Blogs

1. Why do Middle East get almost no attention for terrorist attacks while Paris attack swarms the social media?

(On last Friday night, Paris, the cultural center of Europe, was shaken by gunfire and suicide bombings of massive brutality at several locations. Officials confirmed that three teams of Islamic State attackers with assault rifles and suicide vests carried out the coordinated carnage. After the attack I followed the social and electronic media and saw how the whole world reacted to this incident.

Three Sachalayatan bloggers Ranadipam Basu, Tareq Rahim and Ahmedur Rashid Tutul, who is also the owner of the publishing company Sudhdhasor, were attacked in an attempt to kill on 31st October, 2015. Within few hours of the first attack the owner of another publishing company named Jagriti and a blogger Faisal Arefin Dipan was hacked to death. According to the latest news, the Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF), a wing of the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda claimed the responsibility for both the attacks. At the time of writing, Ranadipam, Tareq and Tutul were in stable condition. You can get live update on the attack in Bengali from this post by Haseeb Mahmud.

We are speechless. We are dumbfounded. We are shaken. We are hurt.

We are hurt, but our pens still work. We are dumbfounded, but our heads are as clear as a sunny day. We are shaken, but we are armed. Our pens, our keyboards and our smart phones are our weapons. Our sharp minds are our ammunition.

“[i]……. it seemed at last that there were two musics progressing at one time before the seat of Illúvatar, and they were utterly at variance. The one was deep and wide and beautiful, but slow and blended with an immeasurable sorrow, from which its beauty chiefly came.

To close to smell her breath
- Rownak Albab

[justify]I went so close that I could hear her breath, Knowing that it is the largest cat species and it probably weighted more than 93-310 kg and can run up to 49-65 km per hour.

We do not express ourselves anymore. We do not get a chance to share our knowledge anymore. We are not allowed to raise our voice anymore. We have been threatened by the religious extremist group of Bangladesh for our intellect, for our voice, for our efforts to spread knowledge throughout the society. Our pens are demanding justice for Dr. Avijit Roy. How loudly we shout for our right for freedom of speech, no one cares. How spontaneously we want to live on this earth, neither our government nor the religious extremist group values our life. The religious extremist group attacked on Dr. Humayun Azad on 27th February, 2005. When Dr. Humayun Azad was attacked by the Islamic terrorist, our senior generation and general citizens stayed silent. The government finished their duties by financing the medical cost of his treatment. No justice has come in ten years. Islamic terrorist continued to terrorize the Bangladeshis for ten years. On 26th February, 2015, exactly after ten years, another brutal killing has taken place, as if they are marking one decade of terrorization through another intellectual killing.

: You're the guy, right?
: YES.
: So this is what it's like?
: YES.
: I thought it would be...
: DIFFERENT?
: Something in that direction, yes.
: IT IS JUST AS YOU HAD IMAGINED.
: I was sharp, wasn't I?
: YES, SIR TERRY, YOU WERE BRILLIANT.

It was about 10:30 pm. I reached Sana’a, the capital city of Yemen. The whole country is surrounded by hills. In Arabic, Yemen means South Arabia. It was the center of civilization and wealth on the Arabian Peninsula for centuries. That’s why the Romans referred to the area as "Happy Arabia".