'Religion is Virus'- This was the recurring theme of blog posts and articles written by rationalist, free thinker and author Avijit Roy. Questioning all the religious superstition and hypocrisies, he wanted people to anchor their beliefs based on available evidences. The Bangladeshi-America author was an atheist who spoke against intolerance of different religions. Not only that, he was not hesitant to poke holes into beliefs and works of towering figures of different religions. But his daring attitude met the same fate as Charlie Hebdo cartoonists.
Although he was hacked to death by suspected Islamic militants, Avijit was an equal opportunity offender speaking against bigotry of all. On Thursday, writer Avijit Roy and his wife, Rafida Ahmed Banya, were returning from a book fair at Dhaka University when they were attacked by unidentified miscreants. Ahmed, who is also a blogger, was seriously injured. According to reports, the couple who has a daughter was attacked by cleaver and the attackers nearly chopped of his neck from head. The doctors had very little time to save him.
(In happier times: Avijit, Banya and their daughter Trisha. Picture courtesy: Avijit's FB page)
Avijit was a scientist by profession working in USA. A freethinker, Avijit is known for his writings which has always been critical about religious fanaticism. One of his article in his blog (which is currently offline) Muktomona (Free-thinker) says about how religion is virus. The phrase comes as a recurring motif in many of his writings. He says religion is virus and in turn thinking of human mind gets polluted to become virus. So from condemning Peshawar attack to speaking his mind about the Charlie Hebdo incident, Avijit mentioned how religious orthodoxy is antithesis to rational thinking. According to his family members, Avijit has been target of Islamic fundamentalists for a very long time and he has been receiving threats for past few years. Avijit has written 9 books overall that deal from topics from evolution of mankind to homosexuality. But free uncluttered thinking has been one of the major emphasis of his books.
(Picture of book. Courtesy: Taslima Nasreen's blog)
Incidentally Avijit, has also taken potshot on several Hindu nationalistic icons like Swami Vivekananda, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Rishi Aurobindo and Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. He said that communalism is not an exclusive domain of any particular religion, but is very much prevalent in all major religions.
In one of his Facebook post, he expresses support towards Aamir Khan's movie PK. He says that movie like PK hits the barrier of superstition people build around themselves. He said that PK exposed the nakedness of religion and hence headliners have problems dealing with it.
According to police reports, little known Islamic organisation Ansar Bangla 7 has taken responsibility for the killing. Ansar Banga 7 boasts of murdering the author on their Twitter account. In series of tweets, they claim that Avijit was killed because of his sins against Islam. According to the organisation this is a double victory for them as the author lived in USA. They claim that Avijit used to live in USA because of threat perception and came to Dhaka to attend the book fair. Incidentally while returning from the fair, Roy was hacked to death.
Avijit Roy is the third blogger/ author who has been attacked by Islamic fundamentalists. Way back in 2004, writer Humayun Azad was similarly attacked in the Dhaka book fair premises. Couple of years back, blogger Rajib Ahmed, one of the mainstays of Shahbag Movement was killed by hardliners. According to police, the modus operandi in Avijit's case bears uncanny resemblance to those incidents.
Avijit's blog Muktomona is currently offline. It is bearing the message, 'Aamra Sokahoto, Kintu Aamra Aparajito' ( We are heartbroken but we are undefeated). We can only hope that voice of reason always remains undefeated over voice of bigotry.
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