Tuesday 18 November 2014

Beyond the 1971 Tragedy and the ICT.

This blog has been quiet for some time. Though it was created to originally counter the Shahbag menace, it will now explore the deeper underlying reasons for the current crisis in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh has held farcical elections, culminating in a dictatorship which is engaged in a campaign of terror, paralysing the opposition. The so called ICT has recently passed three death sentences. It carried out the execution of Abdul Qader Mollah last year. More recently, Jamaat Guru Professor Ghulam Azam died in prison, whose funereal prayer was held with thousands of supporters in the national mosque Baitul Muharram. Interestingly, Sayedees death sentence was reduced to life imprisonment.

Though, the ICT has served to weaken the opposition, we must realize that this trial has greater implications and highlights a long and bitter struggle between Islam and Secularism in Bangladesh. It is even greater than the historic significance of the trials. These two ideological forces have been engaged in an intractable battle, especially since the 1971 war of Independence. Most people do not realise that it has little to do with current politics in Bangaldesh or what these men at trial may or may not have done in 1971 or about Jamaat. It is primarily about Islam's role in the affairs of the state and society at large. Hence we must shift our focus from the political nature of these trials, to that of ideology and those who are the real driving forces behind the ICT.

The ICT should not be seen in isolation, rather it is part of a systematic campaign by the ultra secularists in Bangladesh, using the plight and suffering of the 1971 atrocities of the Pakistani forces, to further an agenda of secularism and to reduce and systematically eliminate the role of Islam in the affairs of the state and society. Hence one of the earliest moves made by the Awami government was to remove Islamic clauses from the Bangladeshi constitution, which was introduced during the rule of President Ziaur Rahman.

The spearheading of this campaign are done by people within the civil society of Bangladesh dominated by ultra secularist, such as Sahriar Kabir and others, whose sole role is to smear religious parties and clerics and to indirectly attack Islamic practises and customs. More radical and militant voices exist within the camp which Kabir leads. The organizers of the mass Shahbag protests were exposed by the incarcerated journalist Mahmudur Rahman, who exposed the Islamophobic nature of these people, using vile language in social media and blogs concerning the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him), God and religious rituals. As a reaction, an obscure organization, Hefazate Islam came into prominence leading mass protests in Dhaka Mothijil Chottor and around the country to counter the militant secular ideology of Shahbag, rather than to overthrow, or even derail the trials.

Shahbag has its roots in the Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee (which roughly translates into Committee for the Annihilation Of Traitors), which reminds me of the medieval Spanish Inquisition. The Committee unified various elements of civil society, from journalists, lawyers, media etc in an effort to spearhead a campaign against Jamaat leaders for their alleged role 1971. It later became clear, especially during the protests of Shahbag, that the war crimes issue has been hijacked in order to drive the secularist agenda.

Why use 1971 as a pretext? Because the Bangladeshi people by and large are religious and have deep religious sentiments. It will be counter productive for secularists if they attack Islam directly, and the Hefazat mass protests prove this. 1971 carries deep scars in the memory of Bangladeshis and is the ideal pretext for secularists. After the rude awakening and exposure by Mahmudur Rahman, Shahbag's mass appeal reduced dramatically from hundreds of thousands of supporters in the streets to a couple of hundreds at most.

Despite this, the secularists are getting their way. The Islamic clause of 'reliance on Allah' has not been restored. Execution sentences on Jamaat leaders have not been stayed. Secularists and Awami Leaders (such Abdul Latif Siddiqui) continue making Islamophobic remarks with impunity in the 3rd largest Muslim populated country in the world. Is the future of Islam in Bangladesh at stake?


Wednesday 11 December 2013

Tribute To Mahmudur Rahman (#FreeMahmudurRahman)

I have been inactive for some time. I am writing this post to pay a belated tribute to Mahmudur Rahman, the editor of the disbanded newspaper Amar Desh. He was the one of many victims of Shahbag. Indeed it was his brave stance in the midst of mass hysteria, that he paid the price of imprisonment, but which ultimately destroyed the ultra secular Shahbagi Islamophobes.

