We are freelance writers
from Bangladesh. Most of us have started our writings through blogging in 2006
and 2007 when a Bengali blog, called, ‘somewhereinblog’ (www.somewhereinblog.net),
was first founded. Somewhereinblog has appeared as a wonderful opportunity to
express and share our experiences, daily diaries, our happiness and sorrows in
our own language/terms. Initially we have used the space to read blogs, while
some of us were sharing personal diaries, literary works i.e. poetry, short
stories, travel blogs etc. At some point we have noticed random posts on
Islamic thoughts and inserts from Quran & Hadith, translated by apparently
preaching articles from so called Islamic scholars abroad. These were not one
off incidents, rather those were regular posts by religious and Islamist
writers. In reading those articles, we wondered if religious writers or Islamic
authors are able to share their religious speeches, why shouldn’t we? We
believed that even if non-believers we should have the right to talk about our
thoughts and reasons for unbelieving when the believers and religious authors
have the right to preach through social media. Hence we started to express our
thoughts and views through blogs. As atheists our blogs contained the
non-traditional thoughts, the logic of being skeptical, and the story behind
unbelieving. This simultaneously appeared as counter-logic to the believers.
Many of us have started to argue that about some Islamic articles which were
posted by the blind-believers. Both logic and counter-logic went on in the
section for comments. We were soon thrilled by e-meeting and discovering so
many supporters, friends, free-thinkers, atheists, non-believers, and agnostics
around us. It was totally unexpected yet amazing to come across these many
non-believers with us at that time. We could have hardly imagined that so many
atheists and free thinkers had existed in the country as ours, from where
writers like Taslima Nasrin and Daud Haider were exiled!
We started to write blogs
on faithism, on the history of religions, philosophy of religions, and
scientific outlook of religions. We started to ask various questions on the
issue of women’s rights and the issues of justice and rights within religions.
At the same time, we had begun to debunk the unscientific claims of the
religious texts and religious. Our interest covers history, philosophy,
science, feminism, law, culture, art-culture and, of course, humanity. We wrote
several articles on these subject-matters. We have great interest in ancient
Indian philosophy since we have found there are lots of atheist sects of our
ancient philosophy like Sankhya, Mimangsa, Buddhism, Charbak, Jainism etc. We
have started to publish short articles or inserts from prominent free thinkers,
writers, like Aroj Ali Matubbar, Dr. Humayun Azad, Ahmed Sharif and more.
Later on we came across
the web-site, called Muktomona - Freethinkers (www.mukto-mona.com) which was
founded in 2001. It was a great discovery for us again when we came to know
that writers of such a site are mainly people of Bangladeshi origins. Initially
it was not a blog. There was no comment option on the site. We needed to send
our articles via mail. We have spent time mostly to debate and argue with the
Islamists in somewhereinblog though mukto-mona was like our own home-base.
Through this home-base we have obtained an identity as “mukto-mona” – free
thinker, someone who holds a free mind and who is open to debate and
discussions about anything. There we found many other friends, among whom
muktomona blogger Avijit Roy was the most influential for his new and creative
writings. He had soon become a good friend, our guide and a wonderful senior
fellow. Gradually some more Bengali blogs came on the web. Sachalayatan, for instance, became
most powerful among others. Also Amar blog, cadet blog, nagorik blog, ishtishon
became popular and many of our atheist bloggers were scattered in different platforms
of blogs. But somewhereinblog had still a special role as an open platform
where both the religious and atheist bloggers used to write and where many
Islamic bloggers freely took part on the discussions and debates with us. Over
time somewhereinblog lost its popularity as many other blogs came into scene,
and as facebook took over the place of blogs for many bloggers. The Dhormockery became another major
initiative for the atheist bloggers where various satires and cartoons on
religions were published.
From the beginning of our
writings in blogs and facebook, we were faced with unexpected angry words and
annoyance of the religious people, especially from the Islamists. Some of us
have used to write in disguise under “nick name” butsome used to write with
their original names. The Islamic fanatics often offered us to dare not to
write in disguise which actually made us take the decision to continue under
the nickname. On the other hand, bloggers with real name and identity were
often asked to share their address! Sometimes Islamic extremist people used to
show their doubt about the originality of the identity of us, who were writing
in real name! They used to remind us the almighty’s threat after and before
death. We did never bother about so-called heavenly threats, but sometimes we
felt worried when it seemed that these guys were somehow willing to see the
almighty’s threat to be applied upon us in this very world!
