English Professor Hacked to Death in Bangladesh

by Guest Sun Apr 24, 2016 9:27 am

On Saturday morning, as 58-year-old Professor Rezaul Karim Siddique headed to work at Rajshahi University in Bangladesh, assailants stopped him before he reached the bus station and hacked him to death with machetes:

English Professor Hacked to Death in Bangladesh 1618623_326098784257007_1477052718398026376_n

“His neck was hacked at least three times and was 70-80 percent slit. By examining the nature of the attack, we suspect that it was carried out by extremist groups,” Rajshahi metropolitan police commissioner Mohammad Shamsuddin said.
Shamsuddin said police had not yet named any suspects but added that the pattern of the attack fitted with previous killings by Islamist militants.

That last part is key. It was just a few weeks ago that atheist Nazimuddin Samad became the latest critic of religion to be murdered in a similar fashion. However, no Islamic group has claimed responsibility for the attack on Siddique so far, and it’s not clear that he advocated for atheism in any meaningful way. In fact, one of Siddique’s colleagues even told reporters “he never wrote or spoke against religion in public.”
There may be another motive, though:

Nahidul Islam, a deputy commissioner of police, said Siddique was involved in cultural programmes, including music, and set up a school at Bagmara, a former bastion of an outlawed Islamist group, Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).
“The attack is similar to the ones carried out on (atheist) bloggers in the recent past,” Islam said.

We’ll keep an eye on this story as it develops.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2016/04/23/english-professor-hacked-to-death-in-bangladesh/

by Guest Mon Apr 25, 2016 6:48 am

The Islamic State supposedly murdered 58-year-old Professor Rezaul Karim Siddique because he was “calling to atheism,” whatever that meant.
It was a strange statement, given that someone who worked with Siddique told reporters “he never wrote or spoke against religion in public.”
Now his daughter is going even further. It’s not that her father was keeping his atheism under wraps, she said. He wasn’t even an atheist in the first place.

… his daughter Rizwana Hasin told the BBC that her father believed in God, and that she had no idea why he was targeted.
“The investigators are investigating still, and we are still waiting to see the results,” she said.
“We still don’t know what was the reason. Maybe [a] misunderstanding, maybe something else. It’s still a maybe for me and it’s still a maybe for my family.“

It shows you just how radical these Islamic terrorists are. They’ve already killed Bangladeshi bloggers who were actively promoting atheism online. Now, it seems, they’re going after people who were merely accused of being associated with atheism. It’s a modern day witch hunt, except the victim doesn’t even get a chance to defend himself.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2016/04/24/daughter-of-slain-bangladeshi-professor-says-her-father-wasnt-even-an-atheist/

English Professor Hacked to Death in Bangladesh

English Professor Hacked to Death in Bangladesh

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