Dear Mahasina,
While I liked your article overall, the entire purpose and thrust of your arguments have been defeated by a series of anachronism. You set out by pointed reference to the limits of 'all religion' - yet over all your selective hatred of Islam and Muslims in particular was pronounced and created a lot of unnecessary visual noise. You should have learnt from your engagement on the Internet that Islamophobia or Islam bashing is no longer fashionable.
Having said that - I am an agnostic and in very many ways like you, do not believe in anything that any 'holy book' mentions, or an 'holy men' utters. However the quest for truth and it appears to be what you have argued about 'logically'- is not driven by religion at all - but by spirituality.
Spirituality predates religion in it efforts at human civility. 'We were born human - and religion is secondary' is an oft argued notion in our culture but is a conjecture as flawed as the 'chicken or the egg - and what came first' debate that have raged inconclusively from times immemorial. There will be no 'logical' end to this :)
We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, but spiritual beings having a human experience. It would be a dangerously uni-polar assessment to say that only logic would explain or defeat the dilemma (and lead us to the truth) created by interference of politics into religion or vice versa.
That in effect would be catapulting logic's to the status of a 'new religion' based on mathematical principals (if I have read you correctly) - and you could also be accused of being logically illogical! Mathematics as a science is still at its infancy - and maths known by our forefathers will not exactly be the maths that we know today, or ones that our progeny will use in posterity.
I am surprised that in this new millennium you are still obsessed with the 80's 'fashionable' segregated picnic of the likes of Taslima and Azad - when time since have rendered them redundant.
Taslima has done more damage to women and Bangladesh - because it was her selfish sensationalist quest to grab international headlines (which she managed to do effectively) - that led to the systematic and equally effective far-right rise of Mullahism in our country. The fight for those of us who do it frontally (as opposed to her escapism) has been made all the more perilous.
She was indeed lucky for back in the 80's the Internet age hadn't dawned on Bangladesh - and she wasn't or couldn't be challenged by the overall liberal section of our society. Her challenge came only from the Mullahs and the politically positioned nihilist. If that was in today's world - she wouldn't make much headway given the power of information available at our fingertips. Her latest book appears to be no more than rehashed pages from her earlier works, signifying the morbidity of her creativity. You may like to read an essay I wrote on the topic in 2003 at this link.
About Azad - the least said the better. His slander on Fakir Lalon Shah in the 90's - when he termed Shaiji 'insane' - led to the collective curses of the Bauls of Bangladesh - the rest is history.
Finally I am very disappointed when you asked a commentator in your personal wall whether 'Islam has made human civilized'? This is an affront not just to Muslims but to human dignity - and display of arrogance that will never make your writing any stronger or you be taken seriously.
Anybody can quite 'logically' question you - 'what proof do you have that you are civilized'? It will be an endless debate.
Nonetheless do keep up the good work and I look forward to read more of your writings.
Kind regards,
Mac
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