I will better write a post about it.

I Me My

I shall, if I get the time. In the meantime, you can read this: http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2007/12/08/where-are-all-the-moderate-muslims/

Oh, and the verse she quoted had nothing to do with the verdict. The woman was not guilty of fornication. She was punished for being with her boyfriend and going to the media. That is different from the rape case. She is deliberately quoting this verse to lead people to think that the woman was punished for being raped.

you can see this: http://wishsubmission.wordpress.com/2007/11/29/punishing-a-rape-victim/

I look forward to your analysis of this write up…

I don’t know how to explain this, but she’s a pawn (and a willing one) in somebody else’s game. (For example, when in Europe, she vociferated in favor of secularism, gay rights, feminism etc. Now, when with the Neocons,

She wants to abolish the minimum wage. She no longer calls for the closing of all faith schools, but simply Muslim ones, because “they are the only ones that do not respect the division between secular and divine law”.

(here))

I can think of only two reasons people may take her seriously- one- those who want to use her (this lot is very dangerous) and two- those who are even more ignorant than she is (this lot is very vulnerable).

On that note…did you read Ayan Hirsi Ali’s editorial in the New York times a couple of days ago? Would you say she is ‘criticizing’ or ‘defaming’ Islam in that write up? She is going to be a guest speaker at the Princeton forum and I’m looking forward to attending it.

The disease need to be treated and the pain understood. That a Ms Nasrin can be produced from a society that considers itself Muslim is a real problem. Most people in Bangladesh dont think much of the alleged intelligensia that typifies Dhaka and the cultural values it propagates.

So theres a disconnect. and this is historical. Dhaka University is basically the east bengal rendering of the Alighar project, compensation for the british surrender to baniyas and revocation of the first partition of bengal. After desh independance the iqra bismi rabika motto was replaced with something less… you know. so we have a few sets of baggage in there.

As an indian muslim, maybe you’ll ‘get’ this. we need more jamia millat modeled rather than alighar modeled further education institutions in BD. The woman under the microscope is symptomatic of something very wrong in the values, character and collective intelligence of the bengali muslim qaum.

Questions for me are:
What do you do with such people?
How do you stop them reproducing and becoming so warped in the first place?
How serious are we about bringing down the rate of zina and bastard births?

answer to your q is – some men are gaining curses.

really good point. my guess will be that we need to cleanse (or some would prefer reform) our society. hirsi ali may have lied, but things that she talked about do happen. nasrin’s account of her early life is also painful.

bad experiences in early life can turn people’s mind into rebels, unless they are amended by other good things. later (my guess will be) lure for fame, money and revenge all may work together to make a hirsi ali/taslima nasrin.

it is interesting, though, that most of the people who take this path are women (ali, nasrin, sultan). is that because men gain from the status quo? maybe. or maybe women detractor catch more attention than men do.

question is- are men actually gaining anything from the deplorable experience women may go through?

What I am trying to say is that if she is mad- and a doctor can decide on that (that too is belief)- then she should not be lauded as the outpost of liberty. I am not saying that her mouth has to be covered with tape if she is mad. Only it does not deserve to be published in newspapers and magazines.

If she is not mad, it wouldn’t be difficult to prove that she’s tampering with texts. That is a crime, and she should be put in jail for that.

Freedom of speech is not a holy cow. There are laws against defamation and lying.

I am expressing my freedom of speech, and I am ready to bear responsibility for what I say. I am ready to apologize if I say something wrong. And I should be ready to go to jail if I defame or mislead people.

Let me remind you of this Hadith: (I’ve forgotten the narrator)

“if you see something being done wrong, correct it by hand. if that is not possible, then express your disagreement. if that too is not possible, then dislike it from your heart. and that is the last station of faith.”

My point is simple: Suppose she is lying, and she is mad; you are doing your bit in expressing your views against it, and providing the needed reasons. Whether or not she needs to be in a mental asylum; the only thing I am against in your line of argument is when you say:

in that case she should be in a mental hospital, and not writing.

I don’t think that even a mad liar doesn’t have a right to express herself or himself. Bear in mind, that since I don’t agree to this one point that you have made, I am not making blatant remarks that you should stop writing. Of course, we should be responsible for what we write, but that is done through dialogue, like we are doing at the moment.
My intention is soleley to make you realize that you are using your freedom of speech, but want to curb someone else’s. I don’t have the slightest of problem in the fact that we are having a disagreement now: that’s the whole idea behind freedom of speech! But to take away this freedom just to avoid disagreements is something I consider to be extremely and absurdly preposterous.

Again, you have the freedom to disagree with me; but here I rest my point!