A series of writing on its most recent issue; the online magazine Atheist Era has been cause of upset to nation wide Muslims of Bangladesh. The magazine Atheist Era has been publishing its anti-religious content for some time now and every time it has been subject to criticism of the people of the country. On its July-December 2021 collection, the magazine has published variety of content from its multiple contributors, which has been subject to a law suit at Senior Judicial Magistrate Court at Laxmipir. The lawsuit CR – 478/2021 was filed under section 25/28/29/31 of Digital Security Act 2018. Among the writers there were Anika Haque Mollik, Jawad Hossain Nirjhor, Md Tofail Hossain, Md Rofiqul Islam, Ariful Haque Arif, Muhaiminul Biswas Parvez and in total of 40 accused has been reported.
Even though majority of its contributors have refused to make any comment about the lawsuit, the Editor of the magazine Md Arman Hossain had shared his views on the event.
In his words “It isn’t the first time that we received back lash from religious phonetics. And to be entirely honest, it was expected that it will offend a fair number of people even though that wasn’t the intention of any of our work. We simply believe religion is a plague and one of the major barriers towards a peaceful and progressive society. And we will continue to pass on the massage and show everyone the truth.”
Mr Shiraz who initially filed the lawsuit against the magazine and its contributors; mentions it as disgraceful and provocative towards the Muslims around the world. “Swear by the name of Allah we wouldn’t stop unless these imbecile are brought to justice.”
In a Muslim majority country, Atheist movement has been historically opposed and faced deadly consequences including murders of bloggers and writers by religious extremist groups. Between 2013 and 2016, Bangladesh saw a series of deadly attacks on bloggers, secular activists and religious minorities, claimed by armed groups linked to ISIL (ISIS) or al-Qaeda. Among them were August 6 – Niloy Chatterjee, blogger, hacked to death at his home in Dhaka. May 12 – Ananta Bijoy Das, blogger for Mukto-Mona website, killed while on his way to work in the city of Sylhet. March 30 – Washiqur Rahman Babu, blogger, hacked to death by three men in Dhaka. February 26 – Avijit Roy, a prominent Bangladeshi-American blogger, killed while walking with his wife outside Dhaka University.
Since then many of them have either been fled the country, gone underground or been prosecuted. But the publishing of such magazine or writing has not been reduced online. Which only shows the growing popularity of this new stand against religion. However, time after time there has been criticism of the religion and government for oppressing the freedom of speech and thought. The case 478/2021 was filed under The Digital Security act 2018 which has notoriously been used by the government to stop these bloggers. To take things further when the Islamists began targeting the bloggers, the government did not provide them the security. Instead of protecting the bloggers, it blamed them that they were indulging in provocative writing. Many were even advised to leave the country instead.
