[Dwikhandito ( The life divided), the third part of my autobiography has been banned in Bangladesh since 2003. The book was also banned in West Bengal, India in 2003 but Kolkata high court lifted the ban on the book in 2005. The book is now free but heavily censored. The readers are still not allowed to read a few pages of the book . I was physically attacked by the Muslim fundamentalists for writing this book.
A price (unlimited amount of money) was set on my head. Here are the forbidden words! Translated from original Bengali.]
” …. I could not accept at all that the religion had ever brought any light to mankind. Religion had not spread anything other than darkness. Religion had grown out of ignorance and the fear of death. The monotheistic men had created religion for their own pleasure and to enjoy themselves in this life. Islamic history tells us that the Arabs used to live in caves and newborn girls were buried alive, and Muhammad ended all this misery. But I believe that more misery has been created after the advent of Islam. Previously, women were business people, they used to take part in wars, chose their own husbands and also divorced their husbands. Muhammad’s first wife Khadija was a businesswoman and Muhammad was her third husband and was also much younger than her. If girls were buried alive, then there would be fewer women in this world. The men used to marry more than one woman, but where did they find all these women? There would be scarcity of women if they were buried alive. But that did not happen. The Arabs used to pass their days in merriment and pleasure, they used to dine and drink well, they believed that there was no other life than this one and they used to enjoy themselves as much as possible in this world. Muhammad brought an avalanche upon this belief. He used the religion he created as a weapon to seize power. He killed people unhesitatingly, he bathed in the blood of members of other tribes, he brutally killed people of other religions, and he hoisted the flag of victory after invading Jewish areas with his own troops and looting their wealth and raping their women. This religion was never a spiritual one, it was a political one from beginning to end. He did not deprive himself of any earthly pleasures. He had done everything he wanted to do and he did it all in the name of Allah. After killing somebody, he said that he did it on the orders of Allah. Of course, he said at the outset that nobody can speak against the orders of Allah. Muhammad divided the hours of the night to spend time with his more than a dozen wives in the harem. He created a scene on the night he was due to spend with his wife Hafsa. Hafsa went to her father’s house that day but when she returned before the scheduled time, she found the bedroom door locked from inside. Why was the door shut? Who was in the room? Her husband, prophet Muhammad, the messenger of Allah, was in the room having sex with a slave girl called Maria. Hafsa was furious and told all the other wives about this. Muhammad, to hide his own guilt, dragged Allah down from the sky and said that he didn’t do it willingly, it was Allah’s will and he had only obeyed Allah’s orders, it was nothing more than that. There is a saying in Bengali, ‘The thief is bragging after stealing’. This episode was also like that. Far from being humble after doing wrong and without speaking to his wives in a subdued voice with his head bowed, he proclaimed a word of caution to his wives that Allah had told him, ‘If you divorce any of your wives, then Allah will provide more beautiful, more tolerant, more submissive, more shy and more trustworthy maidens or widows for you to marry’. Muhammad married his foster son’s wife Zainab and this time too he justified his misdeed by mentioning the name of Allah who, apparently, had told him to marry his daughter-in-law. Muhammad’s very young, beautiful and wise wife, Ayesha, said something excellent, ‘I see that your Lord always rushes to you to satisfy all your desires’. His friends used to look at Ayesha and Muhammad was very jealous of that so he put all his wives behind a curtain and gradually he ordered all women to cover themselves with an extra set of clothes. Islam is supposed to have given women much honour. Is this called honour! Allah’s resounding voice comes across the seven skies, ‘Men have the right to dominate over women, because Allah has created men as superior human beings to women and because men spend their money for women.’
What can I say! This is the character of the hypocrite known as our prophet and his hoax in the name of Allah. Millions of believers in this world are still keeping this religion alive but there is nothing behind it except the game of politics. Bangladesh is no exception. As his boat was sinking, President Ershad was desperately clinging on to Islam to find a port as he couldn’t find one any other way.
‘A carrot for the next life has been dangled in front of you,
Fear and temptation are always there before you.
Now wear a blinker of dark blindness over your eyes,
The more blind you are, the more faithful you will be.
Take your eyes out and throw them with this belief,
And lock up the cells of learning in your brain.
Well done! You are now a true faithful…’
Most violent faith from heaven!
Nice article,ma’m!
Do you consider any of the Sufi mystics to be genuinely spiritual? And what’s your opinion of Irshad Manji’s reform movement, and the effort to reinterpret/retranslate the Quran from a reformist perspective?
I believe in revolution.
What does this mean, ‘spiritual’? Are they genuinely convinced that their god is real? Do they actually believe in the superstitions they’ve created? Do they really feel pleasure from participating in their prayers and rituals?
What difference does it make? It’s like asking if little kids are genuinely frightened when they tell ghost stories.
