Dhaka Tribune condemns the unconscionable attack on author Salman Rushdie.
Not limited to being a shocking act of assault on the celebrated writer, the attack is entirely consequential of a troubling philosophy that has slowly been poisoning the very way too many of us think: That words which can offend, upset, and unsettle should be proscribed and interdicted with fatal force.
The attack has now been directly tied to the fatwa that was placed against Rushdie by the government of Iran more than 30 years ago for his book The Satanic Verses. Sadly, the world has only regressed since then, as even in the most progressive of societies we can see such dangerous philosophies prevail not only within mainstream public discourse but also throughout academia and intelligentsia.
In the Bangladeshi context, one need not look too far to draw parallels.
In the last decade, our nation saw a host of free-thinking writers, bloggers, and publishers get killed for exercising their right to expression. With names such as Oyasiqur Rahman, Avijit Roy, and Xulhaz Mannan now being carved onto our collective conscience.
A large part of what led to the killers of those thinkers is the tacit approval endowed upon them by our society. By branding their words as figurative attacks on popular sentiments, we seemed to have justified their very literal murder.
Around four years ago, Bangladeshi writer and educator Zafar Iqbal was subjected to a similar attack while giving a speech -- an attack which he thankfully survived. It is not outside the bounds of reality to understand that a precedence has already been set: If words can wound and be considered literal violence, when someone commits an act of violence in response to such words then none of us have the license of act surprised.
We wish Sir Rushdie a speedy recovery.
