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Here is a pefect opportunity for self-proclaimed Muslim moderates to demonstrate the authenticity of their commitment to the idea that human beings ought not to be subjected to violent intimidation and threats for expressing their opinions. They can roundly condemn the "All India Ibtehad Council" and begin efforts within Muslim communities worldwide to express their support for Taslima Nasrin, defending her right to speak even if they disagree with what they says. When we see in the Islamic world as many pro-Taslima demonstrations as we say Cartoon Rage and Pope Rage demonstrations, we may be getting somewhere.
From AFP, with thanks to all who sent this in:
LUCKNOW, India - An Indian Muslim group has offered a 500,000 rupee (11,319 dollar) bounty for the beheading of controversial Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen.The president of the All India Ibtehad Council said on Friday he had declared the reward for anyone who carried out the “quatal” or ”extermination” of the “notorious woman.”
“Taslima has put Muslims to shame in her writing. She should be killed and beheaded and anyone who does this will get a reward from the council,” Taqi Raza Khan said in a statement received in the northern city of Lucknow.
The council, based in Bareilly town also in Uttar Pradesh state, is a splinter group of the influential All India Muslim Personal Law Board.
Khan said the only way the bounty would be lifted was if Nasreen ”apologises, burns her books and leaves.”
Nasreen has incensed conservative Muslims for writing a novel ”Lajja” or “Shame” depicting the life of a Hindu family facing the ire of Muslims in Bangladesh. The book is banned in Muslim-majority Bangladesh along with her autobiographical works on grounds of being anti-Islamic.
The author was forced to flee her homeland in 1994 after radical Muslims decried her writings as blasphemous and demanded her execution.
Posted by Robert at March 17, 2007 11:03 AM
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The book is banned in Muslim-majority Bangladesh along with her autobiographical works on grounds of being ... pro free speech?
Posted by: drk![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/nav-commenters.gif)
at March 17, 2007 11:32 AM
Here we go again. Muslims disagree with something somebody says; they feign indignation over being insulted, and somebody has to die to make it go away. I guess this would be a sort of honor killing, but on a grander scale.
How long is the rest of the world going to appease this kind of behavior that if it were perpetrated by a five year old, would end up with a spanking and putting him to bed? For the sake of civilization, these people need to be handled and, if necessary, removed. And by the way, don't they ever get tired of proving the rest of us right?
Posted by: Isabellathecrusader at March 17, 2007 11:50 AM
We shouldn't be giving any of these craphole countries any money in aid until they stop offering bounties for murdering anyone who dares to practice freedom of speech.
Posted by: Celsius at March 17, 2007 11:50 AM
As Robert notes, a perfect opportunity for the moderates to stand up and be counted.
And there is a precedent. Back in 1994 there was published "For Rushdie: Essays by Arab and Muslim Writers in Defense of Free Speech" which assembled short pieces by almost 90 supporters, as well as 127 signatures to an Appeal by Iranian Artists and Intellectuals.
Prominent contributors included Edward Said, Abdelwahab Meddeb and Orham Pamuk.
While it took almost five years for these to be gathered and some heat had gone off, it was surely nevertheless an act of courage to allow one's name to go forward in such a book.
The clock is counting...
Posted by: MBR at March 17, 2007 12:13 PM
"We shouldn't be giving any of these craphole countries any money in aid until they stop offering bounties for murdering anyone who dares to practice freedom of speech."
And get out of the UN. Human Rights my ass.
Waiting on a response from CAIR.
Crickets.
Posted by: walterc at March 17, 2007 12:35 PM
It is Taqi Raza Khan who should promptly be arrested by the Indian police, and charged with inciting murder, and brought to trial, and put away for a very long time. And the All India Ibtehad Council should be prosecuted as well -- to the full extent of whatever laws are on the books, or whatever laws are promptly put on the books to slap this kind of thing down. Permanently.
