Sikdar, Samiullah and Sarbahara – I

Posted on April 6, 2016 by Razi Azmi

Fortunately, Samiullah Azmi did not live long enough to see his beloved party fall to such depths and his comrades turn on one another with such brutality. He left the party – and this world – before paranoia and personality cult completely consumed the party. . . Those who worked with him still cherish his memory and deeply mourn his premature death. They wonder, too, what direction the Purbo Banglar Sarbahara Party would have taken if Samiullah had lived longer and led the party. Continue reading →

Posted in Reminiscences | Leave a comment

Ostentatious piety: all ritual, nil spiritual

Posted on April 5, 2016 by Razi Azmi

Note from author:

The following two columns were first published in 2007 in the Daily Times.  I reproduce them here because some readers of my recent columns have accused me of not criticizing Muslims. In any case, I think the points made here are still valid.

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Posted in Current Affairs | Leave a comment

Short but extraordinary life of Samiullah Azmi

Posted on April 3, 2016 by Razi Azmi

For the 21 years that she lived after Samiullah’s reported death in a hail of bullets in 1971, this most loving of mothers refused to believe that her son was dead. She would pray to Allah on his behalf every single night before retiring to bed, hoping that her son was alive and well somewhere, somehow.

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Posted in Reminiscences | 10 Comments

All hell breaking loose – for Muslims

Posted on October 2, 2014 by Razi Azmi

President Obama was right in not referring to ISIS by its chosen name of Islamic State, for it is neither Islamic nor a state. Unfortunately, the western press is not just providing ISIS with a semblance of legitimacy by referring to them as the Islamic State, but by so doing also disseminating a total misperception of Islam around the world.

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Posted in Current Affairs | 5 Comments

The force and the fallacy of stereotypes

Posted on September 20, 2014 by Razi Azmi

Whereas prostitution is often referred to as the world’s oldest profession and war as the oldest activity, stereotyping other communities may be the world’s oldest pastime.  No group of people can claim not to have engaged in this practice, just as no community is safe from it. Continue reading →

Posted in Current Affairs | 2 Comments

Obama, bring back Osama

Posted on September 18, 2014 by Razi Azmi

I am reminded of this parable in light of what “Caliph Abu Bakr al Baghdadi” of the “Islamic Caliphate” is doing to attract the wrath and hatred of the world’s peoples.  Even the infamous Abu Qatada has called IS “the dogs of hellfire”.

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Posted in Current Affairs | 1 Comment

On a wing and a prayer

Posted on September 3, 2014 by Razi Azmi

Wonder what is going through my friend’s mind. But should I wonder? Like millions and billions of other faithful of all religions, he would never connect the dots to see the larger picture. He will see the trees but not the forest.

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Posted in Current Affairs | 4 Comments

The beauty and bane of language

Posted on August 21, 2014 by Razi Azmi

Nothing else but those 26 letters, used in an infinite number of combinations, employing typically ten or fewer of them in words, are the basis of everything that was ever written in English. Continue reading →

Posted in Current Affairs | 7 Comments

Much ado about names along the Trans-Siberian

Posted on August 15, 2014 by Razi Azmi

Ekaterinberg is located just east of where Asia meets Europe. If one is alert and quick enough, as I was, one can see from the train window the marker on the geographical line where Asia meets Europe, 22 km west of Ekaterinberg and 1,777 km east of Moscow. Continue reading →

Posted in Travelogues | 4 Comments

Israel and Gaza, truth and untruth

Posted on August 8, 2014 by Razi Azmi

It is not just the Iron Dome which prevents free thought. All belief systems and ideologies do that, whether they be Zionism, nationalism, ethno-centrism, racism, religion, sectarianism, Communism, Fascism or any “ism” whatsoever. To their credit, a few Israeli journalists have exposed Israeli atrocities and lies, at the risk of being labelled traitors by their country. Continue reading →

Posted in Current Affairs | 9 Comments