ZNet,
Citizen India, Stand Up
By Badri Raina, August 15, 2007
Baske dushwaar hai har kaam ka aasan hona,
Aadmi ko bhi mayassar nahi insaan hona.
—Mirza Ghalib
How hard, how impossible
To do the things one can;
Ah that the mighty earthling
Is hardly ever a man.
(trans., in Raina’s Ghalib, Writer’s Workshop, Calcutta, 1984).
It is once again time to speak straight to the point.
An act of the most grossly irreligious cowardice was on display at the Press Club in Hyderabad the other day.
Three elected members of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly belonging to the MIM (Majlis-e-Ittahadul Muslimeen) party barged into the Club where Taslima Nasreen, the self-exiled Bangladeshi writer, now living in India on six-monthly renewable visas, was to release Telegu editions of her works.
On cue, these MLAs, led by Akbaruddin Owaisi, proceeded to pelt the guest author with books, flower pots and other sundry missiles. Television footage of the barbarity clearly showed Ms.Nasreen being hit several times on the head. But for some brave protection furnished by elderly hosts, real physical injury might have been caused to Ms Nasreen who has been critical of Islamic orthodoxy on several counts, especially concerning Muslim women. As the world knows, umpteen fatwas are out requiring her to be beheaded.
Peace and Justice Post 
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