The eerie sound of silence

IT'S almost like a ritual killing that will happen every now and then. The word 'blogger' has become the most hateful word in the dictionary of religious extremists. Ironically the masterminds behind the killers and many of their supporters are themselves bloggers, blogging on their websites hate and intolerance, encouraging, applauding the idea of chopping up someone for expressing their own thoughts.

Was Oyasiqur Rahman the March target, one cannot help but wonder as we shudder at the way he was killed – with cleavers that slashed at his throat and face – a signature style mastered by these self appointed members of the moral police. Avijit after all, was the February target and symbolically slashed to death at the Ekushey Boi Mela outside Bangla Academy. What could epitomize more the notion of free speech and progressive thinking than this event held inside that particular venue?

We cannot help but think who else is in the hit list that included Humayan Azad, Ahmed Rajib Haider, Avijit Roy and now Oyasiqur. In Avijit's case what was just as appalling was that out of all those bystanders watching the killing and even taking pictures, only one brave soul came forward to help Avijit and his wife Bonya, bloodied by their assailants, and take them to the hospital. There were policemen nearby but they didn't do anything. An official probe has rejected the idea of police negligence and Avijit's father Professor Ajay Roy has rejected the probe as he rightfully considered it to be biased and therefore ineffectual. Avijit's self-proclaimed assailant Farabi has been arrested but the killers who actually carried out the assassination have not been found. One cannot help but ask – will they be, ever?

This time some individuals did come forward even though it was too late for 27-year-old Oyasiqur. But at least two of the attackers were caught, ironically by two brave transgender individuals derogatorily labelled 'hijras' and considered the rejects of society by the majority of this country's people. The so-called 'normal people' watched in silence. Perhaps there is a message in that.

Now that two of the killers have been caught the police have enough evidence to work with. Both killers are students of well known madrassas and neither of them even knew what a 'blog' was. All they cared was that they had been commanded by their 'hujur' – their spiritual leader that this man had to be eliminated because 'hujur' said that he was working against Islam by condemning an atheist's murder on social media. The police have said others besides the three assailants may have been involved in the murder – a 'sleeper cell' tactic carried out by extremist groups. We can only hope that the police and the government will make sincere efforts to catch the masterminds of these killers, failing which there is likely to be more such gruesome assassinations.

This brings us to the disturbing truth that many of our young people are being brainwashed by these hatemongering extremists who implant ideas that have little to do with the actual tenets of religion and everything to do with twisted interpretations of faith. And we as a nation have allowed this to happen over the decades, looking the other way when such crimes have been committed. This is because when you claim you are doing something, anything, in the name of religion you are practically invincible and enjoy total immunity.  Faith can be easily abused to satisfy the basest of desires – the desire to beat, kill, humiliate, grab someone else's land or just slaughter someone because you don't like how they think. It is easy to abuse religious beliefs because any kind of dissenting opinion or theological debate has been culled with the use of terror. At many gatherings even the most learned scholars sit quietly while the cleric gives his fanciful, sometimes preposterous, version of what he thinks is the most righteous way to live. They may have absolutely nothing to do with what the religious texts say but who will dare challenge him? More importantly, who really knows enough to be able to challenge him?   

A few weeks ago the news of three British teenage girls running away to Syria to join ISIS and possibly marry their members sent shock waves all across the word. For us it was all the more frightening because they were all South Asian, two of them Bangladeshi. Their families say they have no clue why their daughters/sisters ran away and pleaded the UK government for their return. These girls went to good schools and came from fairly well-to-do families. So why did they choose to abandon their families and go into an unknown world from where they may never return? 

There have been many such incidents of young girls and boys all over the world becoming radicalized, joining extremist groups and carrying out deadly missions that include suicide bombings and premeditated killings of targets considered opponents of the ideology preached by those groups.

Somehow, somewhere, we are doing something wrong. Families are supposed to be nurturing, instilling good values in their young. Religion is expected to make people better, kinder, more tolerant human beings. It is these ideals that attract people to embrace a religion – because they want to be better persons and so that they can help their fellow human beings. That is what most major religions of the world have been based on.

We do not know how the killers of Oyasiqur have been brainwashed into being so cold-blooded, inhuman and devoid of moral conscience. Many of us may not endorse the opinions of Oyasiqur or Avijit or any of the other bloggers/writers who have been systematically assassinated. Some of us couldn't care less what their opinions were. But if we are to claim ourselves to be human beings we must all be united in our condemnation of the idea of taking another life because of a different point of view.

The writer is Deputy Editor, Editorial & Op-ed, The Daily Star.