As stated earlier, from
the beginning of our writing on religion, history, philosophy, humanity and
atheism, we used to receive very angry and furious responses from some fanatic
religious persons. Especially our articles on Islam, Quran & Hadith and
Muhammad made them almost mad. We always
ried not to show any disrespect towards their belief, on the contrary we
used to discuss the economical and political situation under which Muhammad had
become Muhammad, the prophet. Sometimes we tried to debunk false claims about
Quranic explanations of some Islamic scholars like Zakir Nayek, Ahmed Deedat
etc instead of hitting Quran directly. Still these articles made some of them
very angry. In the comment section of these blog posts or via facebook
messages, they used to show their reactions. They scolded us out of hatred,
declared our ultimate punishment after death. They wished our complete
destruction. Initially we took such reactions as normal behavior of believers.
We overlooked their eactions as we
thought that these were only reactions which came out of instant anger. We
preferred not to bother them at all. But in 2013, the situation took a sudden
turn and got rapidly worse. Below are
the major incidents (chronologically) that happened in the year 2013:
1. On 14 January, 2013, Atheist blogger Asif
Mohiuddin was stabbed by unknown attacker, somehow he survived.
2. On 5 February, 2013 the Shahbagh Movement began.
3. on 15 February, 2013, Ahmed Razib Haider, one
of the activists of Shahbagh Movement (Thaba Baba on blog) was murdered by
identifiable killers .
4. From the very moment of Rajib’s killing and
soon after the Shahbag public demand for justice for Rajib, his writings
especially satires on Islam, Muhammad, Quran and Hadith were systematically
brought in public and made available through various Islamic pages of facebook,
Islamic websites as well as the national media including the Daily Amar Desh, Daily Sangram and so on), backed by
Islamic nationalist parties. Propaganda against aetheists and Rajib was being
spread all over the places within the country. Extreme hatred against atheist bloggers
was being successfully raised at mass level. Islamic leaders called for capital
punishment for the atheist bloggers. Eventually Hefajot-E-Islam, an
organization of Ulamas, Islamic knowledgeable persons, from the Qawmi madrashas, Islamic
educational institutes, took on the lead to the country-wide agitation.
5. Hefajot-E-Islam declared a 13 points-demand
against atheists which include below:
· Reinstate the phrase “Absolute trust and faith in
the Almighty Allah” in the constitution as one of the fundamental principles of
state policy.
· Pass a law keeping a provision of capital
punishment for maligning Allah, Islam and Prophet Muhammad and smear campaigns
against Muslims.
· Punish the “atheist” leaders of Shahbagh, bloggers and
anti-Islamists who make “derogatory comments” about Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).
(http://archive.thedailystar.net/beta2/news/hefajat-demands)
6. Hefajat-e-Islam declared to organize a long
march towards the Motijheel area in Dhaka from Chittagong, Sylhet and Rajshahi
to push for their 13-point demand on April 6, 2013.
7. 3 Bloggers Subrata Adhikari Shuvo, Russel
Parvez and Mashiur Rahman Biplob were arrested on April 2 2013, under Section 54 of the
Code of Criminal Procedure on suspicion of making derogatory comments about
Islam. The 4th blogger, Asif Mohiuddin was arrested on April 3 2013. In the behind of the
scene, government was trying to negotiate with these Islamic groups including
Hefajot-E-Islam.
8. List of atheist bloggers was published. It
started sporadically after the killing of Rajib. Several Islamic groups
published in different Islamic websites and also in some of print media. The
lists published were also of different types (different groups listed down 26
atheist bloggers, 42 bloggers, 56 bloggers differently). On 31 March, 2013
an
investigation committee of the Prime Minister’s Office held a meeting with
‘Islamist’ scholars. During the meeting with the committee at the Home
Ministry, these Islamic leaders and or scholars submitted a list of 84
‘atheist’ bloggers to the committee. Mainuddin Khandaker, Home Ministry’s
Additional Secretary and also the committee chief, echoed the scholars during
the meeting: “The
committee is taking steps to identify for bringing those spreading propagandas
to justice”. Just few days after this meeting and also few days before the long
march of Hefajot-E-Islam, 4 bloggers were arrested.
(http://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2013/03/31/atheist-bloggers-to-repent)
9. On 31 March 2013 Bangladesh Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina pledged to punish online insults against Islam. She said:
"You (Islamic parties) do not need to go for any movement. As a Muslim, We
have the responsibility to take action". http://www.ndtv.com/world-news/bangladesh-pmsheikh-hasina-pledges-to-punish-online-insults-against-islam-517688
10. On May 5, 2013, Hefajat arranged a siege and
rally at the capital city, Dhaka in the demand of their 13-points.
11. The cabinet approved the draft of the ICT
(Amendment) Act-2013 on August 19 proposing to empower law enforcers to arrest any person without
warrant and increase the highest punishment to 14 years from minimum 7 years.
The government has later promulgated the ICT (amendment) ordinance.
