Muslim Group sets RS 5 Lakh on Taslima

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In the media The Times of India - 18th March 2007

Taslima Nasrin is the winner of the 2004 UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize for the promotion of tolerance and non-violence.

LUCKNOW: Nearly seven months after UP minister Haji Yakoob Qureshi raised a storm by announcing a reward on the heads of two Danish cartoonists for lampooning the Prophet, a little-known conservative Muslim group on Friday offered a Rs 5 lakh bounty for the head of controversial Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen.

President of the All India Ibtehad Council, Taqi Raza Khan ordered the elimination (qatal) of the exiled novelist. The decision, he said, had full approval of All India Muslim Personal Law Board (Jadid), a splinter group set up four years ago in Bareilly. Jadid means new.

Khan said he had declared a reward of Rs 5 lakh for anyone who killed the "notorious woman". He claimed a core body of the board comprising 150 ulema, lawyers, retired IPS officers, doctors and professors had already passed a resolution on Thursday to oust Nasreen from India.

  Khan enjoys wide support among the Barelvi sect and the issue is likely to generate heat in coming days, especially with assembly elections round the corner, observers said.

Would the decision be reconsidered? Only if "woh mafi mangey, apni sari kitabein jalaye, aur tauba kare (she apologises, burns her books and leaves)," Khan said.

What has Nasreen done to ruffle this body? "Yeh aurat behad badzuban hai, aur Shariat par hamla karti rahi hai (this woman has a vicious tongue and has been attacking the Shariat)," said Khan.

"We have been hearing that the Indian government is thinking of granting her citizenship. The idea is repugnant to all God-fearing Muslims.

If the government does not drive her out within 10 days, all hell will break lose."

by Manjari Mishra.