist Peter Custers, familiar in Bangladesh, died of a heart attack. I had no contact with him for over 43 years, but occasionally bits of information came through the proverbial grape-vine that he is still involved in Bangladesh's (and other places'?) radical politics. I had something to do with him being in Bangladesh, and she thought I would like to know. For a time in the seventies of the last century I lived in Washington DC in a 'commune' in the Adams Morgan area (on Lanier Place, NW). I was a graduate student, had very little money, was having trouble with the girl friend (I am leaving the gory details out, since this is a family friendly write-up), and after sleeping on friends' sofas for several months, I decided to find a place to live, and ended up in the commune. Being a radical-hippy type myself in those days, I found the arrangement in the commune very comforting. No, there was no orgy going on, but you had company of more or less likeminded people if you wanted to, and did not have to feel lonely. I had a room to myself that I could afford; we residents had to take turn cooking and cleaning the house, lived modestly, sustainably. You learned a lot about living with people of different backgrounds and about responsibility, having to make your contribution towards the collective wellbeing. Two of the people in the house were Germans and Peter was a friend of them; they had met at the Community Book Store that used to be on P St. NW, and was the hub of a lot of radical activities in the 60s & 70s. He did not live in the commune, but was a frequent visitor. He was a young budding blond bearded Northern European radical, a student at the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies in DC, working on his Ph.D. (I was working on my doctoral dissertation on hemodynamics) in search of a cause. I do not mean that in a pejorative sense: most young people look for a cause; I came to the US after a stint with student politics aligned with the communist party, partisan of the pro-Soviet faction, etc. One highlight of the time was my effort (along with a few others) to educate (by that time I was a lecturer) Siraj Sikdar that we are not ready for revolution, that social change requires patience and hard work; clearly we did not change his mind! Peter's tendencies were not unfamiliar to me. After March 1971, I had basically stopped work on my research and devoted all my time to organizing support in US for Bangladesh. One of the major tasks was to set up, with the help of many supportive Americans, the Bangladesh Information Center on Capitol Hill to organize lobbying U.S. Congress to stop arms shipments to Pakistan that was sure to be used to kill more Bangladeshis. That is the time Peter and I met. He was very earnest, intense and lived a very simple life, almost Calvinistic, being a Dutch and all. We hung around, and for a while chased after the same woman; although he was better looking, I was more exotic and I got lucky. Rapidly he became a Maoist (no, not because he lost out in romance) and soon decided that Bangladesh was ready for a socialist revolution lead by the peasants. As if that was not bad enough, he decided that Bangladesh needed him to take a leading role in organizing that revolution. Residents of the commune, especially I and the two German friends, spent endless nights trying to reason with Peter that the idea of a blond European budding radical intellectual needed to lead the Bangladeshi peasants in Chairman Mao inspired revolution was ludicrous. He also somehow came to the conclusion that Indian imperialism will also have to be stopped from taking over Bangladesh; we tried but failed to convince him that India did not need the headache of another 70 million people (population in 1971). Although he seemed to have read some Marxist literature (more likely, Maoist literature) he did not much care about the objective & subjective prerequisites before one should contemplate storming the Winter Palace! But he was passionate about what he believed in, and at heart was a romantic revolutionary with the zeal of a missionary, an itinerant promoter of peasant uprisings. Whenever he was confronted with the question why he was not working for revolution in his own homeland, he had no answer. Underdeveloped world would be better off if socialism worked in Western countries! He did not seem to be aware of the imperialistic arrogance of an upper class European implied in preaching revolution in a third world country. He often reminded me of the title of one of Luigi Pirandello's play, "Six Characters in Search of an Author"! So, with great deal of consternation I had to deal with Peter's plan to move to Bangladesh; nothing could persuade him that he would be more trouble than it would be worth. Since he did not know a sole in Dhaka, I felt obligated to write to my family to let him stay with them until he found a place for himself. He stayed with my parents and my siblings in Kalabagan for a few months, and then he vanished. Next they heard of him was when it was reported in the media that he was arrested while throwing bombs at the Indian Embassy in Dhaka, in the middle of the first series of military coup in Bangladesh. Military interrogated him, found out that he had stayed with my family. Soon word got around that the military was looking for my younger brother, a relatively high ranking government official, and was advised by friends that he should leave the country immediately. So he did, without a penny in his pocket, leaving a pregnant wife at home; he lived like a vagabond, roaming about in cities in Nepal & India for a while. My father, also a government official, could not leave our large family behind unprotected. He was hauled to the military barracks and interrogated for long hours to find out if our family was involved in the bombing campaign that seem to have been initiated by some anti-Indian radical group(s). I understand that Peter either came from an influential banking family or had some link with them, who in turn had strong influence with the Dutch government. That connection was what got him released from Bangladesh jail so that he could resume his radical activities in Bangladesh! I have no idea if Peter had changed over the years. When the chaos was going on in my family I had fantasized about beating him to a pulp if I ever met him for the torment he put my family through; I am glad that I never did encounter him again. As for Bangladesh, it has become what it is, Peter Custers' mission notwithstanding. I hope some people benefitted from involvement with him. I wish his family well.
The Non-Accountability Syndrome of Bangladesh
"Who attacked the teachers - Chhatra League boys? Not really, they are students, our students. What do they understand at this tender age? They understand whatever you teach them." so says Professor Zafar Iqbal. "What's their fault? I really feel sad for them. This is a kind of injustice. Punishment should be given to those who have sent these boys." continues Professor Iqbal.