The goal should be to utterly reject evil and ignorance, not to try to patch it up with a new coat of paint.
Reform is better than nothing, and that Manji is doing something is good and commendable as far as it goes, but it’s like pouring perfume in a midden. Sure, it’s an improvement, but the better answer is to walk away and dig a well for fresh, clean water.
And reform is only potentially good and commendable as a short-term strategy. As a long-term strategy it is the opposite. This is because it must rely on the corrupt and evil foundation, which perpetuates and supports the existence of that foundation. Moderate, liberal faith is still gullible, superstitious, mendacious, wasteful, abusive, discriminatory, anti-intellectual, and distortive to our true potential.
(Apologies for the multiple posts. I keep going away and thinking of more I want to say.)
I agree with you.
Ibis3 Agreed.
I read the associated notes that come with the reformist Quran (linked on Manji’s site I think). It started off well enough, reinterpreting the nasty bits of the Quran based on the assumption that it really is God’s word but that God is not an asshole. They reject the entire hadith, sunna, ijma and sharia as forgeries.
Then things go off the rails when they start claiming the Quran predicts Big Bang theory, teleportation etc., and that there is a secret code in there based on the number 19. Better than misogyny or beheading people for ‘witchcraft’, but crazy never the less.
When we truly leave our childhood behind we come to realise that we all have only one life and that in that life we all have very similar pleasures and pains, wants and desires. Those in the grip of childish fantasy are doomed to never filly realise their potential as human beings. The religious reformer is like one born blind but gaining sight as an adult through some operation. He cannot go back to his previous state of total darkness yet he is afraid of the brightness of the sun and so he is content to lurk in the shadows. Feeling lonely he says “Why don’t you all join me here?”
You described it so wonderfully!
You described it so wonderfully!!
Where did u get this history. You should remember one thing that is never forget to give the reference. without reference it is not acceptable. You are not supposed to do this mistake.
“when we leave our childhood behind” is indeed the turning point. Why, do you think, are so many people afraid to do that? They rebel against their own parents, but they clutch at the security of the great parent in the sky and the safety of being part of a herd of sheep, and so they never leave childhood behind.
bravoo!!!!!!! hats off to the lady.speaking truth is difficult.and writing it????????? wow !!!!1 what is the religion if it gives u fear of life.
Splendid, only fanatics can Ban and try to hide the truth.
and this is only a creative literature !
Greta Christina was right. Diversity in the atheist community really is a virtue all its own.
I like the fact that you have such intimate experience with Islam, Taslima. I mean…I suppose I’d prefer that you didn’t…I wouldn’t wish the pains of Islam on any woman, (as one myself I feel a kind of prickly meanness emerge in my normally cheery personality when someone suggests to me that I “try out” religion – what an impoverished and unbelievably tactless solution to my problems!), but we all benefit from hearing from someone with so much more perspective. I cannot emphasize enough how I appreciate the inside look I get on this blog. Especially as a white twenty-year-old living in the United States – I have neither the life experience nor the cultural background to construct for myself even an approximation of the understanding of Islam you can. You paint such vivid pictures. And you have such poetic prose. And such direct experience. I don’t know, I just really like it. I feel like I learn a lot.
Annie, you are making this old lady optimistic about a better future for our culture!
Thanks for publishing this, Taslima. Of course, I agree with you about Mohammed’s motives and actions; he was no better or worse than many other patriarchs. History shows us that men have turned out to be very poor rulers, and if we must have rulers, I would hope that women would do better, but maybe not. The ruling class of both genders is very self-serving and does not tolerate rebellion so I can see why they ran you out of town; the same thing has happened to women who rebelled against the male rulers in Christian societies. Sometimes they were burned at the stake. I guess that you and I are lucky that we still have our whole skins.
Thank you for publishing this here, Taslima. I wish everyone could read it everywhere!
Taslima, you are a wonderful and inspiring woman.
Agreed!
I wonder how so many people are attracted to Islam! Is it just the promise of a beautiful garden beneath which river flows in the after life for being faithful or the fear of hell or is there something really enlightening?
I suspect the main causes of people being attracted to islam are poverty, ignorance and, if you’re a man, power. There is nothing enlightening in ridiculous, vicious lies.
Oh…and fear. Fear of the threats of hell and, more importantly, fear of muhammed’s deranged followers.
Probably the best summation of my erstwhile religion I have read thus far!
Well this is insane!!! Do u think u r d only person who understands Islam…this is all FAKE
Who wrote the Quran coz prophet s.a.w was an illetrate person…
Sacred religion of Islam, I hope you can see the Qur’an, you will know the truth, one day Islam will win in this battle!
anyone who hates religion Islam is the devil success in its plan to deceive the human race, including you taslima, look for the real truth, I suggest you to see the series The Arrivals on youtube and see al quran