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Exiled Bangladeshi Author: “Do Not Say Islam is a Religion of Peace”

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Exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen lashes out at Islam on Twitter

Taslima Nasreen, the Bangladeshi author who has been living in exile since 1994 due to death threats from radical Islamists, last Sunday, lashed out against Bangladesh and Islam through a series of tweets. She tagged Bangladesh as the major contributor to global terror and said that Islam is no longer a religion of peace.

Exiled Bangladeshi Author: “Do Not Say Islam is a Religion of Peace”[/tweetthis]

Nasreen, who rose to global attention with her feminist views and severe criticism of Islam, requested people through her tweet to stop saying that Islam is a religion of peace. The author's outburst comes in the wake of the ISIL-perpetrated terrorist attack that happened in a bakery in Dhaka, Bangladesh, last week. The attack claimed the lives of 28 people, including the 5 gunmen.

Nasreen received a new death threat on the morning of Friday, July 1 from Ansarul Khilafa from Kerala, who pledges their allegiance to the Islamic State. Later that night terrorists attacked Bangladesh. The attackers, all young men, from affluent Bangladeshi families and armed with guns and bombs, entered the Holey Artisan Bakery in Gulshan 2 and started shooting randomly. They also detonated several bombs.

The entire ordeal that lasted for hours was put to an end by a rescue operation conducted by the Bangladesh Armed Forces that lasted about 50 minutes. The people killed by the gunmen included 18 foreigners. According to media reports, the gunmen gave special considerations to Muslim hostages.

Nasreen responded to the attack and the death threats on Monday, saying “They kill without fear because the government hardly takes any action against the perpetrators.” [link to economic times]

The entire ordeal that lasted for hours was put to an end by a rescue operation conducted by the Bangladesh Armed Forces that lasted about 50 minutes. The people killed by the gunmen included 18 foreigners. According to media reports, the gunmen gave special considerations to Muslim hostages.

Through her tweets, Nasreen criticized the media for not calling the attackers and gunmen Islamic terrorists. According to her, the terrorists were all from rich families who had studied at elite schools and colleges, which proves that illiteracy and poverty are not what make people Islamic terrorists. Islam is all one needs to become an Islamic terrorist. Terrorism can be eliminated only by addressing the root cause of it. Brainwashing children with religion has to stop.

Nasreen also criticized the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, for saying that there is no presence of the Islamic State in Bangladesh, while addressing the nation a day after the attack. Nasreen tweeted that the ISIL claimed responsibility for the attack, however, the Prime Minister is rooted in her belief that there is no ISIL presence in the country.

Also, most of the Prime Minister's statement during the aftermath of the attack has been about herself and her government's efficiency, and not about the Friday attack.

Nasreen specifically expressed her outrage over the Islamic State terrorists hacking a young girl to death because she could not recite Quranic verses.

In an interview given to CNN-News 18, Nasreen said “there is no freedom of expression in Bangladesh. Many writers and bloggers were killed or imprisoned” in the past for expressing their views which did not resonate with that of the fundamentalists. Adding, “Many of the secular bloggers have now just stopped writing out of fear.”

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