INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE AGAINST FUNDAMENTALISM
Indian Rationalist Association
P.O.Box 9110, New Delhi 110 091, India
Phone:+91-11-8539526 Fax:+91-11-2256042
E-mail:sakth-@giasdla.vsnl.net.in
ALLIANCE BULLETIN-6 26 January 1999 All reports and informations in this bulletin can be reproduced by
recipients. Please acknowledge the source while reproducing:
"Alliance Against Fundamentalism Bulletin".
POET SHAMSUR RAHMAN ATTACKED;
TASLIMA NASREEN LEAVES FOR SWEDEN
A report from Bangladesh
The Bangladesh police have arrested ten radicals since the recent armed attack on Shamsur Rahman, the top poet of Bangladesh. Mr Rahman,61, is Bangladesh's unofficial poet laureate and widely revered for his liberal thoughts. Both Rahman and his wife survived with minor injuries. Two of the armed attackers were caught by security guards as they tried to flee. "It is clear that they came to kill me because they do not like my writings" -said Mr Rahman. Mr Rahman is the chairman of a national committee to resist the fundamentalist forces opposed to independence and democracy. This committee comprises of leading editors, writers and artists of Bangladesh. The police said that the arrested men belonged to the Harkat-ul-Jihad,
an underground fundamentalist group that seeks to stage an armed
Islamic revolution in Bangladesh on the lines of the Taliban movement
in Afghanistan. The Harkat-ul-Jihad was unknown in Bangladesh until late
last year when the police closed down a newspaper suspected to have
links with Taliban. The arrested men claimed to be the followers of
Osama bin Laden, the radical Saudi financier accused of funding
international terrorism. The arrested radicals told the police that
novelist Taslima Nasreen was among the four Bangladeshi writers they
had targetted to kill. They accused all four of criticising Islam.
Taslima leaves for Sweden
Following death threats over telephone, Taslima Nasreen left Bangladesh on Sunday night for Sweden by a British Airways flight. Islamic fundamentalists renewed an offer of 200,000 takas for anyone who kills her after she returned last year to take care of her ailing mother. Her mother Eid-ul-Ara Begum died of cancer early this month. The Alliance Against Fundamentalism expresses its gratitude to all those who have written to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh for the safety of Taslima Nasreen and for her freedom to travel out whenever she wished. We support the ongoing struggle in Bangladesh for secularism and civilized social atmosphere. We implore the Government of Bangladesh to provide safety to poet Shamsur Rahman and other writers who are under the threat of fundamentalists. MORE ABOUT KERALA We received several curious enquiries about Kerala, the venue of the Golden Jubilee celebrations of Indian Rationalist Association and the Second International Rationalist Conference (26-31 December 1999 at Trivandrum, Kerala). Kerala is a narrow strip, extremely fertile and is almost impossibly green throughout. The slender green silverland that clings to the south western flank of the Indian peninsula, as it lies between the high western ghats in the east and the vast Arabian sea in the west. This small emerald crescent of land contains jungles, beaches, mountains, lakes and some of the most romantic natural resources in the world. The mountainous region of Kerala is dominated by the Sahya mountain. This is the area of dense forests, wild life santuaries and major plantations. To the casual visitor, the Kerala countryside might well seem a canopy of green, but to the close observer it is finely differentiated. Each shade of green owes its exitence to a valuable cash crop that has been introduced and nurtured by human hand. There are the emerald green rice fields, fresh green banana groves, coconut plantations and aracanut trees. One can swim in the tranquilant blue sea at Kovalam beach (at Trivandrum), float through the most beautiful backwater lagoons, stroll through the most tea and cofee plantations in the high ranges, attend to a lively performance of the colourful classical dance Kathakali or go animal watching in the wild life santuary. As long as before the 3rd century B.C., Egyptians, Phoenicians, Chinese and Babylonians had trade relations with Kerala. In the 15th century, when the semitic monopoly of the spice trade became too expensive to the European markets to bear, Portugal financed Vasco da Gama to discover the sea route to the spice lands of Kerala. The Portuguese were followed by the Dutch, then by the French in a limited way, and finally by the British who stayed on in India till 1947. This multi layered international history has left traces throughout Kerala. The Arabs and the Chinese made their mark on Kerala and fishermen use Chinese fishing nets even to this day. Crumbling Portuguese ruins by the sea side soften the harsh memories left behind by the colonisers. British residences and English town squares remind one of the more recent colonial past. The tolerant Kerala people welcomed Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Kerala has an amazing mixture of religions -Hindus, Christians and Muslims. Communal harmony and religious tolerance are an essential part of Kerala's culture and heritage. And, above all, Kerala has a large and powerful Rationalist movement which has considerable influence in its social life: a very successful model in the history of the freethought movement. We cordially invite you to visit Kerala and join us during the Golden Jubilee celebrations of Indian Rationalist Association and the Second International Rationalist Conference. Academic Seminar: 23, 24 December 1999 For more details, please contact: Postal Address: Sanal Edamaruku
Secretary General
Indian Rationalist Association
P.O.Box 9110
779, Pocket 5, Mayur Vihar 1,
New Delhi 110091, India.
Answerphone: +91-11-8539526
Fax: +91-11-2256042
E-mail: sakth-@giasdla.vsnl.net.in
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