Third blogger hacked to death in Bangladesh: police
Source: Reuters
A blogger was hacked to death by machete-wielding attackers in Bangladesh on Tuesday, the third killing of a critic of religious extremism in the Muslim-majority nation in less than three months.
Ananta Bijoy Das, a blogger who advocated secularism, was attacked by four assailants in the northeastern district of Sylhet on Tuesday morning, senior police official Mohammad Rahamatullah told Reuters.
Rahamatullah said Das was a 33-year-old banker.
Das wrote for 'Mukto Mona, or free mind, a website propagating rationalism and opposing fundamentalism that was founded by U.S.-based blogger Avijit Roy.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/12/us-bangladesh-blogger-idUSKBN0NX0D820150512
Recursion
(56,582 posts)Dakka is getting very very troubling right now
longship
(40,416 posts)Does any rational person believe that this kind of action will improve anything?
Then again, religious fundamentalism is not rational. Killing for a perceived butt hurt is cuckoo crazy. That's why blasphemy laws suck, and why the US Constitution's First Amendment is a good thing.
We not only have freedom of religion here, we have freedom from religion. And that is a very good thing.
FFRF
RKP5637
(67,112 posts)lostnfound
(16,189 posts)I agree with your comments.
Coventina
(27,172 posts)a state religion (for complicated historical reasons I won't bore you with).
There used to be very strict restrictions on the practicing of other faiths.
That's why America was settled by those seeking religious freedom: dissident groups like the Puritans, Quakers, etc. They wanted the freedom to practice their religion without any restrictions and were willing to undergo a severing of all ties to their homeland and make a dangerous ocean voyage, and start from scratch in a foreign land. So you know they were pretty devout!
So, America was founded on religious freedom, but by extremely devout people, and that tradition, though fading, still remains.
Meanwhile, Europe became more and more secular, and stopped enforcing their state religions.
They still exist, but hardly anyone (percentage wise) practices.
lostnfound
(16,189 posts)It's a good explanation and I'm sure you're right.
It's an ironic and classic example of the axiom, "Every problem contains the seeds of its own solution."
YOHABLO
(7,358 posts)geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)who blamed the staff of Charlie Hebdo for their own deaths.
iandhr
(6,852 posts)cosmicone
(11,014 posts)cosmicone
(11,014 posts)samsingh
(17,601 posts)of their methods.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)cosmicone
(11,014 posts)My preemption ... because anything I may write here about Islam and its teachings, regardless of veracity, will end up hurting someone's net feelings and my freedom of speech will be censored anyway.
Chan790
(20,176 posts)On Tue May 12, 2015, 03:27 PM an alert was sent on the following post:
This post has been hidden by a Jury decision
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=1091326
REASON FOR ALERT
This post is disruptive, hurtful, rude, insensitive, over-the-top, or otherwise inappropriate.
ALERTER'S COMMENTS
Preemptive meta, begging to be hidden
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Proud Public Servant
(2,097 posts)You actually got reported anyway. And...
You served on a randomly-selected Jury of DU members which reviewed this post. The review was completed at Tue May 12, 2015, 03:34 PM, and the Jury voted 0-7 to LEAVE IT.
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Explanation: I've read many, many more disruptive posts than this one.
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riderinthestorm
(23,272 posts)come out folks! Don't be shy! There were literally hundreds of DUers saying CH deliberately poked the hornets nest and whadyaexpect?
Or the alternate version - of course free speech BUT CH had to know there'd be consequences....
Or my personal fave! It's not polite to question a persons deeply held beliefs so, yeah, massacre.
So DUers here's your chance to trot out the old excuses for why this secular blogger had to be hacked to death!
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)samsingh
(17,601 posts)Coventina
(27,172 posts)I'm not sure why.....
on edit: typo
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)riderinthestorm
(23,272 posts)I have no answer Coventina but I know each and every one of their blame-the-victim excuses is pretty despicable.
This guy was hacked to death because he was secular in a religious culture and wrote about that.
Any victim blaming is sick imo and says far more about that poster than I can ever demonstrate.
samsingh
(17,601 posts)samsingh
(17,601 posts)treestar
(82,383 posts)He wasn't making fun of Mohamed or drawing him. So these fundies are really really extreme - the way they killed him, too. Crazier than the crazies at Charlie Hebdo even.
samsingh
(17,601 posts)Charlie Hedbo's are not crazy. the imbeciles killing because they don't get their way are the ones who are crazy and their tacit supporters.
treestar
(82,383 posts)I referred to the killers as the crazies. Geez.
riderinthestorm
(23,272 posts)And that justifies the "crazies" to be provoked into rage and massacre? You however don't believe this guy crossed that line?
Let's review the facts of his case then:
This guy had two predecessors hacked to death in Bangladesh before him because they too were "just advocating secularism".
So clearly he already knew that this was a line too far for the "crazies".
So was being hacked to death a fate he was provoking? or not? Clearly he already knew that speaking out for secularism in Bangladesh was provocative - he had two very recent examples of exactly how that would be received.
treestar
(82,383 posts)I only pointed out the difference. Geez.
Where did I say anything was justified? I did not. Why would you be so malicious as to twist what I said on a message board where all can see it?
whatthehey
(3,660 posts)Whenever theo-crazies kill people or commit other heinous acts obviously, and frequently vocally, motivated by religion, we just need to wait for the DU faithapologists to tell us whether it was really mental illness, cuitural oppression gone wrong, a lack of welfare spending, or poor family networking. Or of course it's possible they are not "real" believers too if things get too tricky.
Because it's never religiously motivated when it's nasty. Only positive actions can be motivated by faith, and then it's obviously religion at work, even if performed by nonbelievers.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)Of course it had nothing to do with religion.
because sadly that is necessary