 Muslim clerics in eastern India issued a 'death warrant' against Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen on Friday, threatening her life if she did not leave the country where she lives in exile.
| They're actually making the assumption that they live in an uncivilized country, the kind where holy men aren't held to the same standard of beheavior as normal people, where they can issue such decrees without being charged with incitement to murder. I guess the rest of us will find ou if that's the kind of country they live in or not. |
The threat came after a meeting of dozens of clerics from prominent mosques in Kolkata - where the writer lives - who said she had invited their wrath through her 'repeated criticism' of Islam in her books and speeches.
| There's a growing number of people world-wide who're inviting their wrath. The reason so many people are inviting their wrath is because of the misplaced arrogance of the holy men, who attempt to impose their own laws on the rest of mankind when the rest of mankind would as soon see them in hell. |
While one prominent cleric said Nasreen had a month to leave, another said she had 15 days.
| They weren't real good on arithmetic or even time keeping back in the madrassah, were they? Neither is in the Koran. |
Anyone who killed her would get cash reward of Indian Rs 100,000, they said. "Anyone who executes the warrant will also be given additional rewards," said Nurur Rehman Barkati, a cleric of one of the biggest mosques in Kolkata. The move by the clerics came a week after Muslims in Hyderabad attacked Nasreen during the launch of a translation of one of her novels. Police said they had stepped up security around Nasreen's house in Kolkata. Nasreen said their illegal order destroyed India's secular image. "I have never hurt religious sentiments and strongly believe in freedom of speech," she said. |