His arrest was the beginning of the end of free press in Bangladesh, followed by Diganta TV, after the massacre at Shapla Square.

No opposition media outlet currently exist in Bangladesh.

#FreeMahmudurRahman



Thursday 21 February 2013

#SaveBangladesh campaign

#Shahbag Exposed will be actively partaking in hashtag #SaveBangladesh campaign. In the wake of #Shahbag hatemongers campaign on twitter, we, the Bangladeshi youth,  have risen up and taken initiative in order to prevent the ultra secularist activists in #Shahbag to create chaos in our beloved country, by attacking religious sentiments.


We are progressive bloggers and online activists who want to see an end to corruption, we want religious tolerance, an end to poverty and a proper seperation of powers between the executive, judiciary and legislature, in which each are allowed to run their course, and not be interfered by those who have vested interests. Join:

http://www.facebook.com/events/235473656589791/?fref=ts

https://twitter.com/search?q=savebangladesh&src=typd

Tuesday 19 February 2013

Exclusive Daily Amar Desh report: Audacious Islamophobic Culture Amongst Bloggers- Part 1


Rajib Haidar AKA ThabaBaba.
[The following is a translation of an exclusive piece by Amar Desh newspaper on Shahbag bloggers, exposing their Islamophobic and hate mongering tendencies. Previous translations of the materials of these bloggers published in blogs and social networks were only partially translated due to their obscene nature. However this translation attempts to fully translate some of their works in order to expose the leading activists of Shahbag. This translation is more than reasonably faithful to the meaning of the original text. Only the first quarter of the article has been translated, the rest will hopefully be translated and published soon. The obscene, crude and informal nature of their works was difficult to translate in the beginning. Only the people familiar with the world of obscenity may be able to instantly comprehend the meaning of such offensive content. After much musing over these articles, we slowly deciphered the meaning of these offensive and lewd content. Among the people this piece covers is non other than Rajib Haidar AKA ThabaBaba. Their was a large haphazard Islamic funereal prayer for him in Shahbag. He was declared a 'martyr of the second Liberation War'. The following will shed light on Rajib Haider, exposing who he really was. There are some interjections in [ ], to elucidate the meaning.
It should be noted, that when films and cartoons were made about the Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him), the entire Muslim world erupted into chaos. But this is happening in a 90% Muslim country. How would the world, the Muslim world in particular, react?

The origininal text can be found over here: [http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.amardeshonline.com%2Fpages%2Fdetails%2F2013%2F02%2F18%2F188548#.USOzZaXQC4x] (Accessed 19/2/2013)]




Using popular technological means, a group of young people are using blogs to promote malevolent and religious hatred. Non-religious and atheist youths are using severely repulsive language against Allah, the holy Quran, Prophet Muhammad (SAW),Prayer (Salah), Eid, Hajj and Fasting and attacking Muslim belief and doctrine. Reading their nasty and obscene works may make it difficult for any Muslim to remain composed. This can even shock conscientous non-Muslims. In the blogs, they are insulting Islamic rules and rituals, spreading it by using unsuitable language and writing fantastical and false stories about the Massengers and the Prophets, exceeding all boundaries in doing so.Amongst the anti-religious bloggers in Friday night in Mirpur, there was the foremost Shahbag activist, Rajib Haidar known as ThabaBaba.

The anti- Islamic blogs written by Rajib Haidar has been since removed after his death. His insulting blogs can no longer be found on the Internet. Governmental elements are trying to remove the links in order to disassociate Rajib Haidar from any kind of controversy, by deleting them. Not only this, but the handful of those who had criticized ThabaBabas works on facebook has had their links removed. Moreover many have alleged that yesterday when Daily Inqilab published a report entitled 'Rajib Haidar's grossly offensive writings, regarding Islam and the holy Prophet', the link of this article was also blocked. But many have said, that they were able to read the article on the Daily Inqilab's
website.

