Indian Legislators bash up female novelist at book launch

(((Newly knighted novelist Sir Salman Rushdie has few woes to boast of when it comes to the career of Bangladeshi journalist and novelist Taslima Nasreen. Her latest book promo was just violently broken up by Indian political goons including several democratically elected Moslem legislators. They flung everything they could get their hands on at her, while, amazingly, the *press coverage* stood in the way.)))

(((Of course there's nothing accidental about this episode; aimed for maximum free publicity (which it's getting), it's a polarizing act meant to separate the mujihadeen from the goats in the secular crowd. So: any campaigner who ends up going to jail for beating up a woman in public becomes a martyr to righteousness.)))

Link: IndianExpress.com :: UPA ally Owaisi backs MLAs for attacking Taslima at book launch.

UPA ally Owaisi backs MLAs for attacking Taslima at book launch

Express News Service

Posted online: Friday, August 10, 2007 at 0000 hrs Print Email

HYDERABAD, AUGUST 9: Exiled Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen was attacked today by MLAs and followers of the Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM), a Hyderabad-based Muslim political party, during a book release function in the city.

Led by MIM MLAs Afsar Khan, Ahmed Pasha Quadri and Mozam Khan, the protestors stormed the Press Club, where Taslima had gone to release Chellu ku Chellu, the Telugu version of her controversial book Shodh, and began hurling chairs, flower pots, books and whatever else they could lay their hands on.

Taslima, who received minor injuries, was rescued by mediapersons. Police reached the spot and took the attackers, including the MLAs, into custody.

MIM president Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi defended his party MLAs. “When the Bangladesh government has shunted Taslima out of the country, why is the Indian government protecting her?” he asked.

Akbaruddin Owaisi, MIM’s leader in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly, said his party was not worried about the case against its MLAs and activists. “She brought disrespect to Islam and we taught her a lesson,” he said....

(((A Desi critic weighs in on the fracas from the (relative) safety of distant New York:)))

http://desicritics.org/2007/08/10/125044.php
http://desicritics.org/2007/08/10/125044.php