Propaganda galore by Islamists masquerading as sages A.H. Jaffor Ullah

Propaganda galore by Islamists masquerading as sages

A.H. Jaffor Ullah

Published on February 13, 2007

Lately, NFB has become a waterhole for dunces. With sadness I say this. This used to be a thriving cyberspace with myriad-minded folks imbued with modernity. However, as of late, many obscurantist writers have been clogging the cyberspace with their fib. Read on and you will know what am I writing about.

Not a single issue of NFB that goes by these days without having some propaganda material blaring from the front page. For the last few months a charlatan Bangalee by the name Mohammad Zainal Abedin had been posting his scribble in this news forum. He claims to be a researcher but he fails to tell the reader in which area he does his research. What is his academic credential and training to do research? He also claims to be a journalist. In which newspapers does he write? I routinely go through Dhakaï¿½s English news dailies but never before did I peruse any article written by this ï¿½journalist.ï¿½ If however he only writes for Inquilab or Sangram, then it is a different story. Since he is the one who is claiming all the outrageous stuff and NFB editor does not see that Abedinï¿½s claims fall into the category of Yellow Journalism, the onus is on the writer and NFB editor to tell the readerships who this Mohammad Zainal Abedin is. After all, all these allegations about RAW doing bombings is coming from him. In the same vein, he refutes the existence of Bangla Bhai and JMB.

I have seen a sea change in attitude among decent Bangladeshis who used to patently hate Sheikh Mujib and Awami League for whatever reasons. But these folks are coming around. Many readers may know that I have been writing about the growing menace of Islamization since 1997 when NFB came into the fore in cyber space. In fact, in 1998, I floated a web site by the name ï¿½Is Islamization of Bangladesh completeï¿½ in MSN. Many Bangalees were upset by my write-ups but I never swayed from the truth. I could see the danger clearly coming from the growth of Islamic fundamentalism in my ancestral homeland. A case in point is Dristipatï¿½s managing director, Mr. Asif Saleh. He hated my write-ups so much that he used to pen short postings with derogatory remarks. He thought my assertion about BNP codling Jamaat and other fundamentalists were figment of imagination. It took Mr. Asif Saleh quite a few years before realizing that I was telling the truth all along. It is heartening to read an editorial written by him Daily Star on December 5, 2005, entitled ï¿½How did we get here.ï¿½ The article is synonymous to the old Bangla phrase ï¿½Bhooter Mukhey Ram Naam.ï¿½ But Mr. Asif Saleh had the epiphany at long last.

I knew that the likes of Asif Saleh who loved the party BNP would one-day see the light of the day. The day of reckoning is right now. But to change some diehard Islamists such as Mohiuddin Anwar or Mohammad Zainal Abedin is another matter. These folks will always smell rat in India. Their favorite view is ï¿½ ï¿½India the proverbial six hundred pounds gorilla is out there to devour our Sonar Bangladesh.ï¿½ They hardly know the fact that annexation of a country with 145 million people under this ï¿½New World Orderï¿½ is unthinkable. It wonï¿½t sit well with the world community. Nonetheless, they will act like the proverbial Chicken Little who thought the sky is falling.

Mr. Mohammad Zainal Abedin is our Chicken Little who wrongly assumes that India is about to gobble up Bangladesh. He is not alone in this bizarre mode of thinking. Barrister Munshi, historian Tajul Islam Hashmi, rocker cum jazz musician Maqsood, ex-VC of Bangladesh Emajuddin, columnist Sadek Khan, and a whole slues of Bangladeshi thinkers, writers, newspapermen also hold such view. They think everything that ails Bangladesh is the handiwork of India and its agencies such as RAW, BSF, Army, etc.

Our ï¿½eruditeï¿½ pundit, Mohammad Zainal Abedin, is now busily propagating the false notion that there is no such entity call JMB or Bangla Bhai in Bangladesh. He falsely argues that Islamic extremists are the figment of imagination by the India-loving press of Bangladesh. He also thinks that India has this great plan to prove to the world that Bangladesh is a ï¿½failed state.ï¿½ In the end, he argues, India wanted to annex Bangladesh. But little do these charlatan writers understand the ground reality in South Asia.

