Thank You for Discriminating
This write-up was posted previously in my own blog. This was actually my very first blog. However, it is technically my second post in this site. The previous was "Closet Case: An Experience of Coming Out of a Bangladeshi Girl" posted in Mukto-Mona last December.
The Savar Tragedy – a Horrific Flare-up of a National Disease of Bangladesh
The latest news from Savar, Bangladesh, as found in the Daily Star at 6:00 AM US Eastern DST on May 15, 2013, is that 1115 dead bodies have been recovered from the debris of a collapsed eight-story building, and 12 people died in the hospitals after being rescued alive (1). While 2,438 people have been pulled alive, at the end of the rescue operation the number of victims unaccounted for remains uncertain. (While this blog was originally written on April 26, 2013, the casualty figures in this paragraph have been updated on May 15, 2013.)
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.
Non-Muslims in Bangladesh – What Choices Do They Have?
In one of the more remarkable recent attacks on non-Muslims in Bangladesh, a 200 years old Hindu temple was burned down by Muslim criminals. According to a Daily Star report on April 20, 2013, the month of March, 2013, saw 94 attacks on Hindu temples in various districts of Bangladesh. https://www.thedailystar.net/beta2/news/march-saw-94-attacks/
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.
Scenario Bangladesh -Crack down upon free-thinkers; A back way Journey towards medieval Age
Bangladesh Government has cracked down upon the free-thought young bloggers & already arrested some of them, exposed them publicly before media with their horrible weapons (?) like laptops & PC & sent them to police remand as common criminals. It is quite an awful, unexpected, disappointing, heartbreaking and finally disgusting phenomenon to the enlightened people, as well as the pro-liberation forces of the country to see that the government of Peoples' Republic of Bangladesh begins to arrest the free-thought bloggers and putting them behind the bar without any proof of any specific allegation of so-called blashfamy against them, simply in compliance with the demand of the religious bigots, like so-called Hefazat-e-Islam, backed by the Jammat-e-Islam, a war criminal organisation.
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.
Appeasing the Islamists – a Distressing Sign for Bangladesh
In a poor country called Bangladesh, recently there has been a surge in heated talk and violent lawlessness. The principal driving forces behind these are the Islamist political parties, including Jamaat-e-Islami, Hifazat-e-Islami and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
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:
The Spirits of 1971 and 2013 (Part II)
This article attempts to relate the events of 1971 and 2013 in Bangladesh, and to see how they compare and what we could learn from them. For the first part of the article, please see https://enblog.muktomona.com/?p=1802.