Exiled 'anti-Islam' Bangladeshi writer attacked

[varun]

Source: MSNBC

HYDERABAD, India - Dozens of Muslim protesters led by three lawmakers attacked an exiled Bangladeshi writer at the release of her book in southern India on Thursday, calling her “anti-Islam,” and telling her to go back to her country.

About 100 people burst into the Press Club in Hyderabad, shouting insults at Taslima Nasrin and ransacking the place, throwing chairs in the air and overturning tables.

Organizers pushed them back, and Nasrin escaped unhurt. In the melee, one of the protesters slapped her, witnesses said...

...Nasrin fled Bangladesh in 1994 when Islamic extremists threatened to kill her after an Indian newspaper quoted her as saying changes must be made to the Islamic holy book, the Quran, to give women more rights.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20204125/

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She is one brave woman.

[bunkerbuster1]

1. Good thing us Krystshuns never fight over changes to our holy book!

Them Muzzies shore are violent, huh?

{/dumbass redneck}

[Kagemusha]

3. Well when's the last time you saw 3 US Congressmen leading a mob?

I mean, an actual mob that actually goes after someone physically. That's not a normal situation at all.

[bunkerbuster1]

4. Never. Please don't think I'm downplaying the horrific nature of this violence

I'm just bracing myself for the way right-wing racists will react. Perhaps mine was an inappropriate post given the seriousness of the event.

[Kagemusha]

6. Oh don't think that. The fuss over that Hindu prayer to open the Senate is close.

Disturbingly close. Congressmen talking about how it'll lead to the destruction of America if it isn't stopped. We're just lucky to have adequate security in Congress to deter more serious confrontations.

If anything, hard Christian fundamentalists' support of concealed carry laws in the states they hold sway in is a deterrent to mob violence. Points for irony there.

[seriousstan]

8. Please don't think I'm downplaying the horrific nature of this violence

when I do just that with a sophomoric redneck joke. I guess I judge you by tour actions which you "obviously" didn't mean. :shrug:

[pennylane100]

5. Well the closest we have in this country wasin 2004

when high ranking republican party members demonstrated during the hanging chad fiasco.

[damntexdem]

7. Florida 2000?

Weren't some GOP congresscritters down there? Or were they just congressional aides?

[Kagemusha]

9. AFAIK, they were just congressional aides.

I'm very confident I'm correct in that. It would've been an instant scandal otherwise but, the media didn't know they were aides until much later, I think?

[rodeodance]

2. The world needs more women (and men) like her.

[varun]

10. Taslima is charged with "inciting hatred"

This is crazy....the guys who attacked her have gone scot free, and now she is facing these charges

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Police_slap_case_on_Taslima/articleshow/2274777.cms

Police slap case on Taslima
12 Aug 2007, 0256 hrs IST,TNN


HYDERABAD: In a stunning follow-up to the attack on Taslima Nasreen by Muslim activists, the Hyderabad police on Saturday booked the exiled Bangladeshi author for promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, language — a charge that can get her two years in prison, if proven.

The attackers are roaming freely, charged with minor misdemeanours. The move by cops, who had dragged their feet on complaints against the goons of a city-based political group, the Majlis-Ittehadul Muslimeen, booked Taslima under section 153 (a) of the IPC after a complaint by MIM’s floor leader in the AP assembly Akbaruddin Owaisi.

The MIM leader, who had warned Taslima would be killed if she stepped into Hyderabad again, alleged the novelist had hurt sentiments of the Muslim community with her writings and her speeches against Islam. The case against Taslima was filed at Hyderabad's Punjagutta police station.

Why the police filed a case against Taslima by taking MIM's contention seriously appears to be politically driven — the ruling Congress needs the Muslim group’s support. And as for MIM, the group, which once backed the Nizam’s rule and opposed joining the Indian union, was under pressure from the city's Urdu press for letting the feisty author off 'lightly'...