Religion

cbayer

(146,218 posts) Fri Feb 27, 2015, 11:32 AM Feb 2015

American atheist blogger hacked to death in the street in Bangladesh

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/02/27/american-atheist-blogger-hacked-to-death-in-the-street-in-bangladesh/

Warning: This link contains graphic images.

By Justin Moyer February 27 at 12:52 AM

Police at the scene where Avijit Roy, a critic of religious extremism, was hacked to death in Dhaka, Bangladesh. (AFP PHOTO/Munir uz Zaman/Getty Images)

An American atheist blogger who vocally opposed religious extremism has been hacked to death in a street in Bangladesh.

Avijit Roy was a Bangladesh-born U.S. citizen who proved a prominent critic of ideological hatred in his native country. He and his wife, Rafida Ahmed, were attacked as they returned from a book fair at Dhaka University in Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital, as the Associated Press reported. Some outlets reported that the weapons used were machetes; others reported cleavers. Roy died at a hospital after the attack. His wife was seriously injured, losing a finger, but survived.

Roy’s wife Rafida Ahmed after the attack. (AFP PHOTO/RAJIB DHARRAJIB DHAR/Getty Image)s
While police did not say Islamic extremists attacked Roy, the location and method are similar to that of earlier religiously motivated crimes. Indeed, 11 years ago to the day, another anti-extremist author was attacked at the same location in Dhaka, and extremists killed another atheist blogger in Dhaka in 2013.

Roy, reported to be in his 40s, founded a blog called “Mukto-Mona,” or “free mind.” He had received threats from extremists before. His books — with titles such as “The Virus of Faith” sure to inflame fundamentalists — were banned from at least one popular Bangladeshi online retailer.

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