(http://www.askbd.org/ask/2013/10/09/ict-amendment-act-2013-information-reedom-expression-threat)
Article-57: Punishment for
publishing fake, obscene or defaming information in
electronic form:
(1) If any person deliberately
publishes or transmits or causes to be published or transmitted in the website
or in electronic form any material which is fake and obscene or its effect is
such as to tend to deprave and corrupt persons who are likely, having regard to
all relevant circumstances, to read, see or hear the matter contained or embodied
in it, or causes to deteriorate or creates possibility to deteriorate law and order,
prejudice the image of the State or person or causes to
hurt or may hurt religious belief or instigate against any person
or organization, then this activity of his will be regarded as an offence.
(2) Whoever commits offence under
sub-section (1) of this section he shall be punishable with
imprisonment for a term which may extend to maximum fourteen years and minimum
7 years and with fine which may extend to Taka one crore.
After Rajib’s killing we
have realized for the first time that nick name couldn’t guarantee anyone’s
safety, and that the Islamic extremists had got the mechanism to identify the
original identity of a disguised nick. The Ansarullah Bangla Team, an Islamic fanatic and
terrorist group has declared that they were going to kill many more atheists of
Bangladesh (https://justpaste.it/Target). Since then we have been trying to be
more careful regarding our writings.Most of us slowed up our writings. But just
before the long march of Hefajot-E-Islam on 6 April 2013, the situation went
even worse. Many lists of atheist bloggers were produced and four bloggers were
arrested. These months were very concerning for us and many of us have felt
vulnerable within the supposedly secular-state of Bangladesh. We were desperate
to find safe and unknown places to hide, mainly to hide from state-security
personnel and police since the arrested bloggers were freed.
2014 was a comparatively
calm year. We had started to live relatively normal life, though already many of
us had become irregular in our online domain, many had removed their blogs. In
the year of 2015, following the mixed reaction of Bangladeshi people about the
Cahrlie Hebodo Killings, the Islamic extremists started to commit serial
killing. They have been following a hit list of 84 atheist bloggers who were
found vividly loud about secularism and against religious illogicality. Four
radiant atheist bloggers were hacked to death within 5 and half months. First
they murdered Avijit Roy, the founder of muktomona. com, then hacked blogger
Washikur Rahman Babu to death, and science writer Ananta Bijoy Das and most
recently they murdered Niloy Neel, a blogger and the founder member of Science
& Rationalist Association of Bangladesh (SRABAN). The local media has
published a full list of what they called “those ‘culprit’ 84 bloggers” following
the murders each time! The situation is now heightened, as if the remainder of
those atheist bloggers who are still surviving and somehow living in the
country could be killed anytime. It seems that we are waiting for nothing but a
direct machete-attack. Government of Bangladesh has failed to identify and
punish the real criminals behind these consecutive incidents of concerted
attacks on atheists. Two of the killers were caught by public on spot after the
killing of Washikur Babu, but with the help of them no more extremists could be
identified. Actually no activities from police administration, special branch
or detective branch, ie the government authority can be seen after these
incidents. Son of our Honorable Prime Minister told the reason behind this
inactiveness while replying to the query of Reuters: “Our mother
offered private condolences to Avijit’s father.But the political situation in
Bangladesh is too volatile for her to comment publicly…. We don’t want to be
seen as atheists.”
http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2015/may/11/situation-too-volatile-comment-avijit-murder
It has been found
most alarming that instead of helping to confront this outrageous injustice,
political and state institutions have begun blaming the victims themselves and
making matters worse. Very next day following the murder of Niloy Neel, the
Inspector General of Police engaged in victim-blaming, called for self-censorship,
and threatened bloggers. Furthermore, the Cabinet Committee for Law and Order,
headed by Minister of Industries Amir Hossain Amu, on their 9 August 2015
meeting decided to declare Atheist authors as criminals, thereby making them
subject to prosecution, and intelligence agencies have been asked to monitor
blogs to find those atheist writers. (http://www.kalerkantho.com/print-edition/first-page/2015/08/10/254553)
Under the circumstance,
we hold no hope for our safety or for the other bloggers listed on the hit
list, though we are still living in Bangladesh. Today’s Bangladesh is totally
unsafe for the atheist bloggers like us, not only for those Islamic fanatics
and extremists but also for the so-called secular government who totally failed
to ensure the safety for the bloggers. They are actually unwilling to provide
safety in true terms. Although six persons were arrested after the killing of
Rajib on 15 February 2013, all of them had got the bail and later released.
There is no hope. The opposition party had already allied with several Islamic
parties, and they have declared support to Hefajot-E-Islam’s 13 points. Not
only this support towards Hefajot-E-Islam, now Awami Olama League, the Islamist wing
of ruling party Bangladesh Awami League, has made new demands of death
penalties for all atheist bloggers and activists, echoing the rhetoric of
Islamist extremists in other parties. Likewise, the so-called secular
government became greedy to attract the Muslim vote bank of the country and for
this reason they failed to stand besides the atheists. The prime minister has
recently announced several times in public that being a very pious Muslim she
would not tolerate anything against Muhammad and Quran. So, atheist bloggers,
especially those who are on the list and who live in the country, are in danger
and under attack by both sides:
1. Firstly, they are attacked by the fanatic
Islamic extremists who can kill us with machete and attack us from the back,
and
2. Secondly, the Government who can use ICT act
2006 (Article 57) anytime against the bloggers.
