Masum Akhtar of West Bengal and Washiqur Rahman of Bangladesh: Victims of the Extremist Islamist Ideology of the Jamaat-e-Islami and ISIS
By New Age Islam Special Correspondent
1 April 2015
Md Masum Akhtar (Left) Washiqur Rahman Babu (Right)
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The attack on a madrasa teacher and a freethinking columnist of Kolkata, Masum Akhtar is another grim reminder of the fact that extremist Islamic elements are gaining strength in West Bengal, a state that has been a centre of liberal thoughts and religious and cultural tolerance. Mr Akhtar who is also the head of the madrasa in Metiabruz, a predominantly Muslim area of Kolkata with a sizeable population of Shia sect of Islam was attacked probably for his discussion on Islam from his own point of view in the class a few days ago. He says that some of the students might have misinterpreted the content of his lecture and circulated rumours about his ‘anti-Islam’ views in the locality. On 26th of March, he was attacked with a group of people wielding iron rod. He sustained head injuries and was admitted to a hospital. After being discharged a lodged a police complaint against the extremists but the police has not yet made any arrests. The local people have submitted a mass petition alleging that he has been making anti-Islam remarks hurting the sentiments of Muslims.
Mr Masum Akhtar started getting death threats since his article on the tragedy of Karbala was published in the Bengali daily Dainik Statesman last year. He had dealt with the incident of Karbala from a historical and not religious point of view. Mr Akhtar says that after the publication of the article, he got threats over the phone. Again, he wrote an article on Burdwan blasts last year in which he had said that if any or some madrasas are really found to be involved in such terrorist activities, strong actions should be taken against them. This had again antagonized the madrasa circle. He said that the maulvi and imam of the area were hostile to him for a long time because they could not tolerate his liberal views on Islam.
The original content of his article or his lecture is not available but from Mr Akhtar’s statements and from the newspaper reports it is evident that he has not made any blasphemous remarks about the prophet (pbuh) or about the holy Quran. What he has done is that he has made statements that do not conform to the interpretation of Islam upheld by the fundamentalist coterie which claims to be the custodian of all Islamic thought. Discussing Karbala from a historical point of view, or saying that ‘if’ any madrasa is found to be involved in terrorist incidents, it should be punished appropriately, does not come under the category of blasphemy and so Mr Akhtar cannot be assumed to be another Salman Rushdie or Taslima Nasreen. If he had written anything seriously and really blasphemous even from the standards of Urdu newspapers, the Urdu newspapers must have published the news and by now a couple of articles of so-called custodians of the honour of the prophet (pbuh) and Islam must have appeared in Urdu newspapers published from Kolkata and Hooghly. That the Urdu newspapers have not published the news, at least prominently, points to the fact that what Masum Akhtar wrote or said in the class does not border on blasphemy or anti-Islam statement. It’s only on the provocation of the local maulvi and imam that a group of local ignoramuses attacked the madrasa teacher.
This turn of events is a foreboding of worse days to come in West Bengal. Until now, such drastic steps like attempt to murder were made only if someone was accused of blasphemy against the Quran or the prophet (pbuh) but now that a teacher is attacked only for making some personal statements on his own understanding of Islam or Islamic historical events means that nothing will be tolerated against any established notion or interpretation of Islam or Islamic events. And when this happens in a literate state like West Bengal, other states with a higher Muslim population and a lower literacy rate may follow the example.
Over the last few years, religious groups and sub sects have mushroomed in West Bengal that advocate a strict observance of Islamic practices. For example, the followers of groups that wear a green turban believe that a Muslim should not eat or drink in a house where the people do not grow beard. Similarly, other group suggests that the funeral prayer of someone who was not a namazi (saying prayers five-times-a-day) should not be attended and the person should not be allowed to be buried in a Muslim graveyard. A senior journalist of Kolkata had said on this situation, “Now we feel scared with the growth of religious intolerance in the state.”
Masum Akhtar fears for his life and has expressed his fear to the police. And his fear is not unfounded. This coterie of extremists are gaining impunity by the day due to the lackadaisical approach of the administration as it thinks that this is a religious phenomenon whereas the reality is that it is a political phenomenon. The political situation arising out of the sentencing of Jamaat-e-Islami leaders involved in the rape and massacre of Bangladeshi people in 1971 is behind the growth of extremism in West Bengal. Many razakars (Jamaat killers of secular and nationalsit Bangladeshis) had fled to Indian state of West Bengal after a crackdown on the supporters of the Pakistani army during the crackdown started during Mujib era. A large number or razakars settled in the border areas of Bengal and some also settled in Kolkata.
Presently there are many nongovernmental organizations, political and religious organizations and seminaries run by these erstwhile razakars in the state under various names to hoodwink the government and security agencies. Though they have acquired Indian citizenship and have assimilated in the mainstream population, their loyalties are with pro-Pakistan Islamists in Bangladesh. They have not shunned their extremist ideology. These organizations running under deceptive names carry on the ideology of the razakars and so whenever the need arises all these organizations come on the platform, creating the impression to the government and intelligence agencies that Muslims from all schools of thought have come under one umbrella and so not a particular religious ideology but the whole Muslim population has the same views. This prevents the government from taking any tough step against such organizations and individuals. Some of the journalists and Islamic "scholars" who settled in Bengal constantly propagate their extremist and intolerant ideology through their writings and have contributed to the growth of religious intolerance and religious fundamentalism in the state.
Two days ago, a blogger was killed by two madrasa students for doing the same ‘crime’ – criticizing intolerance and extremism among Muslims. Washiqur Rahman did not commit blasphemy. He did not write anything dishonouring the prophet (pbuh) or the Quran or, God, for that matter. He just wrote a satire against the sexual exploitation of women committed by the ISIS in Syria and the women who participated in the sex jihad. But even this was not tolerable to the two madrasa students because the Muslim media in India and Bangladesh had glorified ISIS as the true Islamic caliphate. In his post, Washiqur adopted the persona of a self-important believer under the pseudonym ‘The Ugly Duckling’ fielding questions from an atheist. For example, he wrote, “See the captive women, impressed at the heroism of the Muslim fighters, used to engage in sex with them willingly. Don’t you see that it gave them pleasure as well?” Washiqur was traumatised by the murder of the blogger Avijit and so had written ‘I am Avijit’ on the banner of his blog.
This intolerant attitude towards other schools of thought or independent thinking is dragging once liberal and broadminded society of West Bengal towards the abyss of religious intolerance and extremism where any dissenting voice will be throttled in the name of the protection of the honour of Islam. The indifference of state and central government agencies to the growing and malignant cancer of Islamist extremism in India will cost the nation dear.
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-terrorism-jihad/masum-akhtar-west-bengal-washiqur/d/102226