Sujit Datta defends Taslima, says she questions all religions

New Delhi, Nov 28 (UNI) Writer Sujit Datta today slammed the fundamentalist forces hounding Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen, and said her advocacy of women's liberation automatically leads her to question not only Islam but all religions.

''The noise from the Muslims is more because that brand of religion has a greater propensity for volatile and juvenile response,'' he said while talking to UNI.

Taslima, who was living in exile in Kolkata, had to flee the city after Muslim organisations protested against her and demanded to deport the writer to Bangladesh.

According to Datta, there are three myths surrounding Taslima: Number one is that she has been deliberately insulting the Prophet and inviting the wrath of the Muslims, and secondly she is against Islam, and thirdly majority of society, comprising the secular, progressive and radical elements was with her, and would like to defend her freedom of expression.

However, the clear fact is that, as Taslima has repeatedly asserted, she has nothing to do specifically with Islam and her subject was women's liberation.

Islam, like all other religions, is biased against women, and if someone has to talk of women's freedom from male domination, there is no way one can do that without attacking the Prophet who symbolises the wisdom of Islam, he said.

''It makes a queer logic that a religion can hurt the sentiments and self-esteem of half the population, viz., the women, by collectively making them subservient to the other half, but none in the brutalised half can retaliate in the fear that it might hurt the sentiments of the brutalizing half,'' he added.

More UNI