Unknown assailants on Friday night murdered Rajib by slaughtering him using sharp weapons.Despite the law enforcers not being able to properly establish the motive behind his murder, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina blamed Jamaat and Shibir and declared that the party would be banned.This incident has caused much tension in Shahbag.Revenge has been sought after he was declared 'the first martyr of the second liberation war'. Shahbag activists are holding Jamaat and Shibir responsible for his murder.Even though Jamaat officially said that there is no links with Jamaat in regards to his murder. They also severely condemned the incident.

In the meantime, there is much discussion online after the death of Rajib, the Islamophobe. Amar Desh investigations has managed to gather lots of startling evidences. Before Rajib's work
was deleted, it was possible for much of his writings to be saved. It can be seen that for a long time, Rajib under the alias of ThabaBaba has been publishing grossly offensive materials regarding Islam and our beloved Prophet for a long time.Pro Awami bloggers have since said that the blog nuranichapa.wordpress.com  written in his name are fake. However, the question arises as to why this blog is no longer available.Upon clicking on the link the following apears:
-nuranichapa.wordpress.com is no longer available-. It has come to light that ThabaBaba was a regular blogger in www.dhormockery.net. This site has also been removed (please note, that when we checked, the site is still available; it maybe, that those in Bangladesh are not able to access it due to blocking). However a cache copy is available here:
cache:www.dhormockery.com. What appears is the following after you enter the cache url:
This is Google’s cache of http://www.dhormockery.com/. It is a snapshot of the page as it appeared on 16 Feb 2013 17:40:37 GMT.
The current page could have changed in the meantime. Learn more....', meaning that the site was removed on the 16 Feb, and no trace has been left.For a long time, ThabaBabas alias of Rajib Haidar was noticeably active on blogging sites, according to other bloggers.According to the newspaper Prothom Alo He used to also write regularly in the online blog amarblog.com. In it, from the profile options, it reveals that he has been active for 3 years and 13 weeks. In the following link in  Amar Blog http://www.amarblog.com/thaba/posts/150478, one can cross examine the evidence and see clearly that the alias of ThabaBaba by Ahmed Rajib Haidar has been used to speak in foul and abusive language about the Prophet (peace be upon him).

Rajib used to write regularly in 'Nurani Chapa' blog. In it 'Muhammak's [Rajib insults the Prophet by calling him 'Muhammak's, [which is an invented word, originated from ahammak, which means an idiot, or a fool]Sofed Lungi', 'Sijda (prostration)', 'Cave Hira', 'Iftar and dates'(breaking fast), 'history of fasting', 'Eid and Eid concregation','Loraia De', 'Alcohol & Muhammak', 'Azl [possinly refferring to coitus interruptus].

In facebook, some of Rajib's insulting comments about Islam is also noticeable. After investigating, it can be established that he joined facebook on the 11th of November 2007. His facebook ID: "https://www.facebook.com/rha.rajib". The facebook status he wrote on 10th of September 2010, "how human is it to celbrate on the 11th of September when authorotative figures say that 10, 000 people died on this anniversary?". (Eid was probably on this date).

Last 27 September 2012, he wrote 'Everyone is making a fuss about Tariq, Koko and Hasina- Khaleda trafficking money abroad... whilst every year in front of our eyes, severeal hundreds of thousands of pilgrims, pours millions in Saudi Arabia, nobody makes a sound about this!!'.

In 2011, in his facebook status he writes and insulting status: 'Calling Muslims terrorists is a injustice. Calling them 'serial killers' is more appropriate.'

Again on the 28th of October 2012 his facebook status reads:' We are not the God's bastards, we were born from physical mating of our parents. My creator is my genetic parents, I am their creation. I am also the creator of my children, they are my creation! In this process, if i have anybody else to thank it would be the midwife, doctors or nurse.'