Bangladesh has become an outright dangerous place on earth. Blame it on Huzurs, Muftis, Pirs, Mullahs, Shaikhul Hadis, Alems, Deobandis, Tabligis, and the entire shebang of Bangladeshï¿½s religious world. These people are the ones who had been preaching ad infinitum since August 1975 to make this deltaic land into an Islamic Utopia. Not a day is wasted to preach and brain wash the young minds. Therefore, there is this proliferation of Qaumi madrassahs where they ï¿½teachï¿½ spiritual matters to convert the otherwise beautiful minds into hate-laden venomous one. In essence, these so-called Qaumi madrassahs have become snake farms. Mark my word, Mr. Zainal Abedin and Golam Arshad (aka Mohiuddin Anwar). Shying away from the reality wonï¿½t help the ailing Bangladesh. Your propaganda to falsely accuse the PM of India to hatch a plan to destabilize Bangladesh is utterly deplorable. Do you care to know that in the summer months in 2004 Bangla Bhai and his marauding men were parading the streets of Rajshahi under the protection of police DIG, SP, OC, and ordinary sepoys? When the newsmen reported in various papers the government remained silent for a long time. A week later after the police let go Bangla Bhai and his men, they said ï¿½ ï¿½There is no Bangla Bhai and he could not be found anywhere.ï¿½ Now we read in the newspaper that some BNP lawmakers aided Bangla Bhai and his men to unleash a reign of terrors in Rajshahi, Bogra, Atrai, Naoga, Shantahar, and in the vicinity. Well, such is the reality in Bangladesh.

The Islamic politicians were also vocal about Bangla Bhai but in a strange manner. They said in unison ï¿½ï¿½There is no Bangla Bhai. It was created by the journalists.ï¿½ These fibbers would let you believe that Islamic extremism hardly exists in Sonar Islamic Bangladesh. After all, Islam is a religion of Peace! What about the killing of the Jews in Medina after our peaceful prophet won the victory in war. But no, these are Jewish propaganda; Mohammad Zainal Abedin would foam through his mouth proclaiming these inanities. No Huzurs or Muftis are going to admit it lest the truth comes out in a cinch.

Now that the ordinary Bangalees of our motherland had realized where the snakes are coming from to bite our people, they are very vocal now. To combat this growing trend the Jamaatis and other shadowy Islamic groups have hired the likes of Mohammad Zainal Abedin, Golam Arshad (aka Mohiuddin Anwar) to propagate the cyber space with their make belief stories. These stories have no meat so to speak. Without any proper attribution the charlatan scribblers are having a field day in NFB. No decent newspaper would publish the fibs created by the ï¿½researchers.ï¿½ NFB is ruining its reputation by giving coverage to the fibbersï¿½ story. In the end, the bulk of the readership would reject these insinuating write-ups. Posting these fake stories would be counterproductive but the editor of NFB hardly sees the reality. Like Abedin and Anwar, he probably also believe in the cock-and-bull stories that all the arrested Islamists and the suicide bombers are Indian lovers who are coming by droves to Bangladesh to detonate bombs and in the process dismembering their bodies and spilling blood so that Bangladesh becomes in the eyes of the world body ï¿½ a failed state. They wrongly think that Bangladesh would be annexed by India to make one ï¿½Akhanda Ram Rajya,ï¿½ the dream of Hindu fundamentalist. But are they in the catbird seat of power? Hell, no! The secularists are in power in New Delhi, arenï¿½t they, Mr. Mohammad Zainal Abedin? Besides, why should they annex a nation that is plagued with corruption, nepotism, and extremism? India is smart enough to know that by taking Bangladesh under its fold, they will be inviting trouble. In fact, Bangladesh is a Pandoraï¿½s box that should never be opened. Sixty thousand snake farms is no joke either, Mr. Abedin? Get lost in obscurity. Bangladesh will face modernity without the obscurantist like you. Why is the editor of NFB siding with the dark force ï¿½ I donï¿½t get it!

Dr. A.H. Jaffor Ullah, a researcher and columnist, writes from Ithaca, New York.