My younger sister called the other night to tell me that journalist Peter Custers, familiar in Bangladesh, died of a heart attack. I had no contact with him for over 43 years, but occasionally bits of information came through the proverbial grape-vine that he is still involved in Bangladesh’s (and other places’?) radical politics. I […]
“Who attacked the teachers – Chhatra League boys? Not really, they are students, our students. What do they understand at this tender age? They understand whatever you teach them.” so says Professor Zafar Iqbal. “What’s their fault? I really feel sad for them. This is a kind of injustice. Punishment should be given to those […]
From “The Stream” website.
Attackers hacked to death a fourth secular blogger in Bangladesh. For the country’s blogging community, this year’s murders are seen as assaults on free thought and the freedom to criticise religious extremism. Rights advocates say the government’s indifference to the bloggers’ safety is rooted in Bangladesh’s long struggle with being a Muslim-majority […]
Appeared in Free Inquiry, vol 35 issue 5
Every day I try to grow more alive. The wounds on my body stare at me; I don’t want to think of the wounds in my life yet. The life I had built bit by bit for many years, I left that on the sidewalk of the Dhaka […]
From: Arif Rahman.
Do religions diminish free speech?
Blasphemy laws were scrapped in Britain in 2008, but remain in Northern Ireland. Iceland has become the latest country to repeal their blasphemy laws this month. Has Britain got the balance right? Is blasphemy an outdated concept? Does following a religion suppress your freedoms? Or can religion and free […]
BY JOHN SHIFFMAN.
Original Link on Reuters website.
On a recent evening in a Midwestern U.S. city, a middle-aged woman with bandaged arms and a missing thumb entered a crowded restaurant. Nearby, children colored with crayons. Waiters rushed by.
The maimed woman, Rafida Ahmed, scanned the room nervously. The Atlanta financial executive has been hiding since Islamic […]
Rafida Ahmed Bonya is a writer and the wife of the late writer Avijit Roy who was brutally killed by Islamic fundamentalists on 26 February 2015. Here is her video message to the American Atheists Convention 2015.