In this way the deceased blogger would present his writings to the readers.

1. The history of Eid Mubarak and Eid
'After Muhammak was caught red handed by Khadija, Muhammak abstained for a period of one month from food, drink, slave-girls. Before he even finished his time, he sprinted straight to to the pub Zamzam. Not eating all these days, he began to drink Arbi (one type of alcohol), and he finished the entire lot that was available.Then, in front of the Holy Kabah  his usual friends [Sahabas] gathered [this part seems incomplete]. Muhammak in his wet dream was dive swimming in the cave of his wife [meaning that he was having sexual relations with his wife], and his fellows (sahabas) who has been deprived of 'Muhammak- Honey' [after much musing over this term, we think its likely the author meant 'Muhammak-Honey to be a metaphor for 'Muhammad's anus'], with their hard Iman [Iman in this case is used as a metaphor for the male genitals] jumped on top of the honey jar [this is a metaphor for anal intercourse]. And then,thinking that everyone was Muhammak they began to have eachothers honey. The next morning Muhammak was in a prostration position, in an effort to ease his pain, and behind him is his close fellows (sahabas). Because, in a state of being drunk, who drank whose honey, they had no idea, hence everyones rectum was in pain. Meanwhile, Khadija heard from Mubarak, her loyal servant
 [we dont know where this name came from] at dawn, that Muhammad and his fellows were engaged in lewd acts whilst drunk in front of the kabah. She hastily wore her outer garment and left with Mubarak, and she began to sprint. She was so angry, that if she found a brick, Muhammak's holy head wouldn't be in one piece. Khadija was running, in front of her was the slave, and Khadija yelling and saying 'mubarak it [the word 'it' in Bengali means brick], mubarak it', means she is telling Mubarak to take a brick and smash Muhammak's head, but even at that time a proper brick did not exist in Arabia. Hence Mubarak couldn't find a brick. Amidst screaming and running and seeing her out of breath, people followed them to see what was happening. But they don't know what was really happening. All they knew was Khadija was was yelling 'it Mubarak, it Mubarak'!!! Approching the Kaba, Muhammak and others were lined up behind him all in prostration. Muhammak explained to the Meccans beforehand that this is Sijda, therefore they didn't know the true story, they thought that on the day (when Khadija was shouting 'it mubarak) they need to do Sijda in congregation and shout 'It Mubarak, it Mubarak'. Since then, people would abstain from food and drink for a month, and afterwards come together and protest in congregation and shout 'it Mubarak', and gradually the word changed into Eid.'






Monday 18 February 2013

Decrypting Shahbag (part 1- Background)



The sentencing of Abdul Qader Mollah to life imprisonment failed to satisfy the Bangladeshi people. On the one hand opposition supporters believe that he was completely innocent, on the other, pro government supporters in the guise of Bloggers and Online Activists Network organised a rally and gathered in their tens of thousands in Shahbag to demand the death sentence by hanging, whilst the opposition are being suppressed and prevented from holding their rally.
But that wasn’t all. As soon as they began to call for the death sentence, they also started to call for a ban on religious politics.
So what is going on? Who, and exactly why are they protesting?

Let’s go back forty years from now. The war of independence 1971 many thousands of people killed across Bangladesh by Pakistani forces and their collaborators. Jamaate Islami came out in favour of united Pakistan against what they saw as an Indian conspiracy to occupy East Pakistan by using the freedom fighters as proxy warriors serving Indian interests. After attaining independence, trials began in 1973, trying collaborators and war crimals. However, despite several hundreds of convictions, the trial couldn’t continue, and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared a general pardon. Moreover, Bangladesh signed the Simla Agreement which was a triparite agreement between India, Pakistan and Bangladesh which stipulated Pakistani POW’s would be repatriated to Pakistan, effectively pardoning the real war criminals and figureheads.