So far, in its timidity and confusion, the Indian government appears to be just as foolish as the Israeli government or the governments of Western Europe. It shouldn't be. If it fails to act, things can only get worse. Islam does not disappear and does not change. Its adherents can be constrained, intimidated, punished, and some of them even made to see that the failrues of Muslim societies are owed directly to Islam. But to let this kind of thing pass is one more act of national, Infidel, suicide, and Indians do not deserve that. They deserve, from their government, better.
Posted by: Hugh at March 17, 2007 1:13 PM
I recall Mr. Dinesh D'Souza saying he knew Islam because he knew the 200 million Muslims who live in India as they were moderate.
Hmmm wonder if Mr. D'Souza's close personal 200 million Muslim friends have notified him that lopping off people's heads is now considered moderate.
Posted by: Lame Cherry at March 17, 2007 1:16 PM
We should admire how peaceful Muslims are.
Posted by: flowerknife_us at March 17, 2007 2:36 PM
Maybe I'd go a little further than Hugh on this one. Yes, these people seriously urging beheading over a mere opinion should be prosecuted and put away, but if that can't be arranged, whether in India, some other nation, or through an international tribunal, then Western governments surely should begin reconsidering their own policies against assassination. Muslims' public incitements to violent attacks against free speech have a global repressive effect and injure government based on informed consent of the governed. So we need to start playing for keeps with the specific inciters to murder, letting them taste their own words in their own flesh.
Posted by: traeh at March 17, 2007 3:29 PM
Hi Isabella - I do think that these people (Muslims) will be "handled" and "removed" at some point in the future. They've already gone too far, but they will go still further, and voila, the civilized world will have had ENOUGH.
Posted by: darcy at March 17, 2007 3:48 PM
there is no such person as a moderate muslim.
Posted by: callmeinfidel at March 17, 2007 5:02 PM
Fatwa Condemned
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board has issued a decree against exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen, who has been seeking Indian citizenship, the Hindustan Times reports on Friday. - Details below.
The government of India should prosecute Maulana Ashraf Khan for ordering Murder of another human being under IPC and punish him accordingly. The Qur'aan, the book that he believes in, does not authorize him to issue a deadly Fatwa against any one. The Qura'aan reminds: There is no compulsion in religion - To her is her faith and to him is his faith - Killing a single life is like killing the whole humanity.
If this news is true, Maulana Ashraf Khan is committing two crimes, the second one is ruining the name of his religion more than Taslima Nasrin can ever do. She is not the only one who does Islam-bashing, there are several like her. That is the case with all religions, there will always be bad mouthers, let them. Islam simply does not vanish by bad mouthers, it has been around for 14 centuries and has probably seen 14,000 Nasreens.
As an individual she has the right to express what she feels like, wrong or right, she has the right and he has the same right to condemn her acts. However, issuing Fatwa is an act of deliberation, issued after painful investigations and not at some one's whims. That is arrogance and becoming God to judge and condemn people. It is simply not acceptable to the majority of Muslims of India and the world.
Let's take a step back and think. Why is the news not run in at least three national dailies? (It is run now, not when I wrote earlier on)The links seem to have come from local groups and Hindustan Times. We need to verify the veracity of this news and then jump on it. At least speak out against this non-sense and then, I would ask all Muslims as individuals and groups to write to all the Newspapers in India to condemn the acts of this man.
To paraphrase Martin Luther King and Einstein, It is not the evil committed by bad men that I worry; it is the silence of good men and women that worries me.
It is our obligation not to accuse any one without verifying, after verifying, each one has to do our part in stopping this non-sense. I will wait for the information; you are welcome to send it.
Three pieces below.
Mike Ghouse
World Muslim Congress
www.WorldMuslimCongres.com
WorldMuslimCongress.blogspot.com
at March 17, 2007 6:18 PM
The Qura'aan reminds: There is no compulsion in religion - To her is her faith and to him is his faith - Killing a single life is like killing the whole humanity.
Wow! That is real Noble of the Koran.
