[Reader-list] On ignoring Taslima

[radhikarajen at vsnl.net]

Well appreciated good views and thoughts representing perhaps the silent 
majority of true muslims
  .In any faith, there are silent majority who would love to live good life, 
both at materialistic, intellectual and spiritual spheres and the system of 
governance always takes it for granted this silence majority and tries to 
coerce such majority when an election is around the corner with the typical 
foisted "leaders" in those communities, methods of coercion differ with 
funds of the political parties and access to national exchequer.
 A democratic nation needs a system of good governance that has legislatures 
who abide by the rules, not get above the laws, beaurocrats who execute laws 
without fear or favour, judiciary which is accountable to society, to 
adjudicate without fear or favour and is of good morals and ethics, but is 
it too much to expect where material gains are more important than good life 
for all in society. ?
  Freedom of expression of an individual or a society is not absolute , is 
correct and right as long as it does not impinge other individuals and 
societies.In a civil society, if some individuals take license in the guise 
of freedom of expression to express their dissent in moderate views, that 
certainly is good for the society to have an introspection of itself and 
correct the ills in society.
   With media and technology, we have now celebrity anchors who live on 
miseries of the humanity, with new HR perks of promotion and titles, awards 
and rewards, but are they truely journalists or just celebrity anchors who 
have absolutely no social responsibilty in media. ?
   Taslima, Hussain and many dissenters have become celebrities more because 
of these anchors who love to titillate and sensationalise every incident 
when a Raj Thackeray utters some views it is played out every half hour 
again and again and the reaction of an Abu Azmi is then more of a repeat of 
hit for the masses, thus provoking the elephantine societies to have a go at 
each other as more news and breaking news is created of induced rift and 
earthquake in peaceful society, thanks to hungry more for more news attitude 
of whatever it takes to create news, even at the cost of destruction of 
tranquil societal peace, such anchors should first be taken care of by laws 
of the nation, booked and prosecuted for the same offence as a Raj or Abu, 
as otherwise the mob takes care of them which is highly undesirable.
 Regards.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "mahmood farooqui" <mahmood.farooqui at gmail.com>
To: "SARAI" <reader-list at sarai.net>
Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 12:27 PM
Subject: [Reader-list] On ignoring Taslima


> It is said that after he announced his Prophethood Hazrat Mohammed
> suffered severe persecution in Mecca. The vitriol and calumny extended
> from the verbal to the physical. There was one woman who would always
> throw filth on him whenever he passed by her house. He would
> unfailingly take the same route everyday and she would equally
> invariably throw filth on her. He never protested. One day as he
> passed her house, she was missing. He inquired after her and learning
> that she was sick he went up to her room, and finding her bed-ridden,
> tended to her. I grew up listening to a lot of stories from my
> grandmother about the Prophet Mohammed. Told in an anecdotal form, the
> stories largely avoided his image as a conqueror and concentrated
> instead on his personality, specially his grace under hardship. I
> narrate this story especially to remind my compatriots about what they
> might do when faced with hostility, or criticism.
>
> I write this particularly in the context of Taslima Nasrin, whose vise
> expires this week and she still does not know whether it will be
> extended or not. Taslima Nasrin must be given an opportunity to stay
> on in India, and must be provided that opportunity not as a grace or
> favor but because she is, as a South Asian, as a fellow human, fully
> entitled to it. My appeal rests not merely on a liberal idea of
> freedom of expression, or on making this a litmus test for India's
> pluralism. India's pluralism, where it exists in practice, is not
> dependent on appeals or testimonials from intellectuals. Our pluralism
> does not, and has not, precluded violent confrontations between
> different social groups. However, we also have countervailing
> traditions of coming to a working adjustment with each other, which,
> as an aside, partly explains why the word 'adjust' is so popular in
> all Indian languages.
>
> Denying her asylum is not, suddenly, going to make India less
> pluralistic or more intolerant than it currently is. It would not,
> anyway, be unprecedented. We have banned books enough, books which
> continue to circulate anyway, and have gagged and arrested authors and
> artists too. It is also not, for me, a case for harking back to the
> first principles of freedom of expression. I could question the value
> of freedom of expression in a society where large minorities do not
> have the freedom to be, but I will let that pass for the moment. We
> all know what Voltaire said about difference of opinions, and of
> course we know much less about how much he himself deviated from that
> maxim, but it is more important for us to find ways of understanding
> that maxim which make sense to our traditions of treating certain
> matters with reverence, and veneration.
>
> I can't say whether Taslima Nasrin erred in writing what she did,
> which we of course do not know much about. She grew up in a society
> dominated by an Islam which, unlike in India, is, in many ways, an
> establishment religion. In such circumstances, questioning authority
> can easily lead to questioning traditions that are sanctified in the
> name of religion and in patriarchal societies, authority needs to be
> questioned. There are, of course, ways of questioning patriarchal
> religions and we may find some ways less appealing than ours, in fact
> some ways may arouse our just wrath. But in civilized societies, the
> sort of society the Islamic prophet wanted to build, wrath should not,
> cannot lead to mob judgments about a person's right to live.
>
> It would be easy to dismiss demonstrations against Taslima Nasrin, at
> Calcutta and elsewhere, because, especially after the recent events in
> Bombay, we know how easily demonstrations can be mounted and how,
> transient, passions can be manufactured. The thousands of young men
> roaming the streets of Calcutta were probably good Muslims, in some
> ways, but who would, perhaps, flout, many Islamic injunctions, and
> taboos, in their everyday lives. Like watching films, at one time
> regarded, at least in my family, as an absolute kufr, (an act of
> infidelity), or ogling at women. Nevertheless, they have the right, as
> Muslims, to be upset about somebody's attitude. However, I also know
> that feelings about Taslima Nasrin run wider than the Calcuttan
> community. Not all that strong feeling, however, will translate into
> stone throwing or demanding death and banishment.
>
> To those who are upset about what Taslima Nasrin has said and done, I
> would say that she has already suffered enough. She has spent twelve
> years in Europe in exile and had she simply hated Bangladesh and loved
> the west, as some believe to be the case, she cold have gone on living
> there. She has been buffeted around from Calcutta to Jaipur to Delhi,
> where she lives almost as a pariah, unable to move, unable to do
> things she would like to do, to go to places she would like to go to.
> She is deprived, currently, of normal human freedoms. But even if she
> hadn't suffered, even if she was merrily partying every night with the
> swish set of Delhi, she still has the right to demand and receive
> asylum in this country. Besides she has already been gagged, she will
> dare not say the things she has already said, she has already agreed
> to delete pages from her forthcoming books, she has already lost, and
> so have we.
>
> I understand an emasculated community's need for symbolic sops such as
> exiling Taslima or banning Rushdie. But, to the community, or (it not
> being a monolith), those among them who feel passionately about this,
> and to our political class, I would urge the avoidance of false
> pursuits. Freedom of expression is not an absolute, when free from
> coercion of our rulers we may become victims of ideological fetters.
> But Taslima is a dissenter, and in spite of Voltaire, we must protect
> dissenters. She must stay in India because we must be free to
> criticize and not unfree to maim in return. In the name of Islamic
> values, we must protect her and listen to her, specially.
>
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