SHAME & PERFIDY
 
The death threat on the courageous Bangladeshi writer, Taslima Nasreen, has again revealed how religious extremism exerts a claustrophobic grip on all three countries of the region. There is no reason to play down the danger to Nasreen’s life as the authorities in Dhaka seem to be doing, prompting speculation that the fundamentalists have powerful backers in the Government. The protest by some element intellectuals and feeble attempts at rallies in her support are not enough to guarantee her safety; Bangladesh teems with fanatic bands, often localized and beyond the control of Begum Zia’s regime. Her record is tainted with intimate association with groups, which repudiate the country’s liberation war and deny the Pakistani genocide. It is not a coincidence that the martyr’s memorial in Dhaka was vandalized with police connivance. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party has consistently patronized shadowy right-wing groups and religious bigots and used them to browbeat the minorities into submission. That the religious fanatics can publicly make death threats against an individual of Nasreen’s standing owes largely to the lenience with which their unconstitutional actions have been condoned. Hindu organizations in Bangladesh will not observe the pujas this year in protest against the sustained attacks on them since Ayodhya. No less than 200 temples are said to have been destroyed. By any comparison, the Hindus in Pakistan have greater assurance of safety and a more responsive government than those of Bangladesh.
 
This crisis makes difficult demands on progressive Muslims. Though Nasreen’s fate is everybody’s concern, and individuals must act together irrespective of religion, non-Muslims will look with great interest at the role and initiative of the vocal members of the other community. Many of them condoned Ayatollah Khemeni’s fatwa on Salman Rushdie because they felt Islam had been blasphemed. This time there are no such excuses; if the progressive sections of the Islamic world fail to take on the fanatics, they will be judged to be practicing double standards and selective in their demands for equal rights. Zealots of different persuasions will take up Nasreen’s cause to score selfish points. The beleaguered Bangladeshi writer has become an issue in the forthcoming elections to the four north Indian States. Nothing could be personally damaging for her than this but if the secular camp does not react, their adversaries cannot be blamed for making political capital out of it. It is time for organizations like Sahmat that examine religious myths from all angles on the plea of pluralism to embark on an equally vigorous protest since what is at stake is not just freedom of expression but the future contours of the sub continent. 

Editorial, The Statesman, Calcutta, 14 October 1993