Third blogger hacked to death in Bangladesh: police

[Bosonic]

Source: Reuters

A blogger was hacked to death by machete-wielding attackers in Bangladesh on Tuesday, the third killing of a critic of religious extremism in the Muslim-majority nation in less than three months.

Ananta Bijoy Das, a blogger who advocated secularism, was attacked by four assailants in the northeastern district of Sylhet on Tuesday morning, senior police official Mohammad Rahamatullah told Reuters.

Rahamatullah said Das was a 33-year-old banker.

Das wrote for 'Mukto Mona’, or free mind, a website propagating rationalism and opposing fundamentalism that was founded by U.S.-based blogger Avijit Roy.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/12/us-bangladesh-blogger-idUSKBN0NX0D820150512

[Recursion]

1. Holy ****. I was literally just there.

Dakka is getting very very troubling right now

[longship]

2. The beatings will continue until morale improves.

Does any rational person believe that this kind of action will improve anything?

Then again, religious fundamentalism is not rational. Killing for a perceived butt hurt is cuckoo crazy. That's why blasphemy laws suck, and why the US Constitution's First Amendment is a good thing.

We not only have freedom of religion here, we have freedom from religion. And that is a very good thing.

FFRF

[RKP5637]

3. "... freedom from religion." is definitely a very very good thing!!! n/t

[lostnfound]

4. Yet weirdly the U.S. is considered far more religious than Europe.

I agree with your comments.

[Coventina]

11. There's a complicated history there. Most European nations have

a state religion (for complicated historical reasons I won't bore you with).
There used to be very strict restrictions on the practicing of other faiths.

That's why America was settled by those seeking religious freedom: dissident groups like the Puritans, Quakers, etc. They wanted the freedom to practice their religion without any restrictions and were willing to undergo a severing of all ties to their homeland and make a dangerous ocean voyage, and start from scratch in a foreign land. So you know they were pretty devout!

So, America was founded on religious freedom, but by extremely devout people, and that tradition, though fading, still remains.

Meanwhile, Europe became more and more secular, and stopped enforcing their state religions.
They still exist, but hardly anyone (percentage wise) practices.

[lostnfound]

33. Thanks for putting that in perspective.

It's a good explanation and I'm sure you're right.
It's an ironic and classic example of the axiom, "Every problem contains the seeds of its own solution."

[YOHABLO]

5. Freedom from religion .. yes. Let's make sure that the Christo-Fascists know this.

[geek tragedy]

6. Cue the "I don't condone murder BUT" folks

who blamed the staff of Charlie Hebdo for their own deaths.

[iandhr]

8. I was going to say the same thing

[cosmicone]

10. +1,000,000 n/t

[cosmicone]

16. Also cue the "Christians are just as bad" folks n/t

[samsingh]

22. it's the but folks that are supporting the extremists. tacit approval is approval

of their methods.

[Blue_Tires]

7. Greenwald, Timm and the rest were unavailable for comment

[cosmicone]

9. This post has been hidden by a Jury decision

My preemption ... because anything I may write here about Islam and its teachings, regardless of veracity, will end up hurting someone's net feelings and my freedom of speech will be censored anyway.

[Coventina]

12. LOL!

[Chan790]

29. I'm glad I didn't ask you to predict the lottery numbers.

On Tue May 12, 2015, 03:27 PM an alert was sent on the following post:

This post has been hidden by a Jury decision
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=1091326

REASON FOR ALERT

This post is disruptive, hurtful, rude, insensitive, over-the-top, or otherwise inappropriate.

ALERTER'S COMMENTS

Preemptive meta, begging to be hidden

You served on a randomly-selected Jury of DU members which reviewed this post. The review was completed at Tue May 12, 2015, 03:34 PM, and the Jury voted 0-7 to LEAVE IT.

Juror #1 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #2 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #3 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #4 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: I've read many, many more disruptive posts than this one.
Juror #5 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #6 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: Prediction failed? There is nothing hideable about this post.

