When ISIS Targets Islam

When politicians mistakenly insist that we need to identify the rise of ISIS/ISIL/Daesh, al-Qaeda, and other militant groups that formed within majority-Muslim nations as "radical Islam", they are using a framing that reinforces the claims those groups make towards being genuine practitioners of their faith and in some respects "disappears" the reality that these groups largely prey on Islamic populations.

Senator and former presidential candidate Ted Cruz has made this error, and current presumptive GOP candidate Donald Trump has made this language a particular criticism against the Obama Administration. It's basically a nonsense declaration, and the sort of rhetoric for which Trump is well-known makes him sort of a favorite among the terror-minded.

But when radicalized people make their assaults within Saudi Arabia, and particularly at the Mosque of the Prophet in Medina, then it becomes a little harder to say these are people who revere the culture and holy places of Islam. When we look at the actions of ISIS-claimed attacks in Istanbul, in Dhaka, and in Baghdad, it becomes harder to say that the war ISIS is waging is particularly against "the West". The problem doesn't seem to be merely geographical or religious--it is political and it is based in hate.

This comment by writer Xeni Jardin pretty much sums up what is incredibly wrong with the claim that ISIS is simply "Islamic":

Dude ISIS is bombing Muslim people in Muslim communities during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan how is ISIS Muslim no they're psychopaths

— Xeni Jardin (@xeni) July 3, 2016

All of these events during this holy month of Ramadan probably have their own political loci--but the character of their being heinous and also directed at Muslims suggests clearly, to me, that categorizing such terrorism as "radical Islam" is woefully incomplete. While it might be useful to address regional issues to some extent, the diversity and range of ISIS-claimed attacks makes understanding why they are happening basically useless in any religious context whatsoever.

These attacks are "radical" in the sense of being abnormal and violent, and "Islamic" in the sense of being carried out by people professing (for what it's worth) that religion. But they might as well be anarchists, nihilists, fascists, or any other-ists. To create such misery, their worldview is obviously trash, whatever they want to call it.

Free Speech Update: Poetic License

A Palestinian refugee and poet--an influential figure in the Middle Eastern art scene, Ashraf Fayadh, had been sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia. This is a terrible disgrace. Here we have a person of great culture and learning, being sentenced with death for merely having an artistic discussion regarding the nature of his faith and the things he sees occurring. This is the nature of art--sensitive things are discussed. Art is our way, as artifact-using creatures, to reconcile our inside-lives with our external realities. Of course, this discussion is fraught--how could it not be?

The Saudi government has called this apostasy and basically, atheism. Many good character references insist he is no atheist. Of course, I would declaim--so what if he were?

But a figure like Ashraf Fayadh deserves long life, not death.

Also of interest, a software developer and open culture activist, Bassel Khartabil, has been sentenced to death in Syria by the Assad government. Of course a government that has used barrel bombs and chemical weapons on its own people shudder at transparency--they should! But they should not punish Khartabil for his honest efforts to make things clearer and more open, and let people understand the grave things that were occurring.

Also, I want to offer a meditation about Bangladesh. I've followed that story of extremist Islamist groups targeting bloggers and intellectuals. But I've not really looked at how the government responds to things: this story is a bit of a conflict. Social media sites were shut down there because the death sentences of former officials were just announced. As if news on Facebook might =violence. I don't know that it doesn't. But I still believe the censoriousness encouraged there is up to no good.

Free Speech Update: Bangladesh, India and Iran

I'm not sure how regular a feature this will become, but I do want to pay attention to the issue of free speech globally as a measure of human rights being recognized. Where journalists, cartoonist, authors, are silenced, we have a government in fear that people will understand what they are about through that disallowed speech, who in effect, find secrecy their security. That's why I find governments that act to dampen free speech--and also those who don't support those that might be SLAPPED or silenced through more violent means, because it indicates a sympathy with silence.

