Taslima attacked in Hyderabad - INDIA

[AFDAL]

Taslima attacked in Hyderabad, journalists protest
Posted August 9th, 2007 by kashifIndian Muslim By IANS

Hyderabad: Controversial Bangladeshi novelist Taslima Nasreen was Thursday attacked by leaders of Muslim political party Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) at a book release function at the press club here Thursday, sparking angry protests by journalists demanding action against the attackers.

Though Taslima escaped unhurt, intellectual Inaiah Nanisetti received an injury on his face that drew blood. The author was saved by some participants and journalists present at the function.

The attack sparked off tension in the busy Somajiguda area in the heart of the city as journalists took out a rally seeking strong action against those behind the attack.

Three legislators of MIM and about 100 workers of the party barged into the press club around noon when Taslima was attending a function to release the Telugu translation of her book "Sokhe".

Shouting slogans against the author, the MIM activists threw bouquets and books kept on the dais. A frightened-looking Taslima was shielded by Inaiah, two other authors present on the dais and a few journalists.

Protesting her alleged anti-Islam writings, legislators Ahmed Pasha Khadri, Afsar Khan and Moazzam Khan moved menacingly towards the author. Moazzam Khan even lifted a chair to attack her. "How dare you write against the Prophet," said Afsar Khan.

The attackers hurled abuse at the author and dared her to come out of the press club. The MIM workers, shouting "Taslima down down" and "Taslima go back", ransacked the meeting hall and damaged furniture. "We will kill her," shouted one of the protestors. "How could she step into Hyderabad," asked another.

About a dozen organisers and journalists also received bruises in the scuffle with the protestors.

Police rushed to the scene and escorted the author under tight security to the airport. She later flew back to Kolkata, where she is living in exile following a 'fatwa' issued against her by Islamic groups in Bangladesh for her book "Lajja".

The MIM activists continued their protest in the press club premises and had an argument with the journalists. They later staged a sit-in in front of the club, disrupting traffic on the busy Somajiguda Road.

Police Commissioner Balwinder Singh said three MIM legislators were arrested in connection with the incident. Some other party leaders and activists were also taken into custody and shifted to Panjagutta police station. A large number of party sympathisers gathered outside the police station demanding the release of their leaders.

Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh Union of Working Journalists and Press Club have condemned the attack on Taslima and demanded stern action against the legislators.

Journalists union leader D. Amar demanded that those who attacked the author and damaged the Press Club property should be dealt with strongly. A delegation of journalists met Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy to demand that the MIM leaders should be brought to book. They also urged Speaker K.R. Suresh Reddy to disqualify MIM legislators involved in the attack.

Chief Minister Reddy, leaders of all political parties, writers, women organisations and rights groups also condemned the attack on Taslima.

"If somebody has a grievance against her, he can voice his view in a democratic manner but physical attack is highly condemnable," said Communist Party of India-Marxist state secretary B.V. Raghavulu.

The author's visit to the city was kept under wraps by the Centre for Inquiry, the organisers of the book release function, and only a few people were invited to the function.

MIM, which has a stronghold in the Muslim-majority old city of Hyderabad, got wind of the author's presence and their attack took the organisers by surprise.

MIM has one MP and five members of assembly in the state capital, where Muslims constitute 40 percent of the four million population.

http://indianmuslims.info/news/2007/...s_protest.html

[north_malaysian]

Is Hyderabad a Muslim town?

[Bittersteel]

oh ****.I don't know what she wrote about Islam but she definitely mixed cultural straits with religious practices.Pretty controversial writer,yes.she wrote a book where a woman in order to take revenge on her abusive husband ,gives birth to a child through another man.No one much different than Ayan Hirsi Ali except her writings were more based on the plights of the minorities in Bangladesh.She got it right that they are not treated well enough,though.
she blamed everything on Islam for the actions of Muslims.Period.

[metalted]

oh ****.I don't know what she wrote about Islam but she definitely mixed cultural straits with religious practices.Pretty controversial writer,yes.she wrote a book where a woman in order to take revenge on her abusive husband ,gives birth to a child through another man.No one much different than Ayan Hirsi Ali except her writings were more based on the plights of the minorities in Bangladesh.She got it right that they are not treated well enough,though.
she blamed everything on Islam for the actions of Muslims.Period.

would you prefer her say that Muslims are bad, instead of Islam is bad?

If only Muslims understood that by getting angry like this you are proving Islamophobes right. That you win more converts and acceptance through character and wisdom not violence.

