Exclusive - Widow of slain U.S.-Bangladeshi blogger lashes out at Dhaka | Reuters

This is not the usual type of story I share.  As I am woefully under-educated on issues concerning Islam, ISIS/ISIL/IS, I am not comfortable in my lack of knowledge.  But, this story was shared by a friend and fellow podcaster who is versed in such issues and it struck a nerve:

“This was well planned, choreographed – a global act of terrorism,” she said. “But what almost bothers me more is that no one from the Bangladesh government has reached out to me. It’s as if I don’t exist, and they are afraid of the extremists. Is Bangladesh going to be the next Pakistan or Afghanistan?”

Here is a woman - like Malala Yousafzai, like Ensaf Haidar - who has the tenacity to speak out in her own words, about what her world is like.

On a recent evening in a Midwestern U.S. city, a middle-aged woman with bandaged arms and a missing thumb entered a crowded restaurant. Nearby, children colored with crayons. Waiters rushed by.

The maimed woman, Rafida Ahmed, scanned the room nervously. The Atlanta financial executive has been hiding since Islamic militants wielding machetes attacked her on Feb. 26 in her native Bangladesh.

During the assault, her husband – the Bangladeshi-American secular activist and blogger Avijit Roy – was hacked to death. Ahmed sustained four head wounds, and her left thumb was sliced off. On May 3, the Indian-born head of al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent claimed responsibility for a string attacks in Bangladesh and Pakistan, including Roy's.

The murder of Roy, an atheist who published a popular and provocative blog, marks an escalation by Islamist militants for control of Bangladesh. Religious fundamentalists are competing daily with secular government officials for power in the majority-Muslim country, one of the world’s largest and poorest democracies. 

Something I did not know,

Roy was a young child during the formative years that followed Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence from Pakistan. The war had roots in colonialism and religion. Although Pakistan and Bangladesh shared neither a border nor common language, they had been joined as one in 1947, as the British departed the subcontinent. The demarcation was largely based on one factor: most who lived in Pakistan and Bangladesh were Muslim.

Bangladesh was founded as a secular country, but U.S. and Bangladesh officials said the Islamic fundamentalist influence began to increase in the 1990s as wealthy Arabs began building hundreds of religious schools. The same officials say militant influence also increased as waves of Bangladeshis who had moved to the Persian Gulf as labourers returned home with stricter Muslim views.

And yes, angry tears did flow freely.  Such a loss over which god has a bigger penis!!

Exclusive - Widow of slain U.S.-Bangladeshi blogger lashes out at Dhaka | Reuters