First, I mean to offer my congratulation to the writers and their supporters who had a Freedom of Speech rally in Bangladesh. They are standing up against extremism in the face of very real attacks, and I wish them all well.

Ansar al-Islam is Still Targeting Secular Publishers/Writers in Bangladesh

A publisher, Faisal Arefin Dipon, was killed, and two writers were wounded, in a terrorist attack. These attackers are basically a disgrace to civilization because they do not understand that freedom of speech is the beginning of education and civilization. Bangladesh must crack down on these killers of writers and thinkers if they mean to have a civil society. If the government does not, they can only expect worse to follow. Extremists only ever build upon what they get away with.

Update: Via The Friendly Atheist, the Bangladesh Home Minister calls these slayings "isolated incidents". This is patently absurd.  Things that happen over and over again are no longer "isolated".  And if he can't connect the dots, Ansar al Islam has thoughtfully already done that.

Another Bangladeshi Blogger Has Been Murdered

A Bangladeshi blogger known for his atheist views has been hacked to death by a gang armed with machetes in the capital Dhaka, police say. Niloy Neel was attacked at his home in the city's Goran area. He is the fourth secularist blogger to have been killed this year by suspected Islamist militants in Bangladesh. Imran H Sarkar, head of the Bangladesh Blogger and Activist Network, told the Daily News Videonel that Mr Neel had been an anti-extremist voice of reason. "He was the voice against fundamentalism and extremism and was even a voice for minority rights - especially women's rights and the rights of indigenous people," he said.

I despise the fundamentalists who willfully murder such intelligent voices, and feel even more strongly that I should speak out against fundamentalism in my own country. Any impulse that views dissident voices as in need of being extinguished is an impulse of tyranny. Wherever the argument is silenced by force of arms--we have a true failure to communicate. But the failure is on the end of those who use force to silence--not those who use their voice for reason. One more voice was silenced--let a thousand others rise.

UPDATED: Bangladesh Home Minister Kamal in response has made a very strong statement: Don't go writing things that hurt religious sentiment. So the priorities here are clear. You can maybe have people hacked to death in the street, but let's not hurt those religious sentiments.

Bangladesh Must do More to Prevent the Murder of Writers

This interview with Rafida Ahmed, the widow of slain Bangladeshi freethought blogger Avijit Roy, who also suffered injuries in that attack, must be read. Her husband's murder, and the physical assault that cost her a thumb and left several scars, is just a part of a greater pattern of oppression and death because of religious and politically-based ideas. Although Bangladesh was founded with secular ideals, religious extremism has had a free hand in that religious extremist and terrorist influence have grown.

People may be punished for actions, but I am appalled by the idea of people persecuted for their opinions, however outspoken. I feel sorrow for the life cut too short of Avijit Roy, and I wish Rafida Ahmed resolution and peace. What befell her husband and herself was an affront to all thinking, writing, socially concerned people who believe in reason and peace. More should be done to prevent, and persecute, such tragedies.

Update:  via Friendly Atheist,  another murder has taken place. Taslima Nasreen has a more personal reflection of the slain blogger, Ananta Bijoy Das.

Religious Extremists Killed Avijit Roy

Avijit Roy was an atheist blogger who was brutally hacked to death for being an atheist blogger.

Being an atheist is not reason for being hacked to death--I hope.

Being a blogger is not reason to be hacked to death, I hope.

Being an American atheist and blogger a couple days younger than Roy, I realize I haven't challenged religion in the in-your-face way he did, but I feel no less like the kind of religious movement that would kill him, would kill me. And am, not surprisingly, very much against that kind of extremist--the same kind that made a fatwa against Salman Rushdie, that follows Lars Vilks to this day, and that slew several contributors to Charlie Hebdo magazine.

The willingness to slaughter people for words is the weakness that will make religious extremism collapse, because they lead people to the gallows, and there is, no kidding, a humor for that. And this little humor of mine, this bile....this little bile of mine, I'm going to let it shine. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.