It's been very painful and sad to read about the brutal murder of Bangladeshi-American thinker and writer Avijit Roy, and the severe injury caused to his wife in the attack. The two were attacked in the streets of Dhaka, where they had traveled from their home in Georgia to promote his new book.
Dr. Avijit Roy (Photo: The Free Thinker)
Here is some background about Dr. Roy from
his website:
About Me: Dr. Avijit Roy is a Bangladeshi-American blogger, published author, and prominent defender of the free thought movement. He is an engineer by profession, but well-known for his writings in his self-founded site, Mukto-Mona—an Internet congregation of freethinkers, rationalists, skeptics, atheists, and humanists of mainly Bengali and South Asian descent. As an advocate of atheism, science, and metaphysical naturalism, he has published seven Bangla books, and many of his articles have been published in magazines and journals. His latest book, Obisshahser Dorshon (The Philosophy of Disbelief), has been critically well-received and is a popular Bengali book on science, skepticism, and rationalism. He writes from Atlanta, Georgia.
While the attackers have not been apprehended or identified, Dr. Roy had been the subject of a sustained hate campaign conducted by rightwing religious fanatics. Islamist extremist groups and individuals in Bangladesh had called for his death, and it seems all but certain that it was such religious extremists that killed him.
As I dug up what I could online about Dr. Roy, it quickly became apparent that he was truly courageous in taking a public stand against the religious extremists - Islamist and otherwise - and for humanism and freedom of conscience, thought, and expression. His writing shows that he was clearly passionate about the causes he espoused, and he wrote and engaged others in a patient, learned, and very thoughtful manner, about science, rationalism, religion, and atheism, in spite of this vicious and violent rhetoric aimed against him.
Activists protest the murder of Avijit Roy. via The Guardian (Photograph: Munir Uz Zaman/AFP/Getty)
Something that stood out for me in his writings available in English is the way in which Avijit Roy engaged the subjects of his critiques. The masthead on his website, Mukto-mona had this
I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education
Although his objections, criticisms and analyses of religion were extensive and often quite sharp, he did not feel the need to belittle people of faith in general. He spoke with respect and integrity. And in his rationalist critique of religion he did not lump together all Muslims with radical Islamists.
Here is an opening paragraph from his article From Farabi to ISIS: The Virus of Faith is Indeed Real!,
As soon as the book was released, it rose to the Book Fair’s bestseller list. At the same time, it hit the cranial nerve of fundamentalists. The death threats started flowing to my inbox on a regular basis. I suddenly found myself to be a target of militant Islamists and terrorists. A well-known extremist by the name of Farabi Shafiur Rahman (to know about this crazy guy read this Bangla piece) openly issued death threats to me through his numerous Facebook statuses. In one of his widely-circulated statuses Farabi wrote, “Avijit Roy lives in America and so, it is not possible to kill him right now. But he will be murdered when he comes back.”
Notice the terms he uses for those who hate him and threaten his life:
"fundamentalists", "militant Islamists and terrorists", "extremist", "crazy".
With this language, as the article goes on to offer a sustained critique of Islam, Avijit Roy implicitly distinguishes his views from the anti-Muslim bigotry common with the American rightwing, who make a point of not differentiating between Muslims and extremists.
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As an example of the latter see JihadWatch, the website of Robert Spencer, a rightwing radical who collaborates with Pamela Geller and with whom he co-authored the hateful racist book The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America. Here is the headline announcing Avijit Roy's murder:
Bangladesh: Atheist writer hacked to death after threats from Muslims
Or this from
Barenakedislam:
BANGLADESH: American blogger hacked to death with machetes by Muslims for his anti-Islam writings
Or these sentences from
Powerline:
While walking back from the book fair between 8:30 and 9:00 p.m., they were attacked by men wielding cleavers. While they have not been caught, no one doubts that they were Muslims following through on the threats that had been made against Roy.
This indiscriminate and unqualified use of the word "Muslim" to identify extremists is a pernicious trait of the rightwing that serves to cast suspicion on all Muslims as dangerous and inherently violent. Avijit Roy was exemplary in not allowing his critiques of religion and of Islam to lead him to denigrate entire groups of innocent people.
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Dr. Roy also showed a generous and open mind, and when discussing people with whom he disagreed, gave them their full humanity. While I myself don't agree with all of his views on the meaning of religion and the role of faith in society, I hope to strive towards the high ideals of compassion and decency that he embodied. Read this paragraph from his essay defending Bangladeshi bloggers who had been jailed on accusations of "atheism":
when I recite Bangladesher Katha (Story of Bangladesh), I encounter the same contentment as when I read Dawkins’ works. Should such feelings really be measured on a spectrum separating atheism and theism? Even Einstein, arguably the most celebrated man on the planet, abandoned the idea of a personal savior, saying, “I don’t try to imagine a personal God; it suffices to stand in awe at the structure of the world, insofar as it allows our inadequate senses to appreciate it.” The beauty and sublimity of Einstein’s words will no doubt affect a person’s mind, regardless of if he is an outspoken atheist or deeply religious.
In the act of appreciating beauty, he asserts, religious belief or its lack is entirely beside the point. That in itself is a beautiful sentiment that in the moment transcends the atheism/theism divide altogether.
While this is a dark moment, it is heartening to see that progressive Bangladeshis are out in force raising their voices against Islamist extremism and the murder of Dr. Avijit Roy.
(Agence France-Presse)
Hundreds of protesters gathered in Dhaka on today to denounce the murder of a prominent American blogger of Bangladeshi origin hacked to death with machetes after he allegedly received threats from Islamists.
The demonstrators - including teachers, publishers and fellow writers - met near the spot where Avijit Roy, founder of Mukto-Mona (Free-mind) blog, was attacked by unknown assailants as he returned home from a book fair with his wife on yesterday evening.
They chanted slogans including "We want justice" and "raise your voice against militants".
(Update: some tributes and discussion of Dr. Roy's murder have been
posted to the Mukto-Mona website)
.