Taslima Nasrin's Blog, page 40

More than 900 people have been confirmed dead after the collapse of a factory building in Bangladesh.

They tried to survive.

Amputation was needed to save lives.

No. Nobody saw them.

The three girls, Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michele Knight, who were kidnapped and trapped in a house, were maybe tied up for weeks for months, , but I would not think they were tied up for 10 long years and did not get a chance at all to escape. When the abuser left the house for work, most likely the girls were alone in the house. One of the girls even gave birth to a baby 6 years ago. She was probably not tied up during her late pregnancy. The little girl was not probably tied up for 6 years. The question is, why they did not scream for help or tried to escape when they were not chained or gagged. They could break a door or a window. Doors were maybe locked but windows were not locked.

We should not forget that Elizabeth Smart and Jaycee Dugard also did not try to escape. Elzabeth Smart was 14 when she was taken from her bed in the middle of the night by Brian David Mitchell, who claimed her as his bride and sexually abused her for nine months. Jaycee Dugard was kidnapped by Phillip Garrido on her way to school at age 11, and imprisoned for 18 years, giving birth to two children. Both Smart and Dugard had several opportunities to escape. Mitchell took Smart to parties and restaurants. Dugard spoke to Garrido’s parole officer and worked at his printing business. This kind of situation is not uncommon among those who have been held against their will for long periods of time. Just like most housewives and many working women who are forced to live with their abuser husbands against their will.

Some psychologists say:

“Victimised women are separated by their captors from all of the people and experiences that they’ve had that would contribute to a) self-esteem and b) their self confidence and their identity.”

“The tactics used by abductors are designed to make their captives feel worthless, powerless and afraid.”

“Usually there is some physical restraint, but eventually that’s substituted for by the techniques similar to what cults use: mind control, threats.”

“There can be such a wide range of abuse that a victim who is no longer viciously abused may feel gratitude towards their captor”.

“On the other hand, they’re also afraid that if they try to escape and fail, all those conditions which are at the moment tolerable will become intolerable.”

“Dugard told that she didn’t try to escape because: “What I knew was safe. The unknown out there was terrifying.”

“The sexual abuse is humiliating, demeaning, makes you feel not very good about yourself. It instils a sense of hopelessness.”

“Amanda Berry’s call to 911 may have been telling. “I’m Amanda Berry,” she said. “I’ve been on the news for the last 10 years. That sense of self – and that people were looking for her – may have helped give her the confidence to leave.”

“There is a sense of abandonment if you think the search has stopped. And that fear is often played up by abductors, who tell captors their families have stopped looking. But Berry knew she hadn’t been forgotten, and that may have given her the strength to fight for freedom.”

“This will be with them for a long time, and possibly forever. They are going to have nightmares. They may feel suspicious of other people, strangers, men in particular.”

“They will have to readjust from a life in captivity to a life in the real world, complete with sounds, smells, and people crowding around them. They are basically bombarded with stimulation after a long time of having very little.”

“It took 10 years for the three women in Cleveland to find their way out of the door and into the light. And it may take them many more years to adjust to the change.”

Psychologists make sense.

People were killed. Many were injured day before yesterday. Islamists threw stones at police, set fire to private and public property.

There were rows of bookstalls selling old books there even until Sunday noon. Hifazat-e Islam’s violent blockade of Dhaka on Sunday has gutted almost 40 of these decades-old bookstores along with thousands of its collections.

The bookstores on the opposite footpath and also those under the over bridge, seemed to have shared the same fate.

The loss continues with Hifazat supporters setting fire to another 11 stores located beside the south gate of the National Mosque Baitul Mukarram during their program Sunday. Followers of Hifazat who claim to be the keepers of Islam did not even spare the Holy Quran, books of Hadith and other religious books. The blackened pages of the holy scripture of Islam now lie scattered as ash under the pedestrian feet.

The bereaved booksellers said supporters of Hifazat-e Islam had set fire to almost 55 bookstores. Beyond 50,000 books worth approximately Tk 10 million have been destroyed in the abrupt arson attack on Sunday.

The people who had gathered to see the sight were erupting with disgust for those who assert themselves as ‘keepers of Islam’ but are also desecrators’ of the holy book of Islam.

They burned everything that they found around the streets, buses, trucks, shops. They burned thousands of copies of the Quran. The burning of the Quran, I believe, is the best thing they have ever done. No ordinary Muslim would dare to burn the Quran. But the Islamists are brave enough to do whatever they like. Who knows more than the leaders of the Islamists that the words of the holy book are not really holy. All they want is the crown. They use holy books to build a ladder to reach the crown.

Bangladesh is burning. Terrorised by Islam.

Islamists have come to the streets to get back their right to kill people who criticize Islam.

Israel bombed Syria.

Syria warned Israel.

Jews and Muslims hate each other a lot. But both Jews and Muslims have a great deal in common in the way they perceive their respective histories. Judaism developed as a monotheistic religion in the Middle East in the 12th century BCE. Islam originated in the 7th century CE. But Judaism and Islam, the two religions share similar values, guidelines, and principles. Hebrew and Arabic, the languages of Jews and Muslims are both Semitic languages.

Let’s see the similarities between the Jews and the Muslims.

The Bible and the Quran are having almost the same stories but the names are changed little bit for the Quran to make it different from the Bible. Adam and Eve of the Bible are Adam and Hawwaa in the Quran. Cain and Abel are Qabil and Habil. Noah is Nuh. Joseph is Yusuf. Moses is Musa. Korah is Qarun. Saul,David and Golith are Talut, Dawud and Galut. Jonah is Yunus. Zachariah and John are Zakariya and Yahya. Mary is Maryam. Jesus is Isa.

Muslims adopted almost all Jews and Christian practices and rituals.

Jews and Muslims both perform circumcision,an ancient Egyptian practice. Both wear hats or caps and beards. Both hate women. Both slaughter animals using the same painful method to get halal and kosher meat. And both do not eat pigs. They should try to get some peace on the basis of their common ground.

I like Tim Minchin for writing wonderful songs. His Palestine anthem or the pig song is one of my favourites.

‘We don’t eat pigs,

You don’t eat pigs,

It seems it’s been that way forever

So if you don’t eat pigs,

And we don’t eat pigs,

Why not, not eat pigs together?’