Professor hacked to death in Bangladesh by IS islamists

[K. A. Pital]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/a ... -islamists

Islamic State claims it killed Bangladeshi academic

Prof Rezaul Karim Siddique, 58, hacked to death in Rajshahi in attack similar to murders of other secular and atheist activists
Photo of Rezaul Karim Siddique
Bangladeshi professor Rezaul Karim Siddique taught at Rajshahi University. Photograph: Mohammad Abdullah Iqbal/AFP/Getty Images

Agence France-Presse in Dhaka

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for hacking to death a university professor in Bangladesh for “calling to atheism”. The claim was reported by the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadi websites. No further details were available.

Professor Rezaul Karim Siddique, 58, was attacked from behind with machetes as he walked from his home to a bus station in the north-western city of Rajshahi, where he taught English at the public university, police said.

“His neck was hacked at least three times and was 70%-80% severed,” said the Rajshahi police commissioner, Mohammad Shamsuddin. “By examining the nature of the attack, we suspect that it was carried out by extremist groups.”

Nahidul Islam, a deputy commissioner of police, said Siddique was involved in cultural programmes and set up a music 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,” he said.

Sajidul Karim Siddique, a brother of the victim, said the academic was a “very quiet and simple man” who focused on studying and teaching. “So far as we know, he did not have any known enemies and we never found him worried,” he said. “We don’t know why it happened to him.”

Sakhawat Hossain, a friend and fellow English professor from the university, said Siddique played the tanpura, a musical instrument popular in South Asia, and wrote poems and short stories. “He used to lead a cultural group called Komol Gandhar and edit a biannual literary magazine with the same name. But he never wrote or spoke against religion in public,” he said.

Police said Siddique was the fourth professor from Rajshahi university to be murdered. In February, a court handed down life sentences to two Islamist militants for the murder of Prof Mohammad Yunus.

The killing on Saturday triggered a protest by the university’s teachers and students, who blocked a major road and demanded the immediate arrest of the killers.

Bangladeshi Islamist militants have been blamed for a number of murders of secular bloggers and online activists since 2013, most recently in the capital, Dhaka, early this month. Police said that in each of the attacks, unidentified assailants hacked the victim to death with machetes or cleavers. The killings have sparked outrage at home and abroad, with international rights groups demanding that the secular government protect freedom of speech in the Muslim-majority but secular country.

Eight members of the banned Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), including a senior cleric who is said to have founded the Islamist group, were convicted late last year for the murder of atheist blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider in February 2013.

Ansar al-Islam, a Bangladesh branch of al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent, this month claimed responsibility for the murder of 26-year-old Nazimuddin Samad, a law student who was killed on the streets of Dhaka, according to the US monitoring group SITE. Police, however, blamed the ABT for the murder.

Authorities have consistently denied that international Islamist networks, such as al-Qaida or Islamic State, which recently claimed responsibility for the murders of minorities and foreigners, are active in the country.

As one can see, the consequences of the "great game" in the Middle East continue to pile up in many regions of the world.

[Purple]

Dude. These guys went and killed people in Paris. In freaking Paris. That's right in the middle of Europe, the core of western civilization. Is it really that shocking any more that they would also metastasize to places like Bangladesh?

[K. A. Pital]

This is actually more dangerous - perhaps also more important.

If you kill in Europe, where secularism is baseline and has been for over a hundred years (maybe less in case of some, but still), you don't do the same amount of damage when you kill even a few secular intellectuals in the Third World. So I think.

If you kill a teacher in Europe you change very little. Kill a few teachers in the Third World and suddenly you can have entire villages left without education. Kill a professor and you can send a powerful message to the few universities that operate in the country - in comparison to the hundreds of universities in Europe.

Cruel math, but you deal the most damage there where secular intellectuals are scarce. All the more appaling is the ability of the West to overlook the murders of secular activists that happened across the Middle East and further in the Third World, especially in the wake of the "Arab spring".

[Purple]

Yea but like it's not overly shocking or surprising that they could do it. Nor is it realistically avoidable. The only way the west is ever going to exterminate radical idiocy is if we either uplift or exterminate all poor nations in the world. And you and I both know that both of those are equally likely, or rather unlikely to occur.

[K. A. Pital]

It is not shocking. Just worrisome.

[Purple]

It is not shocking. Just worrisome.

One should only worry about the things he can effect. Things where our hands are tied and where no effort on our part will aid are better left outside of ones thoughts. No need to pile up emotional distress onto the problem.

[Channel72]

As one can see, the consequences of the "great game" in the Middle East continue to pile up in many regions of the world.

It's mostly a consequence of a generation of Saudi-funded hardline madrassas throughout Bangladesh.

Dude. These guys went and killed people in Paris

There's no "these guys". Despite what the guardian says, these guys are only "IS" in name. They're just probably a bunch of local Bangladeshi extremists who have never even been to Syria. They just pledge loyalty to names like IS (or Al-Qaeda before) and then use the "brand name". And then Islamic state gets to "claim responsibility" after they read about it and it makes them appear more globally effective. IS would probably claim responsibility if I burned down a local synagogue and then ranted about how IS is awesome and Jews suck.

[Broomstick]

One should only worry about the things he can effect. Things where our hands are tied and where no effort on our part will aid are better left outside of ones thoughts. No need to pile up emotional distress onto the problem.

I'll remember that next time we have a tornado warning in my area - since I can't affect such a phenomena in any way I can just not think about it and not bother with taking shelter.



One should worry about things that can affect oneself, not just the things one can affect.

[Flagg]

Dude. These guys went and killed people in Paris. In freaking Paris. That's right in the middle of Europe, the core of western civilization. Is it really that shocking any more that they would also metastasize to places like Bangladesh?

Yeah, who cares? They already killed real white people, so who cares about Bangladesh?

[Purple]

Dude. These guys went and killed people in Paris. In freaking Paris. That's right in the middle of Europe, the core of western civilization. Is it really that shocking any more that they would also metastasize to places like Bangladesh?

Yeah, who cares? They already killed real white people, so who cares about Bangladesh?

You misinterpreted me. All I was saying is that frankly in a country with a sizable Islamic population and history of religious violence this is not at all shocking.

I'll remember that next time we have a tornado warning in my area - since I can't affect such a phenomena in any way I can just not think about it and not bother with taking shelter.



One should worry about things that can affect oneself, not just the things one can affect.

I do not think you understood me than. Taking shelter is something you can do your self and thus it falls squarely into the category of things you can affect.

Now, if it was happening and there was absolutely no way for you to take shelter at all than yes, you should sit back and relax for what ever little time you'd have left.