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June 26, 2006

India: Muslim Cleric Lies About His Threats Against Woman Author

We wrote on June 15 on the trials and tribulations of 43-year old Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreem (also spelled Nasrin). A qualified doctor, she became an award -winning author, unafraid to speak out against Islamist oppression of Hindus and women. In 1990 she became the subject of a sustained campaign of hatred and threats of violence within Bangladesh, and she left the country. A fatwa had been made, offering $5,000 to the person who took her life. She returned to Bangladesh in 1998, without government permission, to look after her sick mother.

When her mother passed away, no cleric from any mosque would perform funeral rites (Namaz-e-Janaza) for her, as she was considered to have raised an "infidel" daughter. Muslim fundamentalists tried to file charges against her for "hurting the religious feelings" of the Bangladeshi people. When her name was found on a hit-list carried by a captured Islamist, she left Bangladesh for a second time, in January 1999.

Taslima (pictured) moved to India, even though the head of the Islamic Raza Academy in Mumbai (Bombay) had made a fatwa that she should be "burned alive" if she ever set foot in Mumbai.

She settled in Calcutta (Kolkata), though in January 2004 S.M.N. Rahman Barkati, the chief cleric of Calcutta's main mosque, told a crowd of more than 10,000 attending Friday prayers. "Her face can be blackened with ink, paint or tar. Or she can be garlanded with shoes."

Following a speech which Taslima made on Saturday 10 June at a conference entitled "Irrelevance of religion in the era of technology" in Kolkata (Calcutta), Muslims wrote to the Indian government, demanding that she be deported.

She had claimed in the speech that the Koran "contained contradictions" and stated: "As a eight-year-old child, I was warned by my mother that if I abused Allah I would be punished, but I did that and nothing happened to me."

Many Muslims planned to stage demonstrations against her presence, of a similar nature to those which had happened in her native Bangladesh.

The cleric who had announced in 2004 that it was permissable to "blacken her face" or to "garland her with shoes" (both extreme insults) has once again made a public threat against Taslima.

In the Times of India, Syed Noor-ur-Rehman Barkati, the "sahi imam" of Tippu Sultan Mosque in Kolkata is quoted as saying: "I've issued a fatwa against her. After the Jumma namaz, I said if anyone blackens her face and drives her out of India, I will give him Rs 50,000.There was pressure on me to do something about it as the people were angry."

50,000 rupees is equivalent to $1,000. Barkati continued: "She has no right to hurt Muslims' sentiments by saying anything against our Prophet. She is a Jewish spy and there should be a CBI probe into her funding."

Barkati's speech had been made on a local television station on Sunday (June 25). This public declaration that he issued a fatwa on 23 June, has brought Barkati to the attention of the police. The latest issue of the Hindu reports that Prasun Mukherjee, the Kolkata commissioner of police, summoned Barkati to appear and explain himself.

Now, the lying imam has said that he has not issued a fatwa, despite his words spoken on local television.

Following his meeting with Commissioner Mukherjee, Barkati told reporters: "I have been misquoted. A fatwa cannot be issued verbally. It has to be put down in a written form. I have not issued such a decree"

Mt Mukherjee says that Barkati told him that someone may have asked for Taslima's face to be smeared in black paint, when there was a discussion at a meeting of local Muslim leaders.

Islam - not only the "religion of peace", but also the religion of truth and integrity.....

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at June 26, 2006 9:40 PM

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