UPDATED::Avijit Roy's publisher, 2 bloggers hacked in Dhaka | Dhaka Tribune

UPDATE::Bangladeshi Police Arrest Islamic Radical Suspected of Attacking Publisher of Atheist Books

I bring all that up because Bangladeshi police may have found Tutul’s assailant. The police made headlines last week when they rounded up at least 3,000 people (some estimates say 8,000) suspected of being Islamic radicals. One of those suspects has now been charged with carrying out the attack on Tutul,,,

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And it continues, first Avijit Roy, continuing with Washiqur Rahman, Ananta Bijoy Das, and then Niloy Neel.  Sadly now, Faisal Arefin Dipon; publisher of some of Roy’s books as head of the Jagriti Prakashani publishing house.

Three bloggers and writers, including the publisher of Shuddhashar Prokashani, Ahmedur Rashid Tutul, have been hacked in the capital's Lalmatia area.

Shuddhashar Prokashani published slain writer-blogger Avijit Roy's book Shunya Theke Mahabishwa and the publisher reportedly received death threat after the brutal murder of Avijit. Tutul has written two poetry books--Durbalataguchchha, Mrita Ghorhar Hresha.


Two other injured bloggers-writers are--Sudeep Kumar Ray Barman, who writes under the name of Ranadipam Basu, and Tareq Rahim.

Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Friendly Atheist has a nice write up with responses from the Center For Inquiry-US, Centre For Inquiry-Canada and the American Humanist Association.

If you do not speak out against the extremism you condone it, it is no longer fringe when it is occurs in our everyday life.  Religion (all religion) must be eliminated from the public sphere.

Avijit Roy's publisher, 2 bloggers hacked in Dhaka | Dhaka Tribune

See also: Bangladesh: Publisher of secular books Faisal Arefin Deepan hacked to death

February 12-13, 2016::End of the day round-up (pg 2)

LGBT Students Have a Right to Know What Schools Discriminate Against Them

While it would take new legislation from Congress to narrow the kinds of carte blanche discrimination (e.g. denying campus housing to transgender students that is consistent with their gender identity) that Title IX’s religious exemption permits, the ACLU has urged the U.S. Department of Education to act where it can. As a bare minimum, LGBT students and their families should have a right to know about the kinds of taxpayer-funded discrimination they can be subjected to by their school.

Last week, the head of the Office for Civil Rights within the Department of Education — in response to a letter from several senators, led by Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) — stated that the department would provide greater transparency about requests for religious exemptions by publishing them online for the public to view for themselves. Up to this point, it has often taken FOIA requests and investigative journalism for this information to come to light.

FL anti-abortion hearing turns racist: ‘White culture’ dies if women are ‘outside the home not having babies’

A Florida state House subcommittee heard testimony on Monday that the “white culture” would be destroyed if white women were “outside the home not having babies” while other ethnicities had a higher birthrate.

During a House Criminal Justice Subcommittee meeting on Monday, lawmakers discussed HB 865, a bill that would ban all abortions except in cases where the health of the mother was at risk.

Republican Rep. Charles Van Zant, who sponsored the bill, argued that life began at conception, and that even zygotes were “citizens of Florida.”

While testifying about the bill, an anti-abortion activist named Paul injected race into the discussion.

“We see the destruction we’re bringing upon ourself as a nation,” Paul opined. “The Muslims, they don’t kill the babies.”

February 26 – Avijit Roy Day Honouring Murdered Atheist Writers in Bangladesh

Please come to this special event in Toronto on Feb. 26th:

February 26th, 2016, marks the passing of one year since the brutal extremist attacks that left Avijit Roy dead and his wife, Rafida Ahmed, seriously injured. CFIC members, friends, and supporters are encouraged to join us as we present the first Avijit Roy Day in honour of murdered atheist writers, publishers, and activists. CFI Canada is proud to work with Mukto Mona (Bangladeshi Freethinking) for this special event. 

Time: 7-9 PM

Venue: Albert Campbell Auditorium (Toronto Public Library)

Address: 496 Birchmount Road, Toronto, ON, M1K 1N8

Bradlee Dean: Gay People Have Never Once Been Victims Of Hate

“Those radicals need to be lawfully dealt with because they are radical, they mean to divide and conquer, they mean to make war against real Christianity.”

“I’ve yet to find a situation where a homosexual could actually verify the fact that they were the victim of someone actually hating on them,” he said. “I have yet to see it.”

Naturopath put breastfeeding mum on water only diet: court

From February to April last year Bodnar, 59, treated the mother, who came to her to help cure her newborn son of eczema.

She allegedly convinced the mother, who cannot be identified, that the only way to help the baby was to adopt a diet of raw vegetables, fruit and seeds.

