Author: Press Trust of India
Publication: Hindustan Times
Date: June 25, 2006
URL: http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=d7ab3e30-4f12-47dc-adeb-9de26ef90e3e
A leading Muslim cleric today issued a fatwa
that the face of controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen be blackened
for her alleged comments against Islam and demanded that she be immediately
expelled from India.
In a live interaction with Taslima on a local
Bengali TV channel, the Imam of the Tipu Sultan mosque, Noorul Rahman Barkati,
said he had issued the fatwa against the author for her comments against Islam
and its prophet.
Barkati also said that he had offered a reward
of Rs 50,000 for anybody who would blacken Taslima's face as he urged authorities
to immediately deport her to Bangladesh.
Taslima, who fled Bangladesh several years
ago following threats to her life by fundamentalists there, has been living
in Kolkata since the last one year.
During the interaction, Taslima denied having
said anything against Islam or insulted Prophet Mohammed, but said that she
is living in a democracy where freedom of expression is guaranteed to everybody.
She also said that she was fighting for the
rights of women and she would continue to do so.
"In a democratic country one does not
have the right to gag somebody by issuing a fatwa," Taslima said.
The author had yesterday clarified that her
comments during the seminar had been distorted to the advantage of fundamentalist
organisations.
Security was tightened by the city police
at the residence of the 44-year-old Bangladeshi writer after the controversy
broke out.
