ISLAM DISMANTLED & DISMANTLING SUJIT DAS
A book entitled "Islam Dismantled", written by Sujit Das, was published in 2012. In the book Sujit has portrayed Muhammad as a narcissist. He did so by examining and interpreting the information about the life and conducts of Muhammad available in Qur'an, Hadith and other sources vis-à-vis information about narcissism/narcissists available in different sources. The book in question was thought provoking. However, it is natural that no Muslim will like such adverse ('blasphemous' in Islam) remark about the prophet.
BLASPHEMY LAW IN BANGLADESH
Blasphemy in Islam has no reference in Qur'an and Hadith. This is a later creation of Jurists (Ulema). The Ulema are a power hungry lot. They exert authority on all aspects of Muslims' lives. Combination of politicians with Ulema in the issue of blasphemy law is deadly. Why a religion needs stringent blasphemy law to protect it and its Prophet? It surely does not. But, in the name of protecting Islam and Prophet, the Ulema-politician combination is actually protecting their authoritative and political position.
IMRAN KHAN & HIS ISLAM
Imran Khan, the legendary cricket player and founder of Tehreek-e-Insaf party in Pakistan, has written a book entitled "Pakistan: a personal history". In the book he describes his personal life from early child hood to 2011 in the backdrop of political situation of Pakistan. Imran is honest when he tells that his religious conviction was very superficial in childhood. From the background of a well-to-do Pakistani extended Muslim family, he shockingly felt the difference between Pakistani and Western society and culture when he went to England for study as a youth.
Blasphemy and the right to offend
The right to express one's opinion freely is maybe the most important democratic right, and it is currently under assault in Bangladesh. Hifazat-e-Islam demands the introduction of strict blasphemy laws, and the government, instead of defending freedom, resorts to an ill-advised and imprudent appeasement strategy that hinders the press in its duty to inform the public, threatens the futures of young bloggers who were, and continue to be, arrested, and puts in peril the future of the democracy of the country.
Worldwide Protests Planned in Support of Bangladeshi Freethinking Bloggers on May 2
[An eight-story building collapsed Wednesday in Savar, an outskirts of the Bangladeshi capital, killing at least 123 people and injuring more than 1,000. Due to the National Day of Mourning in Bangladesh on April 25, protests have been postponed to May 2.]
AN IMAGINARY HIFAZAT-E ISLAM SPEECH SOMEWHERE IN BANGLADESH -
Why are there so many infidels in our country? Almighty Allah had asked us to do Jihad some fourteen hundred years ago. What we have been doing so long? Jihad is the main obligation of all Muslims. Kill the infidels. Jihad is a holy terror approved by Islam. We have pure Islamic blood, we are the best and we will establish Sariah in Bangladesh: Insallah. What is this "Amar Sonar Bangla…"? This is a Hindu song. Hindus are not the only infidels in Bangladesh. There are others like Christians, Buddhists, poets, intellectuals, rationalists and free thinkers who advocate Bengali culture in the form of Hindu "Poila Baishakh", "Robindra Sangeet" and "Nazrul Geeti" etc.. Many of their earlier generation were killed by our Islamic Pakistani brothers in 1971.
The Hatred of 'Protecting Islam' Must Stop
The government of Bangladesh has clearly demonstrated that the arrest of three bloggers, Subrata Adhikary Shuvo, Russell Parvez, and Mashiur Rahman Biplob, on April 1, 2013, was no April Fool joke. Bangladesh police also arrested another blogger, Asif Mohiuddin, two days later. What was the reason? The four arrested young men have been alleged to have hurt the religious sentiments of the Muslims of Bangladesh. There are no specifics in the news media as to what exactly they wrote in their blogs that hurt the religious sentiments of the Muslims.
Religious Fundamentalism in Modern Times
In the modern age, religious experience becomes part of "expressive individualism", that is, it becomes important to find one's own way against a model imposed from outside −− be it from society, the previous generation, or religious authority. Although there is a strong individualist component to the religious experience in modern times, this will not necessarily mean that the content is individuating; on the contrary, many join powerful religious communities.
Secularists are at loggerheads with Islamists in Bangladesh
Many of the observers of Bangladesh knew that sooner or later, the secularists would be in a collision course with the ever growing Islamists. I think we are just seeing the initial confrontation between the two opposing forces. Bangladesh has so many fundamentalist political groups that one would be lost to correctly list them. One such group took the name "Hefazat-e-Islam." The southeastern part of Bangladesh where Chittagong is located is the stronghold of this tiny Islamist group. This group was relatively obscure in Bangladesh, but lately, the members of this group have drawn attention from various media inside Bangladesh for their incendiary remarks against bloggers and cyber writers. Many other Islamist forces now are joining the Hefazat group because their movement is gaining momentum.