Friday, November 30, 2007

Feminist Author Caves to Islamists

Looks like the Religion of Peace has intimidated another writer.

Taslima Nasreen removes comment
Controversial Bangladeshi feminist writer Taslima Nasreen has said she will withdraw some "controversial" lines from one of her books.

The lines are from Dwikhondito (Split into two) which, some Muslim groups say, are derogatory to Islam.
Of course, the seething has already started:
There have been violent protests against Ms Nasreen by Muslims in West Bengal's capital, Calcutta, recently.

She has been moved from one city to another in the last few days for her own safety after these protests and is now lodged in a safe house in the capital, Delhi.
What was the controversy about?
Critics have accused the writer of calling for the Koran to be changed to give women greater rights, something she denies.

Ms Nasreen fled Bangladesh in the early 1990s after death threats and has spent the last three years in Calcutta after a long stay in Europe.

Last week, after the riots in Calcutta, Ms Nasreen was flown out of Calcutta in a special plane to Delhi from where she was taken to Jaipur in the western state of Rajasthan.
I suggest that Ms. Nasreen switch to criticising Christians and Jews. You can say anything you want about them and be supported/applauded by the mainstream and the left (but I repeat myself).

More here.
The federal government has pledged to protect Nasreen and moved her to a safe house outside New Delhi at the weekend after thousands of Muslims took to the streets in her adopted home Kolkata demanding her expulsion.

At the same time, the Congress party-led government warned Nasreen not to make any statements that might "hurt the sentiments of our people" -- a reference to India's 140-million-plus Muslims.

Extremists accused the author of blasphemy over her 1994 novel "Lajja" or "Shame," which depicts violence against minority Hindus by Muslim fundamentalists in Bangladesh.

They called for her execution for that and other works.
The silence from feminists around the world is deafening.

Update: Linked at Hot Air. Thanks!

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