It has been a whirlwind decade for Bangladesh in many respects, with its reputation in the international arena tanking due to various issues such as corruption, cutthroat fundamentalism which have plagued it in the recent past.
Perhaps the acute ones, after all, are its tussle blasphemy or the publication of blasphemous content through various means and channels.
This past 16th of April 2018 was another date, in a long list of ones, which served as a timely reminder. A man named Md. Shamim filed a blasphemy lawsuit with the Chief Magistrate Court, naming one Nazmul Hossain A.K.A “Ghatok” as the primary defendant, along with 35 other individuals.
Mr. Hossain has been accused of writing an article for a magazine called “Atheist In Bangladesh”, whereby he can be found criticising Islam and it’s entities, using foul and obscene language. His actions resulted in the lawsuit being filed under Bangladesh Penal Code 295, along with the publisher and contributors of the whole magazine being named amongst the accused.
Along with Mr. Nazmul Hossain the names of the other accused individuals are as follows,
Editor Arifur Rahman, Shujon Chandra Dev, Tahera Sultana, Foysal Hossain Onik, Saiful Islam, Naymul Islam, Hossain Mohammed Parvez, Syed Mohammad Shajeeb Abed, Suranjoy Sarker,Syed Samun Ali, Abdul Ahad Shanto, Shipon Ahmed, Jubair Ahmed, Kamrun Nahar Shahana, Syed Sunvy Anick Hossain, Syed Ishtiak Hossain Shawon, Pinaki Deb Opu, Riana Trina, Hosne Mubarak, Adnan Sakib, Abu Taher Mohammad Mustafa, Enayetul Huda, Muhammad Tamzid Hossain, Roosevelt Haldar, Mohammad, Tofail Hossain, Abu Hanif, Ashef Abrar Tito, Iyaz Kawsar, Miltan Kumar Dey, M. D. Abdullah Al-Hasan, Kazi Mohammad Saiful Haque, M. D. Mehedi Hasan, Sharmin Khan, Shahdat Hossain.
Our court correspondent was able to have a conversation with the plaintiff for this lawsuit Mr. Shamim. The gentleman informed us that the entirety of this magazine is dedicated towards slandering, rebuking, criticizing Islam in the most crude and obscene manners imaginable. He said that he is extremely hurt and bemused by the actions of these individuals. He also stated that it was his duty as “a proud Muslim of a peace-loving nation” to punish those who are capable of going to such lengths in order to speak foul of “our beloved Prophet (PBUH) and our Lord”. He was also able to inform us that Mr Nazmul and others have been slating Islam and other religions for quite a while now.
Our court correspondent also discovered that this particular magazine has been regularly publishing content which is abusive and vehemently critical of religious practices. A bit more digging revealed that this magazine seems to reserve much of its abuse and foul-mouthed slandering towards Islam in particular.
Our correspondent was unable to contact any of the defendants (accused) in this lawsuit. However, he was able to get in touch with a spokesperson from Hefazat-E-Islam, one of the most debated and discussed Islam-centric parties in Bangladesh. The spokesperson lauded Mr. Shamim for his efforts whilst condemning everyone who participated in the magazine, stating that they “ought to be hanged for what they did”.
Meanwhile, we have been monitoring social media platforms as news of the lawsuit broke and started to sink in. Several writers bloggers and on online activists on Facebook particularly described the lawsuit as a step against the freedom of speech. Some even described the plaintiff as “delusional and over-enthusiastic”.
Meanwhile, a full-tilt investigation has been launched in light of this lawsuit, with the Police Bureau Investigations taking charge of matters. Their representatives were not too keen to comment when we approached them.