Ghulam Azam, the leader of Jamaat e Islam at the time, is at the heart of this story. Ghulam Azam lived in exile for several years in the UK before returning in 1987. Since then, under the leadership of Jahanara Imam and Sahriar Kabir, there was a campaign against Ghulam Azam for his opposition to the independence war. Jahanara Imam and Sahriar Kabir formed the  Ekattur Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee, an organisation that calls for the hanging of certain Islamist leaders due to their alliance with Pakistan, Jamaate Islam in particular for their collaboration in 1971. It’s a civil society movement consisting of former judges, lawyers, journalists, artists, academics and activists. Though it struggled to keep itself together, it became an effective propagation tool. Their aim was to see the Islamist leaders who supported Pakistan, hanged. But as we shall see, that’s not their only goal.

They did not immediately take legal action . First they needed to create ‘awareness’, through art, propaganda and using other creative mediums. They even did a mock trial in which Golam Azam was found guilty, in a ‘peoples court’. Thus they began a campaign of hatrad against Islamists. Two decades later, the result was Shahbag. It is quite interesting that a member of the Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee was presiding over ICT-1 (Nizamul Haque), who later resigned due to his Skype conversation leaks where he colludes with a Bangladeshi expat lawyer in Belgium and insults fellow judges, colleagues and government officials- and this raised questions about the neutrality and conduct of the ICT.

Jamaate Islam on the other hand made the fatal error of trying to evade such propaganda and not addressing it, and thus they are paying the price.

Shahbag, is a result of twenty year of propaganda and campaigning by the likes of Sahriar Kabir, and fellow leftists who dogmatically adhere to ultra secularism. They, like the activists of Shahbag, call for banning religious politics. Amongst those involved in the protests are Qadiyanis who are regarded as heretics by mainstream Muslims. The Committee is said to have historically defended this sect in the name of preventing terrorism and repression. Ironically, the current war crimes trial, which is a fruit of the Committees campaign, is doing exactly that to opposition activists, according to critics. Thus the war crimes trial is part of a bigger project of the ultra secularists to secularise the country. Thus their sincerity in delivering justice to the victims of 1971 is highly questionable, since they are clearly pursuing their vested political interests.

Next: Part 2- Activists of Hate

Shahbag Protest: anti Islamic propaganda behind the demand for hanging war criminals

(Courtesy of Abbas Noman. Please pay special attention to the recently murdered blogger, Rajib Haidar Shobhon. Prime Minister Shaykh Hasina called him the first 'martyr' of the '2nd Liberation War'. Yet his message of pure hate, Islamophobia which is devoid of any intellectual discourse is palpable. The people of Bangladesh protested the recent film on youtube 'Innocence of Muslims', as did every other Muslim country . Shaykh Hasinas government blocked Youtube at the time. Yet, she herself endorsed and decorated this hatemonger, also known as ThabaBaba as a 'martyr'.)


Taken from:

http://abbasnoman.tumblr.com/post/43319157192/shahbag-protest-anti-islamic-propaganda-behind-the
Shahbag Protest: anti Islamic propaganda behind the demand for hanging war criminals
The organizers are carrying out an anti Islamic propaganda behind the demand for hanging war criminals
 Offensive comments about Allah and the Prophet (peace be upon him) made by the organizers of the Shahbag movement stirring up heated debates
The offensive anti Islamic blog entries of the blogger, organizer Rajib Haidar Shobhon a.k.a ‘Thaba Baba’, who was recently brutally murdered, is stirring up the online community. We have discovered startling information in our investigation. Rajib Haidar’s blog, under the pseudo name ‘Thaba Baba’, contains contents that will make a reader shiver with horror. His blog (www.nuranichpa.wordpress.com/author/thabababa/) contains articles titled ‘Mod O Mohammak’ (Liquor and Mohammak), Hera Guha (The Hera Cave), and other highly offensive writings about Allah, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), and Islam written in the most obscene language and cursing. In these writings Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is being called Mohammak (Nauzubillah). Allah’s name was cursed and mocked in the most disgusting manners. The holy wives of the Prophet were called names, which are impossible for us to reproduce here