Alerter--I'm rolling my eyes at you.
Juror #7 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given

Thank you very much for participating in our Jury system, and we hope you will be able to participate again in the future.

[Proud Public Servant]

30. Enjoy this dizzying contradiction

You actually got reported anyway. And...

Juror #1 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
You served on a randomly-selected Jury of DU members which reviewed this post. The review was completed at Tue May 12, 2015, 03:34 PM, and the Jury voted 0-7 to LEAVE IT.

Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #2 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #3 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #4 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: I've read many, many more disruptive posts than this one.
Juror #5 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #6 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: Prediction failed? There is nothing hideable about this post.

Alerter--I'm rolling my eyes at you.
Juror #7 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given

Thank you very much for participating in our Jury system, and we hope you will be able to participate again in the future.

[riderinthestorm]

13. Calling all those who think Charlie Hebdo provoked their own massacre!

come out folks! Don't be shy! There were literally hundreds of DUers saying CH deliberately poked the hornets nest and whadyaexpect?

Or the alternate version - of course free speech BUT CH had to know there'd be consequences....

Or my personal fave! It's not polite to question a persons deeply held beliefs so, yeah, massacre.

So DUers here's your chance to trot out the old excuses for why this secular blogger had to be hacked to death!

[geek tragedy]

14. Remember: Islam and religion are never to blame. nt

[samsingh]

26. on the contrary.

[Coventina]

15. Actually, I've noticed that they steer clear of these blogger hacking deaths.

I'm not sure why.....



on edit: typo

[geek tragedy]

17. same reason they steer clear of any Islamist attacks on synagogues nt

[riderinthestorm]

18. Maybe because it shows how shameful their positions are in stark definition?

I have no answer Coventina but I know each and every one of their blame-the-victim excuses is pretty despicable.

This guy was hacked to death because he was secular in a religious culture and wrote about that.

Any victim blaming is sick imo and says far more about that poster than I can ever demonstrate.

[samsingh]

23. i agree

[samsingh]

24. because these deaths show the stupidity of the excuser reasoning and positioning

[treestar]

21. The difference here is the guy was just advocating secularism

He wasn't making fun of Mohamed or drawing him. So these fundies are really really extreme - the way they killed him, too. Crazier than the crazies at Charlie Hebdo even.

[samsingh]

25. any death for a principle is NOT allowed

Charlie Hedbo's are not crazy. the imbeciles killing because they don't get their way are the ones who are crazy and their tacit supporters.

[treestar]

31. Why would you interpret it like that?

I referred to the killers as the crazies. Geez.

[riderinthestorm]

28. So there's some magical line on provocative action/speech that some are crossing?

And that justifies the "crazies" to be provoked into rage and massacre? You however don't believe this guy crossed that line?

Let's review the facts of his case then:

This guy had two predecessors hacked to death in Bangladesh before him because they too were "just advocating secularism".

So clearly he already knew that this was a line too far for the "crazies".

So was being hacked to death a fate he was provoking? or not? Clearly he already knew that speaking out for secularism in Bangladesh was provocative - he had two very recent examples of exactly how that would be received.

[treestar]

32. I did not say any such fucking thing

I only pointed out the difference. Geez.

Where did I say anything was justified? I did not. Why would you be so malicious as to twist what I said on a message board where all can see it?

[whatthehey]

19. It's ok. Religion will have had nothing to do with this, you'll see.

Whenever theo-crazies kill people or commit other heinous acts obviously, and frequently vocally, motivated by religion, we just need to wait for the DU faithapologists to tell us whether it was really mental illness, cuitural oppression gone wrong, a lack of welfare spending, or poor family networking. Or of course it's possible they are not "real" believers too if things get too tricky.

Because it's never religiously motivated when it's nasty. Only positive actions can be motivated by faith, and then it's obviously religion at work, even if performed by nonbelievers.

[geek tragedy]

27. no, this was obviously resistance to western imperialism and oppression.

Of course it had nothing to do with religion.

because sadly that is necessary

[okaawhatever]

20. How disgusting. nt