‘Religion Is The Biggest Bane For Any Democracy’

Religion is the biggest bane for any democracy. – Taslima Nasreen

Bangladesh’s biggest right-wing party Jamaat-e-Islami has been banned from contesting future polls by the Bangladesh High Court in Dhaka, which cancelled its registration in a landmark ruling on 1 August, leaving the once powerful fundamentalist party with an uncertain future. Author Taslima Nasreen who has been living in exile for over two decades in India tells Agnivo Niyogi that taking a cue from the verdict, parties in India should also shun religion-based politics.

What are your initial reactions to the court’s decision to debar Jamaat from fighting elections?

It is indeed great news for all secularists that a religious organisation that doubled up as a political party, has been finally banned from fighting elections. Although Jamaat is called a right-wing political organisation, it is no less than a terrorist outfit. Dissent had no place in the reign of terror unleashed by Jamaat.

The religious fundamentalists have left the Bangladesh society bleeding. Allowing them to engage in political activism is thus an insult to the principles on which Bangladesh was founded. Jamaat used foreign funds in brainwashing innocent kids at madrasas, gave them military training and unleashed their brute force on their own countrymen who refused to toe their line. A ban on such an organisation is a welcome step indeed.

Do you think the Awami League government will now reinstate the 1972 Constitution and establish Bangladesh as a secular nation?

I do not think so. Although this court verdict is a step in the right direction, the society at large is not secular in Bangladesh. If the government suddenly decides to do away with Islam as state religion, the masses might go against them. Sheikh Haseena wouldn’t want to make such a gamble with her poll fortunes. Awami League wouldn’t want to be painted as anti-Islam in the election year.

What do you think will be the possible repercussions of the ban on Jamaat?

The Jamaat was a banned organisation at the birth-hour of Bangladesh. After the 1971 Liberation War, when Sheikh Mujibur Rahman came to power, he banned the organisation that sided with Pakistan against their own brothers and sisters, raped thousands and killed even more. But after the death of Mujib, they were given a new lease of life by a few military men, solely for political motives. Thus began the process of Islamisation of a secular nation, which is on till now. To return to the Constitution of 1972, we need a societal change, for which this ban was necessary.

Do you hope this verdict will pave the way for your return to your motherland?

Several parties have come to power since I was exiled. Faces change, but the nature of the ruler doesn’t. Be it Awami League, or the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, everyone needs the support of Islamists to stay in power. The state machinery in Bangladesh is afraid to stand up for freedom of expression; they lack the conviction to take on the fundamentalist forces in the country. We cannot expect the society to change overnight. The Islamisation that has happened for decades in the country cannot be undone by just one verdict.

The Awami League government may be more secular than other parties, but we must not forget that the same government arrested atheist bloggers during the Shahbag protests. Hence, I don’t see any hopes for my return to my homeland anytime soon.

The Jamaat-e-Islami may hit the streets to protest against the court decision. Do you feel that the secular masses will rise again, like in Shahbag, to facilitate the process of formation of a secular state?

When Hefazat-e-Islami had unleashed terror on the streets with over five lakh people taking law into their hands during an anti-government demonstration, the administration had dealt with them with an iron hand. If the government is ready to take the Islamic fundamentalists head-on, there is no need for the people to take to the streets. I have faith that the government will once again assume an unbiased role, for the cause of the nation.

Do you think the ripples of the Bangladesh verdict will be felt in India too?

Bangladesh is too small a nation for the Indian government to take note of. India is more concerned about the daily happenings in Pakistan. However, I feel that India must give Bangladesh the credit it deserves for showing the resolve to fight religious fundamentalism. Islamist organisations based in India should take a cue from this verdict and mend their ways. Moreover, parties in India should shun religion-based politics. Parties cry foul in the name of democracy when their religious intents are exposed. However, according to me, religion is the biggest bane for any democracy.

A great news from a fucked up Islamized country.