I wish we could have a few Muslim Martin luther kings, not just people that believe in peace.. but people that are extremely charismatic that could show the right way to all people.. .. violence will not solve anything.. If it was the black panthers violent mentality that took over the civil rights movement in america instead of martin luther I am pretty sure we would still have clashes in our cities with violent rioters...and racism would only increase..not decrease.

because it would prove them right.. that certain people are violent..and need to be oppressed.... or need to have an eye kept on them..

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[bint_khalid]

ive never heard of her :S

[AFDAL]

I have never come face to face with death like this: Taslima
Posted August 10th, 2007 by TariqueIndian Muslim By Sujoy Dhar, IANS

Kolkata : "For half an hour death stared at me from close as I locked myself in a room and those men tried to break in and kill me," a traumatised Taslima Nasreen said Friday, a day after the controversial Bengali author was attacked in Hyderabad during a book release.

Nasreen is not new to either controversy or attacks by fundamentalists for her writings against Islam. But Thursday's vicious attack by members of the Hyderabad-based Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) was different.

"I was attacked earlier too but it was never like yesterday. There was no police for help because the organisers had not foreseen anything of this kind. If I have returned alive to Kolkata it is because of mediapersons who fought those men for half an hour and got injured to save me," Nasreen told IANS in her first interview after the incident at the Hyderabad Press Club Thursday.

A shaken Nasreen arrived in Kolkata late Thursday from Hyderabad where she had gone to release a Telugu translation of her novel "Shodh".

"I was wondering how they would kill me. Would it be with a knife or a gun! Or would they simply beat me to death. They had encircled us. After I escaped from a back door and took shelter in a room, they even broke down one of the doors. I thought I would be dead," said the 45-year-old writer.

"I have never come face to face with death like this."

Though Nasreen managed to escape unhurt, many others were injured.

"They were hurling chairs, bags and thick books at us. What you have seen on television was nothing compared to what happened yesterday (Thursday)," said the writer at her Rawdon Street apartment in an upmarket Kolkata locality.

"The organisers were a small group and so they had not arranged for police. They hardly expected this to happen, I don't blame them. They were surprised but I knew who these people were and so I asked to call the police. But before police came, journalists fought them off and saved me," said Nasreen.

Nasreen, who has penned several volumes of her seven-part autobiography, had attracted the ire of fundamentalists in Bangladesh for stance against Islam, its treatment of women and atrocities on the Hindu minorities in that country in her novel "Lajja" (The Shame). She first went into hiding in 1994 and then fled Bangladesh with support from international human rights organisations like PEN and Amnesty International.

She was given asylum in Sweden. Since then she has lived in Germany, France, the US and later Kolkata in India, where she got a tourist visa though her requests for citizenship have been repeatedly turned down by the Indian government.

The attack on Nasreen came on a day when her visa, scheduled to expire this month, was extended by six months till February next year.

She is living in Kolkata following a fatwa issued against her by some Islamic groups in Bangladesh for her book "Lajja".

"If I were a citizen of India perhaps people would not have thought that I could be killed just like that. The truth is that I cannot return to Bangladesh while returning to Europe is like courting death too. I can only live here in Kolkata," said Nasreen.

"I am happy that the people who attacked were actually a minority while there are so many people who supported me. The photographers could have just clicked as they killed me but they chose to save me."

"A similar incident had occurred in a book fair in Bangladesh but then thankfully police was near. In fact, the release of the book Thursday had nothing to do with Islam. This is the translation of an old book of mine," said the hunted author, who is now penning a sequel to "Lajja".

The new book continues on the fate of the Hindu family, who was the focus in "Lajja", and their life in Kolkata. A book on her columns is also awaiting release.

Though the Left Front government in West Bengal condemned the attack on Nasreen Thursday, it had banned her book "Dwikhandito" (Split in Two), the third volume of her seven-part autobiography, till a court order lifted it.

http://indianmuslims.info/news/2007/...h_taslima.html

[Zulkiflim]

Salaam,

Interesting never heard of her too.

another MODERATE MUSLIM....
Welcomed by many moderate muslim who are western oreintated and loathed by muslims...

According to Taslima, the religious scriptures are out of time, out of place. Instead of religious laws, she maintains, what is needed is a uniform civil code that accords women equality and justice. Her views caused fourteen different political and non-political religious organizations to unite for the first time, starting violent demonstrations, calling general strikes, blocking government offices, and demanding her immediate execution by hanging.

She joins the chorus of moderate muslim who call for the qurna ot be changed to suit their liking...

http://taslimanasrin.com/index2.html