MORE TASLIMA

This news has been gathered from Taslima Nasrin's website:

Taslima was not allowed to read her poem 'America' during a Bengali Convention held in Madison Square Garden on Sunday evening (3rd of July 2005). 'America' is an anti-war poem which is against weapons of mass destruction while taking a stand for humanity. As she was reading this poem, many from an audience of six thousand American-Bengalis booed and did not let her continue after the first few lines of the poem. Taslima had no other alternative but to skip to the end of the poem. She was soon forced by the organiser of the convention to leave the Madison Square Garden area.

From Taslima's article "Unbreathable America" (sloppy translation from French) written in 2003:

"I am applauded when I criticize Islam, but when I protest against the policy of the United States, I have to hide myself."

"I still remember the shock that I felt, a few days after the attack of World Trade Center, on the road between New York and New Hampshire, doubled by a car which had a telling sign: "Fuck Allah". I do not believe in Allah, and that is quite equal for me that somebody sends it to shit. But this sign terrified me. A question came up to my mind: why its author decided to curse Allah rather than Mohammed Atta and his band? What did Allah have to do with these attacks? I immediately understood that this anger was mistaken in target: what it aimed, it was a religion."

For Taslima lovers and haters I would like to reiterate:

"If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all."