Being on the list of 84
atheist bloggers, we are under threats from Islamic extremists as well as the government.
We know that anytime any Islamic extremist can hack us to death anywhere in
Bangladesh. At the same time, we also know that Government can also arrest us
against 57 article of ICT act 2006 for hurting religious belief whenever they
want to. Under such threats and bearing the above-mentioned attacks in mind,
one may wonder how terrible our current situation is? How our families can keep
under current situation? Since the killing of Ananta Bijoy
Das, most of us have been
keeping ourselves caged in four walls. Being the main earning members of our
families we have to go to office regularly. Some of us can’t even avoid evening
or night duty at work.
The horrific feeling that
we and our family members endure under such death threats is hard to describe by
words. We have to keep extra alert every time we are going outside and when
returning home from office. As vigilantly looking around constantly, we often
get scared to see any bearded-person anyone in Islamic dress. Our current
situation is vulnerable and unbearable. The damage that we undergo is not only
physical but also our mental health is seriously being injured. The routine of
whole family has changed for last couple of months. They are afraid that they
may lose us. Our parents are always in panic about us. They don’t want us to go
outside home, but being the single earning–member in the family some of us have
to go to office. Even staying home fails to guarantee our safety as murder in bedroom
is not uncommon in Bangladesh. Moreover police can arrest us from home anytime
in the name of provocative writings.
This is all-out of attack
on free thinking movement in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is a Muslim majority country
though the history of secularism here is pretty old. Even in the ancient
philosophy and rituals, we can find the sign of secularism here. In 1971, our
independence war was based on secularism, we defeated the Islamic
fundamentalists. But gradually since the liberation, Islamism has been injected
through dirty politics. Major political parties have counted Muslim vote banks
as their main resources. Hence we are now treated by the fruit! Even so, this
land never stops producing secular children. These children were brave enough
not to pay any attention to the treats of the fundamentalists. Aroj Ali Matubbar,
our first free thinker-writer and philosopher was arrested before the
independence merely for his writings. Nonetheless, after the independence we
were able to pay homage to him. After liberation, Ahmed Sharif, Daud Haider,
Ali Azgar, Humayun Azad, Taslima Nasrin and many other prominent free thinkers
and writers were threatened, but they did not stop. First attack on atheists in
Independent Bangladesh came when Taslima Nasrin and Daud Haider were exiled
from our country. Later the government of Bangladesh disallowed them to enter
the country for ever. The second massive blow came when Dr Humayun Azad was
severely attacked by the extremists for his last book about ‘the holy land’. We
are the third generation who chose online medium for our writing, and so we are
facing the third phase of attack which appeared as concerted. Still we do
believe that even if they kill us the pen or keyboard will not stop. Meanwhile,
we are desperately looking for a safe place in the world. Thus we dare to knock
you and bother you today.
We would like to seek
your help through this letter. If you know of any option or information about where
we may be able to go for the time being, please will you be kind to contact us?
We should be grateful to hear from you. If you have any suggestion, guideline
about finding a safe home, please share with us. We would like to live and
protect ourselves from the religious fanatics. We would like to keep working on
mitigating the deadly affect that religious radicalists continue to create in
our world. We wish to defend our writing for human rights, humanism and
rationalism.
Thank you for your time
and help.
Please contact: savebloggersbd@gmail.com
Links:
1.
News of bloggers’ arrest: http://iheu.org/arrests-atheist-bloggers-shows-bangladeshauthorities-are-walking-trap-set-fundamentalists/
2.
Link of news of list of 84 bloggers published in newspaper for the
first time (April 1, 2013): http://www.amardeshonline.com/pages/details/2013/04/01/194550#.VWWIFUZqOzk
3.
Link of news of list of 42 bloggers in Ansarulla Bangla Team’s hit
list: http://www.jugantor.com/last-page/2014/11/13/173174
4.
Complete list of
84 bloggers: http://www.observerbd.com/2015/08/13/104719.php#sthash.xOD2zlNA.dpuf
5.
Who is next
target by Ansar Islam Bangla Team: https://justpaste.it/Target
8.
CEMB published
our call on their webpage: http://ex-muslim.org.uk/2015/06/support-bangladeshi-free-thinkers-and-atheist-bloggers/
9.
One Law for all
published our call on their webpage: http://www.onelawforall.org.uk/support-bangladeshi-free-thinkers-and-atheist-bloggers/