September 26, 2007
Cartoonist Arifur Rahman is in jail now. He, as a freelance cartoonist, used to make a living by drawing cartoon. He is in jail for drawing a cartoon which I don’t believe he drew with an evil intention. In his judgement, the cartoon was not insulting to Muhammad or Islam. Exactly this is my judgement too. And even if he drew the cartoon intentionally, he does not deserve to be in jail for that.
I urge all not to forget Arifur Rahman.
At the same time I also demand immediate release of Mr Nurul Islam who was working to improve the life of Afghan people as an area manager of the NGO, BRAC. It has been a week since Mr Islam has been abducted. A video footage was shown yesterday in Afghan TV which shows Mr Islam lying on the rocks of a mountain slope. He was blidfolded, his arms and legs are tied, and he was trying to tell something. The abductors warned to start dismembering him one limb at a time if a ransom of $ 500,000 is not paid immediately.
I know those who are holding Arif and Nurul Islam will not listen to my request. Still I urge all to raise our voices demanding their release. The louder the better.
October 2, 2007 at 12:04 am
[...] In the Middle of Nowhere who also asks to free Nurul Islam, the Bangladeshi aid worker (BRAC) kidnapped in Afghanistan by [...]
October 8, 2007 at 3:45 pm
[...] beschrieben. * Keep me honest * Addafication * Dhaka Shohor * Voice of Bangladeshi Bloggers - In the Middle of Nowhere verlangt auch die Befreiung von Nurul Islam, der Bangladeschi Angestellte von BRAC auf Hilfsarbeit [...]
October 15, 2007 at 2:26 am
Arrest and torture of Professors and Journalists is a bad symptom for Bangladesh. The military junta running the country got massive support from the people when they cracked down on corruption. But now it seems the junta is being dictated by the IMF and the World Bank to carry out structural reforms that might have a devastating affect for the alreday sinking Bangladeshi economy. Surprisingly, the junta members who all have their first degrees from Public Universities of Bangladesh decided to imprison 8 University Professors of the country which is an unprecedented event. Even in the past when Pakistani trained military ruled Bangladesh, they never mistreated Professors who have all along supported democracy, pluralism, secularism and modern ideas.
It’s easy to arrest poor Professors and torture them as they are unarmed people who earn their living by teaching, thinking and researching. The Bangladeshi junta members will have a tough time in the future to tackle the nation’s poverty and carry out the orders of Uncle Sam. Educated people of Bangladesh were astonished to see the arrest and torture of intellectuals by the junta. Perhaps they did it in their frustration in not being able to fully satisfy their US masters who brought them to power.