They know there will be no justice. There will be no judicial trial. They will not be caught. Brutal killing of bloggers has become some sort of fashion in Bangladesh of late. Every once in a while there are headlines of some free-thinking bloggers being killed or injured in attacks by religious extremists. Therefore, it was only…
Read more In conversation with Rafida Bonya Ahmed
Last month, I attended a weekly rally of the infamous Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West, better known as Pegida, a far-right organisation that shot into news last year for its mass demonstrations against “Islamisation” of Germany. I had a long conversation with its founder Lutz Bachmann and leader Tatjana Festerling. Both were…
Read more Germany’s anti-Islamist group has a new hero: Narendra Modi
Bangladesh celebrated its 44th Victory Day on December 16 last year. On that day in 1971, the Pakistan Army surrendered before the India-Bangladesh forces in Dhaka, leading to the liberation of erstwhile East Pakistan and the birth of Bangladesh. The rare public surrender at the Race Course grounds marked the end of the 13-day India-Pakistan…
Read more A culture that ignores poetry is a defective culture