Posted by: DP111 at March 17, 2007 7:04 PM
PS
Anything else in the Koran that might just contradict the above?? I wonder.
at March 17, 2007 7:05 PM
Hugh, the Indian government cannot do anything to any Muslim calling for the murder of apostates and non-Muslims. Remember the 200 million "moderate" Muslims? They will go on a rampage and kill a few dozen non-Muslims, or worse still -- horror of horrors -- they will vote the government out of power. No politician is that stupid so as to antagonize that huge a voting block.
You can pretty well write-off India. It is only a matter of time before the fate that Gandhi had in mind for Hindus ("It is better for every Hindu to be killed by Muslims than the Hindus to retaliate") to come true. In Fukistan and Beggardesh that process is almost complete. That leaves India. Not too long. Way before you have Eurabia, you will have the Islamic Republic of Hindustaan.
Posted by: Atanu Dey at March 18, 2007 1:01 AM
These type of Islamic threat is nothing new. It is as old as Islam. The Koran contains prescriptions for Muslims to slaughter any person critical of Islamic violence and hatred. In fact, Islam is the root cause of terrorism, violence, hatred and threats. Unless islam is reformed or crushed, the world will never find peace, harmony and freedom. We need to force these Islamofascists addicted to violent Islam to freedom. A strong, effective cognitive restructuring program should be implemented to restructure Islamic criminal thinking and risk taking behavior.
Babu Suseelan
at March 18, 2007 2:44 AM
There are no doubts on veracity of this news. Please follow the links within this link which has the updates after the news came in and the original piece published by Times of India.
http://islam-watch.org/others/Death_Fatwa_Taslima.htm
RT
Posted by: RT at March 18, 2007 9:26 AM
Qur'aan does not authorize the Fatwa/ Opinion on Taslima Nasreen.
Verses are listed:
http://mikeghouse.blogspot.com/2007/03/deadly-fatwa-taslima-nasreen.html
Mike Ghouse
www.MikeGhouse.net
www.FoundationforPluralism.com
www.WorldMuslimCongress.com
at March 18, 2007 7:47 PM
Mike,
With due respects, I think this is a wrong forum for you to preach your interpretation of Qur'aan(Qur'aan does not authorize the Fatwa/ Opinion on Taslima Nasreen).My reading of this forum is that most of the posters/readers including myself are non believers in Qur'aan. Our interest in whether Qur'aan authorizes or does not anything is only to the extent of which such a thing is threat to people like us either physical or cultural. You hvae 56-57 countries to chose from to preach any version of Qur'aan you believe to be true. Even if it decreases the threat that all of us(including Muslims of many sects) face(based on rational fear...no 'phobia')by a fraction of a percentage point we will respect your position. Our perception of people like you is that you are completely ineffectual in forums like AIMPLB and hence this preaching to us.
Rgds,
RT
at March 19, 2007 1:12 AM
RT, my thoughts exactly. Although I can respect what Mr. Ghouse has to say, I think he is 'preaching to the choir.' He should take his argument to islamic blogs and forums (maybe he already has) and observe the type of responses with which it is greeted. God knows there are plenty from which to choose.
Posted by: Abu Allah at March 19, 2007 10:25 AM
"These type of Islamic threat is nothing new. It is as old as Islam. The Koran contains prescriptions for Muslims to slaughter any person critical of Islamic violence and hatred. In fact, Islam is the root cause of terrorism, violence, hatred and threats. Unless islam is reformed or crushed, the world will never find peace, harmony and freedom"
While I agree with much of what you say, I don't think that Islam is the source of the world's unrest and evil. Its merely the largest vehicle by which evil men justify their actions.
But even if Islam was gone, war and hatred will still be with us. These things are independent of any creed, race or ideology. The history of mankind is to live in slavery or bondage. It is by vigilance that peace and prosperity are won.
Posted by: rancorcrankor at March 19, 2007 11:06 AM
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