On censoring my article by a "high standard" (Uttorshuri) moderator (part-2)

Being a moderator myself- while writing my previous mail to you- I did know it well that a moderator is entitled to exercise his/her right to/not to post any article based on the criteria of his/her forum. Yet I wrote to you what unfortunately has been deemed by you as �personal attacks�. I hope you agree that there are established norms to doing things, and turning down an article is no exception to this rule. What hurt me is not the very rejection itself, but the shallow grounds on which my post was rejected. Worse, you didn�t even publish our news of building a school in a remote flood stricken area in Bangladesh, a humanitarian effort by any measures. To the contrary, you assumed that Mukto Mona (MM) is an �anti-Islamic� site and we are rationalizing an "Iraq-like war" in Bangladesh. Nothing could be farther from the truth! MM is neither a "pro-Islamic", nor an "anti-Islamic" organization; MM ,rather, simply is against all forms of injustices, oppressions and doctrines, be it associated with whatever race, or ethnicity. However, I admit that sometime we may have failed to maintain our equilibrium on some sensitive issues. Again, none is infallible and we are ready to learn from the past. It�s from this stance that many of us have acridly opposed and refuted superficial logics put forward by organizations such as FFI/others in favor of Bush�s War in Iraq.

Besides, in recent days MM has come out to be a forum that is now on its way to receive affiliation of such organizations as IHEU. MM also moderates monthly discussion group of South Asian Humanists in New York, sponsored by Center for Free Inquiry (CFI), which in turn is an affiliated organization of International Academy of Humanism , which has at least 12 Nobel laureates to its credit. In 2005, MM is hoping to collaborate with CFI to arrange for an International meeting on Rise of Fundamentalism in South Asia in New York City.

As for MM projects related to our country Bangladesh, MM has assisted in building a school in a remote area under flood rehabilitation program. And it�s all being done by donations made by only a bunch of members who are mostly students and researchers of humanist origin without any political agenda. You�d be glad, I hope, to learn that our first book by Avijit Roy is scheduled to be launched during upcoming 2005 �Ekushe� book fair. We have also lately contributed fiscally to late Prof. Humayun Azad Memorial Project. It may be mentioned- Dr. Azad was an active member of MM until his death. No wonder, MM has been a top most cyber forum among those protesting brutal and cowardly attack on Azad. Our last project includes some monetary gifts to secular activist Shahriar Kabir and his associates who had been injured in a recent road accident in BD.

While I�m happy to know- you were a moderator of MM for sometime, and you helped Avijit with the idea of a website for MM, yet it may be pertinent to mention a little bit more of background information from what I know. The history of discussing extensively the need for such an organization traces back to as early as the end of 2000. By the end of 2001, some of our members gathered at Center for Inquiry at Buffalo, New York to attend a three-days conference of Liberal Muslims from worldwide. On a scholarship, I myself too was an attendee. Obviously, things didn�t go as planned and ultimately, we, the rationalists of Bangladesh origin, decided to go ahead and form our own organization. It was at that time- in mid 2001-when Avijit (with yours and others' help, I guess) came forward with MM. Prior to that, we all were contributors on similar issues at News from Bangladesh (NFB) & later in Voops (Voice of the Oppressed). You may verify my claim from early archives of MM, Future of Bangladesh and NFB dating back to 2000-2001. Rest is documented in e-mails that I have in my personal collection. This is not to undermine your service to MM, but simply to acknowledge a historical truth.

Lastly, Thanks for your offer to retain my membership to Uttorshuri. I�ll reconsider your request in future.

Best,

Jahed Ahmed

Moderator

www.mukto-mona.com

Uttorshuri Moderator Lopa Tasneem wrote:

Lopa Tasneem <[email protected]> wrote:

Dear Mr Jahed Ahmed,

I apologize to you for causing so much grief for rejecting one of your posts. Our intention was not to hurt your feelings, but to do some constructive criticism of your post. But it seems like you took the criticism personally, misunderstood a few things of our email and indulged yourself in attacking our moderators. Please try to understand that even Rabindranath Thakur was not above criticism.

Now on some points of your email. Uttorshuri is a strictly moderated group. About 3/4th of the posts that we receive get rejected. Since we have no control over who is subscribing to our group, we try to maintain the quality by rigorously moderating the posts. It�s not a message board where everyone has the freedom to post anything. You should have read our guidelines and goals when you joined the group.

I�m surprised that you have used some labels for the Uttorshuri moderators. But neither I nor my co-moderator recalls ever communicating with you outside Uttorshuri. If you have formed your opinion by reading our messages, I�m truly sorry for not being able to convey you the right message. I am not sure what you mean by the term �pro-Islamic�. Our group has nothing to do with any particular religion. But yes we do support the oppressed Muslims of Iraq, Palestine, and Kashmir. For that matter we support any oppressed people on earth. You might have seen our recent messages on the indigenous people of CHT and Ahmadiyas of Bangladesh.

We have no interest in finding out what the authors of your article or members of your group do or believe. To us, your group is just one of many thousands of yahoogroups that exist on the internet. Our comments on the rejection email were solely based on the merit of that article. We have nothing against the authors of any article, the comments were only based on the language and the substance of that particular article. There is nothing to feel bad about one�s proficiency in a language that is not even his/her first language. Also, a freethinker should be able to open his/her
heart and mind to any criticism he/she might be subjected to. Don�t you think?

You should perhaps know that I was not only a member, but a moderator of Muktomona for ten long months. During that time I tried my best to give it a different image from what it was initially meant for. MM was vehemently against Islam and Muslims. It bragged about being the �breeding ground� and sister group of FFI, an anti-Islam group. I felt that a freethinker should not be against just one religion, but the wrongs of all religions and people. MM website was my idea, guidelines were written by me, lost history of our liberation war got a new focus. Membership rose from 150 to 700. I included people like Pervez Hoodbhoy, Ketaki Kushari Dyson and some other keen writers and also discouraged people like Debabrata, who were against all Muslims of the world, from spreading their venom. Avijit had nothing to say against what I was up to and I had the full privilege of making whatever changes I felt needed.

As for MM subscribing our members, our members have been complaining for some time now. Those members do not write anywhere else but Uttorshuri and we felt a need to clarify to our members that we do not share emails with anyone else. That�s all. Hope I have clarified all your allegations. I suggest that you stay with Uttorshuri and instead of listening to others, see for yourself what we are up to. You may like it. I apologize again if we have hurt your feelings by any means.

Wishing you all the best.
Lopa Tasneem


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