Some people think Taslima Nasrin fled Bangladesh because she blasphemed something Islamic, like Rushdie did. Far from truth. In 1992, after Babri Masjid came down in India, there was a wide spread pogrom against Hindus in Bangladesh. Hundreds were killed ...

... many raped & homes and temples were looted & destroyed. Of course, Police stood by. No one was punished. Taslima Nasrin, a witness to this large-scale persecution of Hindu minority, wrote a book, titled Lajja, “Shame”. In it, she detailed the atrocities Hindus were ...

... subjected to. And that riled the country’s Islamists. They bayed for Taslima’s blood. Mind you: there was no criticism of Islam or its prophet in the book. Why did it then make Islamists mad with rage?

The only narrative permitted by Islamists is the narrative of Islamophobia and the narrative of persecution of Muslims. Victimhood is their exclusive privilege. To speak of Islamist persecutions of non-Muslims damages this narrative & robs them of the privilege.

This is the reason that the handful of conscientious Muslims in Pakistan and Bangladesh remain tight-lipped about what is going on with minorities in their countries. By flipping “oppressed” Islamist’s status to oppressor, they become traitors in co-religionists’ eyes.