No, he was no personal acquaintance of mine.
But I had for quite a long while been on the yahoo-group Mukto-mona
("freethinker" or "freespirited"). Then, at some point of time lost
touch.Roy was the one who had launched and running the group to uphold rational thoughts and promote tolerance of diverse views and opinions, even markedly different from one's own. That's no mean task. And on Thursday, the Feb. 26th last, he had to pay with his life. A bunch of savages, understandably two men, butchered him on a busy Dhaka street and severely injured his wife Rafida Ahmed Bonna while they were on their way back home from a book fair releasing the Roy's latest. The crime has been committed presumably in defence of some "faith". And, in his country of origin, Roy is definitely not the first one to die a martyr to the cause of rationalism and secularism. Preceding him, legendary poet Shamsur Rahman had faced a murderous attempt on his life in January 1999, carried out by the militant Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami. Humayun Azad - also a leading associate of the Mukto-mona, hounded for long, died mysteriously in August 2004 while on a visit to Munich in Germany - before that he had also faced a murderous attempt on his life earlier in February that very year, again on his way back from the Ekushay February Book Fair in Dhaka. And, then a prominent and atheist blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider was hacked to death by a bunch of thugs associated with the Jamaat-e-Islami party in February 2013 in Dhaka. So all these attacks are obviously parts of a larger pattern. In all these cases the attackers have as yet successfully eluded the proverbial long arm of law. And, on this side of border - in India, we had the leading rationalist Narendra Dbaholkar brutally murdered in Pune on August 20 2013. And, again, the murderers are just roaming free. The history of savagery, perpetrated in the name of (various) faiths is perhaps as old as the history of faith. Only the labels change across time and space. Of course, to be fair, there were, and are, quite a few who stood up against violence and savagery from under the banners of their respective faiths. Three prominent names, belonging to the land from which Roy and Dabholkar came from, that come to mind are Buddha, Gandhi and Badshah Khan. Nevertheless. The Mukto-mona website, <http://www.mukto-mona.com/>, yesterday carried a message (in white), in Bangla, against an ominous dark bakground: We Are Grief-stricken But Not Vanquished Today it has been updated. The English message, in addition to the Bangla one on top, reads: We are united in our grief and we remain undefeated Mukto-mona So, Long Live this indomitable spirit! So, Long Live Roy, Dabholkar and their innumerable comrades-in-arms - past and present! Even in death, they must be abhorring rest! Their deathless memories must keep us in a state of perennial unrest, at least as long as the forces of unreason persist. Sukla I/IV. http://www.dailyo.in/politics/bangladesh-avijit-roy-murder-atheist-islamism-humayun-azad-shafiur-rhaman-farabi-rajib-haider/story/1/2301.html Avijit Roy's murder: No country for atheists The rise of violent Islamism has made Bangladesh a hard place for minorities. POLITICS | BREAKING NEWS INTO PIECES | 3-minute read | 27-02-2015 Kamlesh Singh KAMLESH SINGH @kamleshksingh A couple of Islamists waited for Avijit Roy as the founder of the atheist blog site "Mukto-mona" (free mind) was going back to his Dhaka University campus home from the ongoing Ekushey Book Fair. They stopped the cycle rickshaw, dragged Roy down, and began hacking him with machetes. His wife Rafida jumped to protect him. Roy bled to death in moments. A profusely bleeding Rafida cried for help. People did come to her aid, after the killers had left. One fled towards the bus stand, the other towards the Suhrawardy Udyan. The Islamists had drawn blood. Once again. In February 2004, fair free-thinker writer Humayun Azad was killed after he came out the same Ekushey fair. In February 2013, blogger Rajib Haider was hacked to death near his home in Mirpur, Dhaka. They were all atheists who were warned and then eliminated by Islamist radicals. Roy, an engineer, was a naturalised US citizen. Shafiur Rahman Farabi, a virulent Jamaati, had warned in a public post on Facebook, "Avijit Roy lives in America and so, it is not possible to kill him right now. He will be murdered when he comes back." Roy came back. Jamaati Islamists killed him. Farabi had warned Rajib Haider in a similar fashion and killed him in a similar attack. He was arrested and released on bail. avijit-embed-2_022715083513.gif Avijit Roy's site says "We are in mourning, but not vanquished" Atheists are soft targets who don't group and retaliate with violence. Religionists do not like atheists much because the latter question the existence of god. The fundamentalists among them hate atheists and kill them to protect their god's honour. There is so much bloodshed in the name of religion that once unperturbed atheists have become vocal. The new atheist actively denounces religion because the days of benign disregard are over. The atmosphere is toxic with malignant ideologies pervading peaceful societies. Religion in general is weaker than ever and religious fanaticism is more aggressive than ever. Atheists are aggressive too, but words are all they have. They think of religions as ideas and counter them with their own. They have questions. Religion has answers. A book or books full of