Taslima Nasreen Attacked, and Booked

Can you be booked by the police for being attacked by a maniacal mob? If your answer is no, then perhaps you don’t know a marvel called India because here you can be. This happened to none other than Taslima Nasreen whose name never appears in the Indian media without the “controversial” epithet.

Recently Taslima Nasreen was attacked by a mob of Muslim zealots when she had gone to Hyderabad to release the Telugu version of her book Sokhe at the press club. The NDTV link above says there were 30 activists but in fact there were more than 100 blood-thirsty hooligans vying for her blood and she escaped unhurt only because of the intervention of the organizers and the journalists present there. They attacked her because she reveals Islam to the world. She tells the world what lousy deal the Muslim women get and with what disdain the fundamentalist Muslims treat people from other religions. But this topic’s been beaten to pulp by now.

The absurdity is that the Hyderabad police has booked Taslima Nasreen for promoting enmity between different groups. This can get her a two-year jail term if proven. People who threatened her, attacked her, are roaming free and issuing more threats with greater enthusiasm. It’s rightly stated that

Why the police filed a case against Taslima by taking MIM’s contention seriously appears to be politically driven — the ruling Congress needs the Muslim group’s support.

The Congress, it goes without saying, is as evil a party as it gets. To get votes and remain in power this pathetic party will stoop to any low, even to an extent of acting insane and chaotic.

It’s incidents like these that make it embarrassing to be an Indian and being a part of this conglomeration of the ludicrous. Happy Independence Day.

Incidentally, the guardians of freedom of expression are mum over the issue. Oh yes, I forget. Freedom of expression is only threatened when some non-Muslim group protests against a painter or a writer. I wonder why we always forget this. Our prime minister lost a whole night’s sleep when a terrorist suspect was caught in Australia; I wonder how he must be feeling about the attack on a woman by a crowd of men.

In this case there are not going to be any protest marches by writers, painters and journalists. Long articles and columns won’t appear defending Taslima’s right to write whatever she wants to write. The secular bloggers are not going to write apoplectic posts lamenting the barbaric attack. Why? Because she doesn’t target Hindu gods or some other religions. She targets Islam. Speaking for her is not politically right; it is not fashionable.

Ignoring Islamic reactions to writers and other artists and fuming over other religions’ intolerance has turned into a secularist mass masturbation exercise where they are always pleasing each other.

And even if there are some reactions, they are more stupid than no reaction at all. This is what Kamal Farooqui, the chairperson of the Delhi Minorities Commission had to say about the incident:

This event and the participation of three MLAs of in this activity is not acceptable. But the government should also ensure that Nasreen is not allowed to do or write anything which hurts the sentiments of Muslims. The government should immediately cancel her visa and make her go out of the country. She should realise that this is not Bangladesh or Pakistan, but India where the sentiments of all communities are respected.

See the irony?

The pusillanimous Indian government is already contemplating canceling her visa.

Swapna Gupta in the Pioneer gives a nice account and history of MIM (members of this organization attacked Taslima Nasreen). See the video footage of the attack.

More links on attack Taslima Nasreen:

• Theatre of the absurd: The attack on Taslima Nasreen
• We’ll behead Taslima next time
• In Defense Of Taslima Nasreen (fortunately, this link calls her a “reputed” writer and not a “controversial” writer)
• Lajja (Lajja is a book written by Taslima Nasreen)

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