Nobody has read the blogs
About 1,000 Bangladeshi authors and teachers marched through the streets of the capital on Tuesday, asserting their right to free speech days after a suspected Islamist group attacked writers and publishers critical of religious militancy.
That’s so brave of them. On protests here you know the police may be taking pictures. There you know guys with machetes may be taking pictures.
Despite the climate of fear caused by the attacks that follow the killings of four secularist bloggers this year, writers turned out in large numbers for the rally in Dhaka.
“No one is safe. First they killed bloggers. Now they are targeting publishers. Soon they will attack anyone who is progressive-minded,” said Khaledur Rahman, an author who is himself facing a death threat.
They will kill everyone, until only fascists are left.
Police joint commissioner Monirul Islam said investigators were looking closely at a home-grown group called Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) as the latest attacks bore the hallmarks of earlier killings of bloggers for which it took responsibility.
The little-known Islamist group wants sharia rule in secular Bangladesh and has vowed to kill critics of extreme Islam.
“They just tell these youth that the bloggers are the enemies of Islam. Nobody has read the blogs. They just blindly follow what the ABT says,” said a police investigator.
Of course nobody has read the blogs; that would be haram.
It takes real bravery to change the world. We march for peace and congratulate ourselves on our bravery, but these protesters are risking more than we can imagine.
My thoughts are with them.