Indian ‘atheist’ held for criticising Islam on social media

[rug]

Tarak Biswas, 32, was arrested after he re-posted a critique of Islam on Facebook. PHOTO COURTESY: NDTV

By News Desk
Published: September 24, 2016

A self-proclaimed atheist youth was arrested in Indian city of Kolkata for ‘hurting religious feelings’ after he re-posted a critique of Islam on Facebook.

Tarak Biswas, 32, reportedly routinely criticised several religions on the social media, evoking strong reactions and sparking debate. The youth, however, was held after he re-posted the material relating to Islam from another website.

Police arrested Biswas on September 16 under various clauses of the Information Technology, saying he had hurt the religious feelings and offended people with various messages online.

“Not only has he (Biswas])written offensive comments, he has also tagged and posted materials from a dubious website,” said the complainant Wasim Akthar’s lawyer Mohammad Arif.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/1187642/indian-atheist-held-criticising-islam-social-media/

[deathrind]

1. Islam really does project...

... a conflicting image.

[Igel]

3. Mostly it's consistent.

When adherents feel honored or so thoroughly oppressed it behaves itself. Islam was fine in India when it was in charge over the masses of non-Muslims: Muslims were the ruling class, the merchant class, the intellectual class. Even poor Muslims were part of the group that was in charge. Under the British this changed. And the response when it became clear that they wouldn't be in charge but be the minority group was to push for their own homeland.

When it feels dishonored it turns nasty. It has no tradition of suffering as a virtue or learning through suffering. It is to be victorious not in the world to come but in this world; that is the proper nature and order of things.

As long as it's powerless, it's fine. Such was life in the ME for a century or two. It was fairly liberal. Then, when it reached adequate numbers in a society, the imams would cinch down the buckles and non-Muslims were in trouble: not in government, in their ghettos, prohibited from doing all kinds of things.

Very liberal Muslims may not abide by this and lots of Muslims in Muslim-majority countries never have to clarify their own beliefs, but pretty much every large Muslim country has a majority that would nod in agreement, if not act on it. In India, the bit about "not offending" has a very real social upside: Fewer corpses and less burning and looting.

The Hindus got with the program a few decades back and started having the same sort of response. Diss their faith and it also turns ugly. They learned the wrong lessons, from our point of view, but it's a culturally appropriate response.

[msongs]

2. must be a weak religion if it can't stand up to criticism and its followers get their fee fees hurt

so easily