The Bangladesh High Court banned the biggest Islamist party called Jamaat-e-Islami from contesting future polls. Such a great news from a fucked up Islamized country! Jamaat-e-Islami acts like a terrorist organization. This is the group of barbarians that has been systemically destroying the secular fabric of the country through Islamization. The Jamaati terrorists brutally stabbed and killed the country’s enlightened people whoever opposed them. It is the same group that has been screaming for the death of the atheist bloggers for the past few months. They are desperate to grab the power, and introduce Islamic sharia laws,and the laws against blasphemy. Jamaat-e-Islami’s ideology goes against democracy, human rights, women’s rights and freedom of expression. They are for theocracy, Islamism and barbarism.

The newly independent Bangladesh banned religion based politics in 1971. But after a few years, some unpopular rulers who tried to gain popularity by using Islam in Muslim majority country, legalized Jamaat-e-Islami, and helped them win elections. Frankenstein was made to threat all the legitimate political parties.

In front our eyes a secular state was circumcised and converted to an Islamic fundamentalist state. Now you are worried about democracy, right? Banning Jamaat-e-Islami is not about violating democratic principles, it is rather saving them. No,’it’s not a blow to democracy. Recognizing terrorists as legitimate political entity would be a blow to democracy’.

India and Pakistan and other neighboring countries should learn from little Bangladesh to ban religion based politics. If you want a secular state, you have to separate religion from state, right? And if you do that, there is no way that you can allow a political party which is based on religion to exist. Let’s have true secularism in the subcontinent.

In the name of Islam.

There is a secular uprising in Bangladesh. Hundreds of thousands of people are demanding death penalty for the war criminal Islamists, and the banning of Jamaat-e-Islami, the political party of the Islamic terrirists.

Delawar Hossain Sayedee, one of the most notorious criminals belonging to Jamaat-e-Islami, was handed a death sentence by the International war criminal tribunals, after almost a month of non-stop protests against the war criminals at Shahbag. After the verdict was issued, Sayedee’s Islamist followers vandalised cities, burned down Hindu and Buddhist temples, terrorized the whole country, killed innocent people. There is no doubt that in today’s Bangladesh, the Islamists are much more powerful and ferocious than ever.

Where is the world media?

Let’s sing for Bangladesh!

My heartfelt thanks to Tarek Fatah for writing a heart touching piece about Bangladesh.

In a tiny country on the other side of the globe, far away from the glare of celebrity TV anchors and big-shot correspondents in jungle khaki, a revolution is unfolding, but not if you watch CNN, BBC or CBC.

For two weeks now, hundreds of thousands people from young men and women, aging former guerrilla fighters and grandmothers who still carry the scars of violence, have occupied the Shahbag Square in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

The collective anger of a nation, simmering for over 40 years below the surface, finally erupted this month.

The roots of this resentment lay in the genocide of the Bengali people that started in March 1971 by the Pakistan Army and its accuses jihadi collaborators, the mullahs of the Jamaat-e-Islami. The military-sanctioned massacres did not stop until nine months later in December that year when the Indian Army intervened and the Pakistan military promptly surrendered.

From the ashes of a war and three million dead people choking its rivers, the new country of Bangladesh emerged…

For the first time ever in the Muslim world, there has been a popular uprising against the fascism of Islamist parties. One would have expected the western intelligentsia to be thrilled at this development and for the media to report from the square, but the Walter Cronkites of the world are no more.

Back in the 1970s when ratings was not all that mattered to the super stars of the time, George Harrison and Ravi Shankar played for our conscience at the memorable ‘Concert for Bangladesh’ in Madison Square Garden. And then there was Joan Baez who let out a wail in the midst of a genocide. Her song rallied millions:

Bangladesh, Bangladesh

Bangladesh, Bangladesh

When the sun sinks in the west

Die a million people of the Bangladesh

Today too, the sun sinks in the west,, but no one is singing for Bangladesh anymore.