answers. If it is written in the book, it is believed as the truth. The religious fundamentalists are so sure of the written word, that they fear the written word. This is why they fear atheists, especially those who write books. Because if everything written in one book is true, what if everything written in another turned out to be, too! They kill atheists when they find time from rioting against theists of a different colour. Thankfully, only a tiny minority of religious people are fundamentalists. The vast majority does believe in god and the book. They gloss over the content, because they are content just being believers. They do not rise to defend their gods because god should logically be capable of defending himself. The tiny minority of self-appointed defenders of the faith would not be a problem, had they not been so shockingly barbaric. They are known by different names in different countries. They burn little children alive, organise mass slaughter of humans and line up men and women to shower them with bullets. There is no end in sight. Because the silent majority is, well, silent. The vocal make the most noise. The state pretends to be deaf, blind and mute because everyone fears the wrath of god's killing machines, like Farabi. He will well be arrested again, may secure bail again, and threaten to kill another Avijit, Rajib or Humayun Azad, yet again. Real and brave people. Unlike God. II/IV. http://southasiamonitor.org/detail.php?type=n&nid=10858 A Shocking Crime Posted:Feb 27, 2015 By Mozammel H. Khan It was with devastating shock and disbelief that I received the news of the brutal killing of our very well-known blogger and writer Avijit Roy and the severe injury to his wife, blogger Rafida Ahmed Bonna. According to the report, unidentified miscreants hacked them at TSC of Dhaka University on Thursday night. Avijit, son of former DU teacher Dr. Ajay Roy and also the founder of Mukto-Mona Blog, and his wife were admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital in critical condition immediately after the attack. Later, he died while undergoing treatment around 10:30pm. My acquaintance with Avijit dated back to 2000 when he was a Ph. D. student at Singapore National University. It was through his invitation I started contributing in Mukto-Mona blog where I had my article page in both English and Bengali. Mukto-Mona came into being in the year 2000, with the intention of debating and promoting critical issues that are of the utmost importance in building a progressive, rational and secular society, but is usually ignored in the mainstream Bangladeshi and South Asian media. On May 26, 2001, Avijit created a Yahoo group under the name Mukto-Mona. A year later, it was developed into a complete web site (www.mukto-mona.com), which probably was the first South Asian humanist and rationalist forum on the net. The aim, in the words of Avijit, was "to build a society which will not be bound by the dictates of arbitrary authority, comfortable superstition, stifling tradition, or suffocating orthodoxy, but would rather be based on reason, compassion, humanity, equality and science." Since its birth, Mukto-Mona has been able to draw the attention of many like-minded thinkers including distinguished authors, scientists, philosophers and human rights activists from all around the world. The group always tried to raise their voices wherever people's freedom and civil liberties were attacked. In addition to his involvement in universal thoughts as a humanist and rationalist, Avijit was a staunch fighter and advocate of bringing to justice the perpetrators of crimes committed against our people and nation in 1971. He wrote a piece entitled, "Real or fake Quader Mollah: An evidential investigation," divulging the real identity and misdeeds of Quader Mollah in 1971. Born in a Hindu family, he wrote a status in his Facebook on October 14, 2014: "I do not have much faith in any religion, but many people around and close to me are Muslims. I have no abhorrence or repugnance for them. I rejoice with them in their moments of happiness. I feel pain when oppressions befall them. I never hesitate to stand beside the Muslims in Palestine or Kashmir when they become victims of torture and oppression. I did that in the past, I will do that in future. This is the manifestation of my humanism." Alas, a person of such sagacious human values had to fall prey to the ferocity of creatures who identify themselves as human beings! This shocking tragedy once again brings to us a grim reminder of the tragedy that befell one of our great free thinkers, Prof. Humayan Azad. This tragedy of untold magnitude reminds us in clear terms that we are still living in an era of the worst form of bigotry. How preposterous and incredulous would it sound at this moment if anyone tries to downplay the danger of religious fanaticism as a fear-mongering political campaign? The tragic loss of a young and brilliant humanist at the evil hands of the bigots once again brings up the question to our nation's conscience that was raised by Prof. Azad: "Is this the Bangladesh we had wanted?" The Daily Star, February 28, 2015 (The writer is the Convenor of the Canadian Committee for Human Rights and Democracy in Bangladesh, and a long-time contributor to Mukto-mona.) III/IV. http://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2015/02/27/no-lead-yet-on-avijit-roy-murder No lead yet on Avijit Roy murder Special Correspondent, bdnews24.com Published: 2015-02-27 15:10:36.0 BdST Updated: 2015-02-28 