Author:
Publication: Deccan Chronicle
Date: November 23, 2007
[Note from the Hindu Vivek Kendra: Classic
case of rationaloisation of Islamic vandalism.]
The explosion of Muslim anger on Kolkata's
streets on Wednesday was not sudden. Anger was brewing in the community for
the past 15 days following the publication of an "offensive article"
in a pro-CPI(M) Bengali magazine. Controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima
Nasreen has been keeping a low profile ever since an attack on her at a press
conference in Hyderabad in August. After she returned to Kolkata, security
at and around her residence was beefed up, and she was advised by the police
to refrain from attending too many public programmes. Then why did this outrage
against her snowball suddenly?
Although a section of Muslims in Kolkata had
been demanding that the West Bengal government not allow her to stay in the
state because they felt that she has continuously hurt their religious sentiments
by attacking Islam, Ms Nasreen had not written anything recently which could
have triggered the
mass fury.
A special Durga Puja issue of the magazine,
Patho-Sanket, had carried an article in the form of an open letter in which
the writer, while lauding Ms Nasreen, had allegedly denigrated Islam, the
Quran and Prophet Mohammed. West Bengal transport minister Subhas Chakraborty,
information technology minister Debesh Das and minority welfare and madrasa
minister Abdus Sattar were among the CPI(M) leaders who are members of the
editorial board of the magazine.
When news about this article appeared in a
Urdu daily on November 7, Muslims staged a road blockade at Park Circus in
protest. The All India Minority Forum then took up the issue and held a press
conference at the Kolkata Press Club. Its president, Idris Ali, demanded an
immediate ban on the Puja issue of Patho-Sanket. Acting swiftly, the state
government banned the issue on November 8 and ordered that all its copies
be confiscated. On November 9, after Friday prayers at the Park Circus Maidan
mosque, hundreds of angry Muslims organised road blockades at the Park Circus
crossing. Traffic was disrupted, but later two deputy commissioners of police,
Javed Shamim and Parthasarthi Ghosh, managed to persuade the protesters to
disperse.
At this point, the Milli Ittehad Parishad,
a recently-floated umbrella organisation of several Muslim outfits, entered
the scene. It was on this day that an effigy of Talima Nasreen was burnt,
and speaker after speaker declared that since she was the root cause of all
this trouble, she should not be allowed to stay in West Bengal. On November
11, Mr Sattar resigned from the editorial board of Patho-Sanket, distancing
himself from the controversial article. On November 15, the Milli Ittehad
Parishad held a massive public rally at Esplanade, in the heart of the city,
at which the joint convenor of the parishad, Siddiqullah Chowdhury, who is
also chief of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, dramatically asked the state government
to "choose between Ms Nasreen and Muslims."
This rally was addressed by a number of Muslim
clerics and leaders, including the imam of Id prayers at Red Road, Qari Fazlur
Rahman, the imam of the Tipu Sultan mosque, Syed Noorur Rahman Barkati, Shia
cleric Athar Abbas Rizvi, Trinamul Congress leader Sultan Ahmed and All-India
Minority Forum president Idris Ali. On November 16, after Friday prayers,
the Milli Ittehad Parishad organised road blockades at several strategic points
in the city. Traffic was thrown completely out of gear. The situation could
have turned ugly because a Chhath Puja procession was also taken out at around
the same time. But better sense prevailed, and on the request of the puja
devotees Mr Chowdhury called off the road blockade.
