Thursday, September 24, 2015

Murders of internet bloggers accused of being atheists by Islamist groups...

Bonya Ahmed is herself a writer and was also married to perhaps the most famous atheist killed this year, Avijit Roy - the moderator of a popular online blog called "Free Thinking," which defended secular and humanist ideas.

She and her husband were attacked together in February. Bonya lost fingers and was scarred, but lived. Her husband was hacked to death with machetes in a manner that followed the same gruesome pattern of later killings. They had returned home from the US, where they lived, to the Dhaka Book Fair.

The back story to Bangladesh's blogger murders is complex, but here are the facts in brief: in recent years, a group of people who deny the existence of God, some using rational arguments and others using dark and satirical humour, has grown up on the Bangladeshi internet. Other internet bloggers are not atheists, but instead better described as secular campaigners: they use the internet to strongly argue that religion should be kept out of politics.

In this mostly Muslim nation, these bloggers attracted the attention of Islamic groups - especially after they were part of street rallies demanding a death sentence for an Islamist leader convicted as a war criminal. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Niloy Neel hacked to death in Dhaka, the fourth this year...
  2. Bangladesh becomes killing ground for bloggers...
  3. Bangladesh bloggers continue to receive death threats in wake of brutal...
  4. 'Our country could become like Afghanistan'
  5. Blogger hacked to death in Bangladesh, third this year...
  6. Widow of slain U.S.-Bangladeshi blogger lashes out at Dhaka...
  7. Bangladesh police stood close by during U.S. blogger attack: victim's wife...
  8. American atheist blogger hacked to death in Bangladesh...
  9. Knife attack kills Bangladesh blogger Washiqur Rahman...
  10. Hang atheist bloggers: Bangladeshi Muslims call for execution of blasphemers...

No comments:

Post a Comment