image
A screenshot of Rajib Haidar’s (Thaba Baba) blog. Here he showed the audacity of drawing a cartoon of the prophet.
Translation of the text in the screenshot:
Sacred bullsh**
Whatever I shall give shall be mockery, complete mockery and nothing but mockery
The history of Eid Mubarak and the Eid Jamat
After Khadiza caught Muhammok red handed he was made to refrain from food and the slave girls for a whole month (see The History Behind Fasting). As soon as he finished serving his sentence he sprinted out and went into a pub…  [continue reading]
August 26, 2012, leave a comment
Stones and pebbles (for cleaning after the call of nature)
“Mohammak! My son! You have to go to war.” “Why uncle?” “My son! We will starve to death if we don’t.” “Ok, I shall go. But where to stand when I shall fight? Shall I stand in front… [continue reading]
August 26, 2012, leave a comment
Sajdah
Mohammak could be often seen around the Kaba premises with his buddies, intoxicated from drinking Arabi (a type of alcohol). Often when he drank copiously and passed out his companion ceased the golden opportunity to….
[continue reading]
August 26, 2012, leave a comment
The Hera Cave
The historic name for Umm-e-Hani’s vagina is the Hera cave!!!
August 26, 2012, leave a comment
Another known face of the Shahbag movement is blogger Asif Mohiuddin. He wrote in his blog:
“Shame on you my Allah loving brothers! So far you have been making him smoke pot, now you are making him (not suitable for printing) anuses. You would treat him inhumanely just because he is Allah? Shame!!”
image
Another blogger named Biplab, who is among the leaders of the movement, writes under the pseudo name ‘Allama Shaitan’. A comment made by him in this blog was as follows: “I piss on the religion of the (not suitable for printing) Razakars.”
image
Another blogger and organizer of the Shahbag movement is posting updates on facebook under the username ‘Shobak Pakhi’. His comments on Allah:
“The message: Allah only (not suitable for printing) the poor over.
The originator of the message: A pot smoker of very low income.
The place where it was first uttered: Under the foot over bridge near the Sheraton hotel.
Time: 8 p.m.
The synopsis:
If god desires to (not suitable for printing), then he prefers the poor man’s (not suitable for printing).
A third interpretation:
Since god was created for the benefit of the powerful, that naturally made him the enemy of the weak. So what is being said here is not incorrect, neither can we fault god.”
image
Expatriate Bangladeshi living in England, one of the leaders of the International Crimes Strategy Forum, and a leading online activist for the death penalty of war criminals Arifur Rahman wrote in his blog:
“This post proves that all the ‘Chagu’ are sleeping… there is no one to counter the movement…..Everyone is having (not suitable for printing) with Allah.”


image
He wrote in another post “I think the whole thing about Allah was made up by Muhammad. Schizophrenic Muhammad used to hallucinate that Gabriel came to him. So he made up the story of Allah and created Izlam. This is the true story of Allah.” (Nauzubillah)
image
Another shahbag blogger wrote the following poem:
“By the eternal mercy of Allah
Allama Syedee is in prison.
Soon he will be hanged
Will Allah descend from the seventh heaven to save him?”
Another blogger ‘Rana’ commented on this poem saying: “Allah will be hanged too if he comes down.” (Nauzubillah)
image
Another shahbag blogger wrote the following poem:
“By the eternal mercy of Allah
Allama Syedee is in prison.
Soon he will be hanged
Will Allah descend from the seventh heaven to save him?”
Another blogger ‘Rana’ commented on this poem saying: “Allah will be hanged too if he comes down.” (Nauzubillah)
We have observed by visiting Shahbag that many symbols of Islam are being ridiculed at Shahbag. Many banners and cartoons are being hanged and dramas are being acted ridiculing Islam and its many symbols such as beard, kufi, and the Friday khutba (the Friday sermon).