http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-...ist-law-student-hacked-to-death-in-bangladesh A 28-year-old atheist law student has been killed in Bangladesh. The attack follows a string of murders last year targeting outspoken advocates of secularism. Nazimuddin Samad, a student at Jagannath University, was hacked and shot on Wednesday night while he was walking in Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, The Associated Press reports. Multiple attackers, who were reportedly riding on a motorcycle, have not been identified. They escaped while praising Allah, according to the news service. Samad was an outspoken atheist who criticized radical Islam and promoted secularism on his Facebook page, the AP writes. It adds: "A supporter of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's secular Awami League party, Samad also took part in the movement that successfully pushed for prosecutors to have more scope for going after suspected war criminals." The Dhaka Tribune describes him as an activist with that movement, which is called Ganajagaran Mancha. The perpetrators and the motive haven't been identified by police, the BBC reports. Last year, at least four secular bloggers were hacked to death in Bangladesh and a publisher who worked with one of those bloggers was stabbed to death. After one of those murders, the editor of the Dhaka Tribune, Zafar Sobhan, spoke to NPR's Robert Siegel about the rising tensions between secularists and Islamists in Bangladesh. "Recently, over the last couple of years, we have had war crimes trials in Bangladesh. This is to do with our War of Independence in 1971," Sobhan said, referring to the trials that Ganajagaran Mancha had successfully advocated for. "Most of the people who have been put on trial are Islamists ... who were collaborating with the Pakistan occupation army back in 1971. Now, war crimes trials are very important. However, I think the downside is that they have been painted as a movement against religious people, against Islamists. "So I think as a result, those who are of a religious bent feel targeted. I think they feel as though they are on the defensive. And so they have decided to step up their opposition and step up their campaign of terror and violence." The government of Bangladesh — which is officially secular — has been criticized for failing to protect prominent secularists. Last May, Rafida Ahmed, the widow of one of the bloggers, spoke to NPR's Rachel Martin about the attack. Ahmed was injured in the attack that killed her husband. "You can do very little when your elected government doesn't give you any support, especially when these kind of brutal murders are happening," she said. "The government has stayed completely quiet about this. The prime minister called my father-in-law privately and tried their best to keep it a secret so that nobody knows that they have sympathized with us at all. "The prime minister's son ... gave an interview to [the press]. Pretty much said that they are walking a fine line, and they're scared. They don't want to side with the atheists," Ahmed said. After the attack on Samad, the director of public policy at the Center for Inquiry, a U.S.-based secular advocacy group, called the murder "heartbreaking and maddening." "The government of Bangladesh must do much more to protect its own people from marauding Islamist killers," CFI's Michael De Dora said in a statement. "These murders keep happening because they are allowed to happen." ------------ "But...but...crusades. Israel. Western imperialism. Socio-cultural influences. Impoverished youth. Islam has absolutely nothing to do with it." Meanwhile, the intern posts himself into a frenzy because someone has a bank account in a foreign country.
Yeah, time to outlaw Islam in Bangladesh. It's just clear that if you read the Koran you will start hacking people to death. No one has ever killed in the name of religion until there was Islam.
I don't understand why you come into every thread and make excuses for Islamists. You're off your rocker.
What does it matter to you? You're the same person that thinks hate crimes are useless. So, why should religion matter? A bit hypocritical, DD.
We still don't understand your multi-year obsession in all of this. Are you trying to educate us that there are stupid people out there who do stupid an evil things in the name of Islam? I think we kinda get it. Are you trying to convince those of us who follow Islam to stop? Are you trying to make the case that Islam is inherently evil, and thus affects all its followers this way? If so, would you permit me to present millions of case studies of Muslims who aren't this way? I'm not sure I get the obsession. Is it like some sort of weird badge of honor, like you want to be the Islam Hater or something? To each his own, I guess.
There are tragedies going on as we speak, out of the hundreds, its funny he always finds the one connected to Islam. Truth be told, Islam is connected to a violent acts, no question about it, but he's actively looking when his last hundred threads have been about the same topic.
First of all, you speak for your little dorky self, and for nobody else. You get very little. I mean, you didn't even get it when someone posted a funny link that redirected to everyone's own facebook profile. You went on a huge tirade. You are one of the dumbest posters on this BBS; if people hadn't realized that before that incident, they would have known then. Stupidity plus anger issues - not a good combination. Nobody forces you to click on any thread. Your questions are stupid. These events are terrible, and worthy of being discussed. They are - rightly so - widely reported in world media. The fact that you would rather see news about such events suppressed is your problem, not everyone else's.
Majority of those case studies are going to be Muslims who invoke their natural empathy for moral decisions and not religious doctrine. It's probably because majority of Muslims just happened to be born into the faith. It wasn't their own conscious decision to be Muslim. They use religion only to perform customs and traditions (pray 5 times a day, fast, attend local masjid for community purposes etc). Majority of Muslims are normal law abiding people IN SPITE of Islam, not because of it. Yes, I could easily make a case that Islam is inherently at the very least a system of ideas that are in DIRECT conflict with today's secular social and moral norms and yes more so than Christianity.
It's a well known fact DD is a gigantic hypocrite. It's one of his finer qualities between spam posting and calling people assholes.
What does it matter? This is a human life that was cut down because some idiot preaches hatred based upon some warlord telling people he was getting a message from God, or at times from Satan, making it all the more unbelievable to me. It matters to all humanity. DD
From what I can gather, ATW's purpose is this: To shame moderate Muslims who are part of these communities into action, rather than dismissing it as "well, we don't have anything to do with these people -- its not our problem." It can't just be a fight between affirmed secularists on one side and militant religious fundamentalists on the other, with those in middle steering away. Also, to convince non-Muslims, mainly on the left, that this inaction from moderate Muslims (and non-Muslim apologists) is part of the problem. The more people view it in this way, the more pressure there is within those communities to take stronger action. At least, that is the hope. I think that's the message, and IMO its a fair one. Indeed, he'd probably count me among those non-Muslims on the left who need convincing. I think ATW could be more effective in delivering this message, rather than responding like he did above.