02:02:12.0 BdST Nearly a day after the brutal murder of blogger-writer Avijit Roy, police are yet to establish the identity of those who killed him. No clear lead is available yet, though the murder happened during a busy hour near the Amar Ekushey Book Fair, Dhaka University's TSC and Suhrawardy Udyan, where police vans are parked and static security posts are in place. Though no-one really chased the two young men who hacked Avijit and wife Rafida Ahmed Bonya, pedestrians have said the two ran in different directions -- one towards Suhrawardy Udyan, the other towards the Milan Chattar. The spot of the murderous attack was just a few hundred yards from Shahbagh Police Station. Around 10pm on Friday, Shahbagh police OC Sirajul Islam told bdnews24.com they were assisting the Detective Branch (DB) who were heading the investigations into the brutal murder. "As far as I know, there have been no developments. No one has been arrested." DB's Deputy Commissioner Krishnapada Roy also failed to give any additional information regarding the enquiry. RAB's Additional Director General Ziaul Ahsan said they were looking into the matter as well. "We have taken this very seriously. We have to consider many issues before making any arrests inside the campus, they (the killers) committed the murder among so many people," he said. There is considerable traffic on the web supporting the murder, with Islamist radicals posting laudatory messages and tweeting extensively. "One would imagine the security agencies can break into the extremist chatter and track those involved with the gruesome murder soon enough," said Shahriar Kabir, executive president of anti-fundamentalist "Ekattorer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee". But at the time of filing this report, nearly 18 hours after the murderous attack, police have not arrested or detained anyone for interrogation. Police or intelligence agencies also do not seem to have a clear lead on which Islamist radical group was possibly involved with the attack. One intelligence official, on condition of anonymity, said they suspected the involvement of a trans-regional radical group operating across Bangladesh and its neighbourhood. Photo: Facebook Photo: Facebook That would point to a group like Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). An Indian intelligence report, quoted in Kolkata's Ananda Bazar Patrika, had said the JMB was planning to launch 'revenge attacks' in both Bangladesh and West Bengal after security operations had dented their networks considerably. The daily had said Bangladesh intelligence had been alerted. Doctors involved in the autopsy of Roy's dead body said that 'very sharp weapons were used very efficiently' to attack Roy. This resembles the murderous attacks on writer Humayun Azad in 2004 and blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider in 2013. Shahriar Kabir said that it had not yet been possible to bring to justice those involved in the attacks on legendary poet Shamsur Rahman in 1999, Humayun Azad or Rajib Haider. "The failure of the prosecution has only encouraged more such assaults like the one on Avijit Roy," he said. Police officials, when contacted, said they were working hard to achieve a breakthrough. One DMP official said though Avijit Roy had been threatened before, he had never sought police security. After he came home on Feb 16, he had been to the Ekushey Book Fair every day. "He would meet friends and go round stalls and have tea. It is obvious the killers closely followed him for a while, found a pattern to his movement and then struck," the DMP official said but did not want to be identified. IV. http://time.com/3725527/atheist-writer-killed-bangladesh-avijit-roy-mukto-mona/ An American Atheist Writer Has Been Hacked to Death in Bangladesh Helen Regan @hcregan Feb. 27, 2015 Police forensics investigate the scene where U.S. blogger of Bangladeshi origin was hacked to death by unidentified assailants in Dhaka on February 27, 2015. Munir Uz Zaman--AFP/Getty Images Police forensics investigate the scene where U.S. blogger of Bangladeshi origin was hacked to death by unidentified assailants in Dhaka on February 27, 2015. Avijit Roy had received several threats from Islamic fundamentalists over his secular writing An American atheist blogger was hacked to death on Thursday in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka. Two unidentified assailants attacked Avijit Roy and his wife Rafida Ahmed Bonna with machetes as the couple returned from a book fair, reports Agence France-Presse. "He died as he was brought to the hospital. His wife was also seriously wounded. She has lost a finger," said local police chief Sirajul Islam. Roy, a Bangladesh-born U.S. citizen, had received multiple threats from Islamic fundamentalists in the past for his writings. He founded Mukto-Mona, a secular blog that featured liberal writings from around the Muslim-majority nation. He had published several well-known books including Biswasher Virus (Virus of Faith). There has been a string of attacks on secular writers and academics in the South Asian country. In 2013, atheist blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider was hacked to death by fundamentalists, sparking nationwide protests. Hard-line Islamists in the country have long called for the slaying of writers critical of Islam. Police have not yet identified the assailants but have launched an investigation and recovered the machetes used in the attack. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