The court heard the mother was "intimidated by the accused" and made to feel guilty for using steroid creams to treat the eczema "as it was best to use nothing to allow the skin to breathe".

Bodnar allegedly told the mother "Are you 100 per cent raw? You have to be 100 per cent raw if you want to see your son heal."

Police allege that when the baby developed a fever Bodnar told the mother to adopt a water only diet, telling her that her baby would not get better if she ate.

When the child was six months old his mother asked Bodnar if she could feed him vegetable puree but the naturopath allegedly advised her to put raw food in a net and let the infant suck it.

Bodnar is also accused of telling the mother to feed the child goat milk.

City Officials: Evansville property owner possibly blurs the line of free speech

"I personally had not received any complaints on that property, and after I went and looked at it, I was a little surprised that I hadn't."

According to the assessor's office, the property has been owned by Michael J. Williams for 10 years.

We knocked on his door twice today, but no one answered.

But plenty of surveillance camera systems equipped with microphones, were watching us.

" I personally wouldn't like it, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's illegal."

Building Commissioner Ron Beane says the city's legal team is examining this case closely.

Do these phrases violate city ordinances to property maintenance, or is this the owner's right to use his house as a canvas for social issues?

"I think it might be offensive to some people but I think it might be a freedom of speech. We're used to it, we've laughed about it and made comments about it," explains a woman who lives nearby.

You mustn’t ‘engage in sodomy with the sewage system of another’s anatomy’

Staunchly right-wing pundit Larry Tomczak recently unveiled a little challenge he presented to himself: The “30 Day Bullseye Challenge,” to be exact.

The project consists of producing 30 short, blippy videos that demonstrate the proper etiquette and desired worldview of a practicing Christian.

The series touches upon all the hot-button issues one might expect, particularly homosexuality, which Tomczak suggests leads to a lifetime of disease and abject misery should one venture down that shadowy left-hand path:

“With all the hoopla about this one and that one, hey, they’re coming out and it being a time to celebrate gay marriage and gay lifestyles as normal, natural, beautiful. People need to awaken … to the reality that this so-called love story doesn’t have a happy ending.”

Senator seeks protections for same-sex marriage objectors

A Georgia lawmaker says religious adoption agencies, schools and other nonprofits should be able to refuse service to same-sex couples; months after the U.S. Supreme Court effectively legalized gay marriage nationwide.
,,,
Gay rights and civil rights organizations already have bashed the proposal, calling it anti-LGBT and broader than a federal version. Those groups warn Kirk’s bill would let religious nonprofits or organizations deny same-sex couples even if receiving taxpayer money.

Are you sure you’re not the next target? | Dhaka Tribune

Niloy Neel, the last blogger to be killed, knew that his life was in danger. After his murder, it has been learnt that he went to the police seeking protection. But instead of giving him protection, the police advised him to go abroad. It has also been learned that Niloy told others about this matter on May 15.

When are we ever going to learn that, sometimes, making things public instead of keeping them secret can ensure protection? The friends of Niloy who knew were probably concerned about him, but what about the possibility that if they had made the matter public, could Niloy’s life could have been saved? After Ananta was killed, we came to know that he had been trying but had failed to go abroad. His friends knew this.

But there is no reason to feel upset that those friends failed to create a security cordon around him. The machete is filling up the gap created by our inability to form solidarity. The quicker you realise that, the better it will be.

Are you sure you’re not the next target? | Dhaka Tribune

UPDATE::Bangladesh police arrest 3 suspects in bloggers' murders

So there has been progress on three of the assassinations, good,,,

Authorities in Bangladesh said Tuesday that they have arrested three men, including a British citizen, for their involvement in the murders of two secular bloggers.

The three are suspected members of the Ansarullah Bangla Team, a banned Islamic militant outfit, said Maj. Maksudul Alam, a spokesman for the country's Rapid Action Battalion. Bangladesh banned the group in May after police accused its members of threatening and killing bloggers and writers.

Alam said one of the arrested men, Touhidur Rahman — a British citizen of Bangladeshi origin — was the mastermind and financier of the attacks on bloggers Avijit Roy and Ananta Bijoy Das, who were killed earlier this year.

The suspects were arrested Monday night in raids in Dhaka, Bangladesh's capital, and appeared with authorities at a news briefing Tuesday.

Mufti Mahmud Khan, the head of the battalion's media wing, told reporters that while Rahman was the main planner of the killings, another suspect who was arrested, Sadek Ali, acted as a bridge to communicate with Mufti Jasim Rahmani, the alleged head of the militant group. Ali, 28, became involved with Rahmani while working as a printing press worker, Khan said.

Bangladesh police arrest 3 suspects in bloggers' murders

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