‘For the first time ever in the Muslim world, there has been a popular uprising against the fascism of Islamist parties.’ Nothing can be better than mass protests against fascism and barbarism. I am not really supporting the execution of war criminals as I am against the death penalty. If you do not want to do anything but to cry for the death penalty, you can cry as much as you want. The people who are for abolishing the death penalty will not lend you their shoulders to cry on. I support the banning of Jamaat-e-Islami. In Bangladesh, it is nothing but a terrorist organization. The religious terrorist organizations should be banned if we want true democracy, human rights, women’s freedom and freedom of expression.

The Shahbag movement should be led by secular progressive people. If the political parties hijack the movement, they will definitely ruin it. All the political parties in Bangladesh made the fascist Jamaat-e-Islami their allies in the past. It is foolish to trust them.

George Harrison died. The great people of the ‘concert for Bangladesh’ are not here. They are not singing for Bangladesh. But we, humanists, secularists, and dreamers are still alive. Let’s sing for Bangladesh! Let’s make our dreams come true. Let’s encourage people of Bangladesh to make their country a secular country without poverty, illiteracy, ignorance, superstitions,a country without religionism, fanaticism, fascism, barbarism, a country without crimes and corruption!

Political Islam in Bangladesh

jamaat

Jamaat-e-Islami was founded at Islamia Park, Lahore in 1941 by Sayyid Abul A’la Maududi as a movement to promote Socio-Political Islam. 75 people were present at its first meeting. Now it is one of the largest Islamic political parties in the world. Maududi’s ideology influences Islamic groups around the world including the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

In Bangladesh, Jamaat-e-Islami is nothing but an Islamic terrorist organization. It kills whoever opposes Islam. It is true that Jamaat-e-Islami uses Islam to protect themselves. It is also true that Islam supports the ideology of Jamaat-e-Islami, encourages everything whatever Jamaat-e-Islami is doing, like murdering infidels, killing and torturing non-Muslims, stoning women to death for being engaged in unIslamic activities, building missionaries for the spread of Islam etc.

You know about the barbarism of Jamaat-e-Islami. Don’t you? You do not know the fact that if you do not like Jamaat-e-Islami, you won’t like Islam. You think ideologically Jamaat-e-Islami and Islam are different, but they are not. Islam approves everything Islamic terrorist organizations do in the name of Islam. To find out the similarities between the doctrines of Jamaat-e-Islami and Islam, you have to know Islam properly, you have to read the Quran and the Hadith minutely and you have to interpret everything correctly.

Jamaat-e-Islami is not a political party of peace as Islam is not a religion of peace.

A bunch of morons celebrating ‘World Hijab Day’ today.

Pakistan’s biggest religious political party Jamaat-e-Islami launched a campaign to make it compulsory for women to wear the Hijab in public.

The women’s wing of the party has already held demonstrations in several cities demanding that the wearing of Hijab be made a part of the constitution and compulsory in Pakistan, and tomorrow the party will observe ‘Hijab Day’.

“Our society has been invaded by western values and women who wear the Hijab or Burqa are targeted as extremists and that is totally unfair,” said Durdana Siddiqui, the Deputy General Secretary of the party’s women wing.

We want to send a clear message to the anti-Hijab elements by observing this day that Hijab is not only part of our religious obligation but also a fundamental right and protective shield for women,” she said.

The JI plans to distribute free head scarfs to working women in the markets and offices besides setting up stalls to sell Hijabs on subsidized rates and will also hold protests in different cities with the biggest one planned in Karachi.

Stupid slaves of men, masochist morons are having their bizarre propaganda on facebook.

International Hijab Day? Or International Ignorance Day, Humiliation of Women Day!

Interesting news is, there was no female speaker at Jamaat-e-Islami’s Hijab Day rally.

Apologists for Islam are growing like mushrooms. The anti-women forces have been honored everywhere as defenders of human rights.

Islamists are claiming Hijab is a choice. But my question is, ‘if Hijab is a choice, then why is it necessary to make it compulsory?’

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