Santosh, I have known Selma (and her various avatars) for over 10 years :) I can say with a high degree of confidence that she is not partisan in her core. I believe her current response to be one driven more by emotion and fear than by partisanship. Anyone who saw the video will (and should) be naturally outraged. I was too. If it were men being attacked in the pub, would this attack have even taken communal overtones? I don't think so. Marlon
--- On Sat, 2/7/09, Santosh Helekar <[email protected]> wrote: It is good to see Marlon posting again more regularly on contentious topics related to secularism. The problem I have with Selma's response to him is that she appeared to be asking him to fall in line with her mode of thinking, and of those of her ilk, by virtue of the fact that they belong to a particular religious community. This type of an appeal to communal groupism is not a very healthy thing in a secular forum. Secularism thrives when there are free thinking individuals who follow their individual consciences, and express their opinions in an unfettered manner with no allegiance to anybody except to the ideals and principles that they hold dear.
