India Curbs Freedom of Expression II

Taslima Incident

The famous Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen was attacked by radical MLAs of MIM Party (Majlis Ittehadul Musilmeen) in Hyderabad. The head of this party, Salauddin Owaisi patted the back of the attackers and said that his party was ‘ready for bigger sacrifices’. MIM has taken upon itself to be the upholders of Islam and has acted in response to ’20 crore of Muslims’ in India who ‘have been deeply hurt by the provocative writings of this woman’.

Mr. Owaisi went onto say that “The anger against her among Muslims was such that she could have even got killed.”

Justification

Mr. Owaisi justified his act drawing from how Hindus protested against M F Husain’s paintings. "When M F Husain drew some paintings, some felt it was insulting to their religion. But no one who vandalised the exhibition where Husain’s paintings were on show were arrested or punished." he said.

All fanatics are the same

So what’s the big difference between the zealots of Hindus and Muslims? Nothing!

All zealots are alike. All fanatics are alike. All sympathizers of such fanaticism are alike. All those Hindus who denounce M F Husain’s paintings and those who justify his persecution are no different than all those Muslims who attack and denounce Taslima Nasrin and her works.

I keep saying this again and again. In our attempts to combat our enemy, we are becoming exactly like them. Every zealot and fanatic is upping the ante in their ongoing movement of suppression of our freedoms and their expressions of fanaticism.

These days it is not about the ‘freedom of expression’, but all about ‘expression of fanaticism’. Don’t you think that the zealot Hindus should congratulate MIM for their show of camaraderie and bravado? Shouldn't they join hands and have a big party to celebrate how successfully they have suppressed our freedoms?

It's never the fringe elements

Taslima said that 'those responsible for the incident are only a minority'. Many people quickly conclude that such people are just the fringe elements, a miniscule few, a rarity. But that is never the case. We never seem to realize one thing. The people who actually attacked might be a handful, but they are backed by many people.

For each attacker, there are hundred wanna-be attackers. For each wanna-be attacker, there are ten thousand active supporters. For each active supporter, there are a million sympathizers. We think it is only the fringe elements acting, but that is never the case.

For every goon who vandalized M F Husain's paintings, there are million Hindus who support and sympathize his actions. For every goon who attacked Taslima the other day, there are million other Muslims, both men and women, educated and uneducated, who support and sympathize his actions.

We need to understand this and NOT DISMISS it.