Taslima Nasreen Threatened with Death (Again)

Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen is one of the world's foremost victims of Islamist threats and censorship. She fled her native country in 1994 after Islamists waged an open campaign demanding her execution. She has since settled in India, where an Islamist group recently demanded her expulsion after Ms. Nasreen wrote an article condemning the veiling of women. Now, her situation has come full circle:

An Indian Muslim group has offered a Rs500,000 ($11,319) bounty for the beheading of controversial Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen.

The president of the All India Ibtehad Council said Friday he had declared the reward for anyone who carried out the quatal (extermination) of the "notorious woman."

"Taslima has put Muslims to shame in her writing. She should be killed and beheaded and anyone who does this will get a reward from the council," Taqi Raza Khan said in a statement received in the northern city of Lucknow.

The council, based in Bareilly town also in Uttar Pradesh state, is a splinter group of the influential All India Muslim Personal Law Board.

Khan said the only way the bounty would be lifted was if Nasreen "apologizes, burns her books, and leaves."

(Emphasis added-DD)


To be fair, a major Islamic seminary has condemned the fatwa, calling it "un-Islamic". However, they also echoed the demand that Ms. Nasreen be expelled from India.