Some Belated Comments About Pervert Prof Honuman Azad
Alok Dishari
M. S. Islam
University of Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: msi_...@yahoo.com
In response to the discussion regarding BUET crisis and Humayun Azad,
I just like to add few more comments.
It was really so strange for me while I saw that a large number of
so-called intellectuals are everyday gathering at BUET campus to
support those students in hunger strike. Well, there should not be
anything wrong with this, however, I wonder that I never saw them so
much active for any other issues either at any university campus or
any other national crisis. For the last three to four years we came
across some serious crisis among some of the universities like the
100th rape anniversary of Manik at the Jahangir Nagar University and
later the university attempted to punish several students who
protested the incident. I am sure that in the history of the world,
no any educational institute had ever suffered from such a barbaric
act. So far I know still now there is no criminal case filed against
Manik and some of his followers could even obtained certificate from
the University.
So there was doubt about their intention and later I could confirm
their motive from some vulgar comments by one of them Mr. Humayun
Azad. If the comments were simply the personal comments of Mr. Humayun
Azad, it would not be a problem because about a decade ago he had been
considered as a mad and psychic people by his colleagues for his
comment “ Traditionally prostitutes used to be available at the
brothel, but now a days they are available at the universities”
(Comment of Humayun Azad in his article “Probochonguccha” in a
magazine of Dhaka university). But I am afraid that his comment
represents a group of so called intellectuals of like-minded having
the same intention.
Commenter like Mr. Irfan likes to consider Mr. Humayun Azad as a
writer and let him free to choose and think with his choice that fits
him. But I wonder whether Mr. H Azad has the minimum quality to be
considered as a writer. Even without having enough knowledge about
literature, one can conclude that a writer should not be a liar,
hypocrite and zealous or vindictive type. To confirm it let us go
through some of his comments;
1. BUET is a place of reactionary and fundamentalist people and there
is no freedom of speech here.
What does Mr. Azad mean by ‘reactionary’ and ‘fundamentalist’ is not
clear. Even in USA and all other western countries, a person is free
to exercise his own religion and customs. Does he mean that those
belong to the fundamentalist group? Just for your information BUET is
the place where the minimum number of Jaamat/Shibir activists are
available compare to any other university in Bangladesh. On the
contrary, some communist/socialist student organizations are holding
the best position here and used to clinch several EUCSU ( Engineering
University Central Students Union) positions at almost each election
which they rarely could at any other universities. And freedom of
speech and students activities !!……so far I know for more than decade
there was no DUCSU (Dhaka University Students Union) election held in
Dhaka university !!! The same is true for almost all other
universities in Bangladesh. However, it is only BUET where at each and
every academic session EUCSU election took place without any violence.
All kind of student activities are regularly taking place here with
the outmost care, which is a mare dream for any other university’s in
Bangladesh, who are not having any elected students bodies at all !
2. BUET teachers are not engaged in any sort of research work but
religious activities.
How funny he commented about the Research activities of BUET. There
are around 20 Ph.D holders (including those who are studying Ph.D
course) from my batch from the department of Civil Engineering, who
studied at most of the best universities in the world like USA, UK,
Australia and Japan, etc. Proportionally the number might be even
larger for Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. All of them
showed excellent research performance at their study period and the
best ones are the BUET teachers. Just for an example, at the Civil
Engineering Department there are around 60 Ph.D holder teachers who
obtained their Ph.D from most of the world famous universities abroad.
At the same time there are at least two teachers in my faculty ( Civil
Engg) I know as Soharab Uddin Chowdhury and Jahir Uddin Chowdhury (
IFCDR ) who’s books have been published from McGrw Hill publishing Co.
Now what happened to other universities in Bangladesh …..I was a
teacher at a public university in Bangladesh of same size as BUET… for
the entire university there were less then 10 Ph.D holder teachers !!
Research activities… unthinkable !? So, how come Mr. H Azad comment
about the quality of BUET teachers and there research activities,
while he is a teacher of one other university. Is not it something
like “Adar Beparir Jahajer Khobor neooa” ( i.e a poor vegetable vender
looks for news of shipping business).
Again I astonished while he commented about the religious activities
of BUET teachers. During my student life, it never seems to me that
BUET teachers are so religious that could hamper their research
activities. Moreover, most of them are highly progressive, disciplined
and dedicated to their teaching as well as research activities.
3. BUET VC looks like a Madrasa teacher !?
A gentleman should not comment about other people’s personal affairs
like dressing…but he again did it… in a very cheap way. There is no
obligation for a university teacher to wear any type of cloths, but
free to choose it. Mr. H Azad talks about freedom of opinion in the
university campus but comment about other people’s dressing and
appearance….how stupid and hypocrite he is ? Just for his information,
BUET VC is much more international than him and involved with of a
number of international organizations. Never ever those authorities
questioned him about his appearance but recognized only his acts. So
far I know he is not supporter of any political group and became VC in
a fare selection process. So, by this type of comment poor Humayun
Azad simply showed his very meanness of mind and nasty attitude.
4. BUET is a loan island far from civilized world…
Only at this comment Mr. Azad might be partially true. … Yes, BUET is
a loan island… but not from the civilized world… but from the
corrupted, undisciplined and hypocrite world of Bangladesh, to which
Mr. H Azad belongs to. How come Mr. Azad keeps news of the civilized
world, while his world is mostly limited from Dhaka to Calcutta !!??
BUET is the place, which is the first in Bangladesh to exercise latest
technologies like internet, e-mail, etc. Each and every year around
50% BUET students go abroad for higher studies at those famous western
universities. I could ever heard that they suffered from any sort of
problem like cultural gap. Moreover, the disciplined BUET life helped
them a lot to get accustomed with those foreign universities at much
shorter time.
Actually, by this comment Mr. H Azad just unveiled his true motive as
he is simply zealous about BUET, which is totally different from other
universities in Bangladesh, infected by nasty politics. From the above
comments of Mr. Humayun Azad, I think it is clear as like daylight
that a person like him can never be consider as a writer of true
nature but a liar, hypocrite, perverted, zealous and narrow minded
one. I fear that a number of so called intellectuals of Bangladesh
belongs to the same category and hide the same attitude in mind. But
Mr. Humayun Azad is probably the most stupid one so that he could not
hide it.
_______________________________________
Recent BUET situation, Humayun Azad and Mizanur Rahman/Irfan Chowdhury
Abdur Rahman Abid
(BUET 86 Batch)
e-mail: abi...@yahoo.com
I read the articles of Mr. Mizanur Rahman about his protest against
Writer Humayun Azad's comments regarding recent BUET situation. I also
read Mr. Irfan Chowdhury's letter protesting Mizanur Rahman's views.
After reading their articles and letters, I couldn't help writing
something about BUET situation and their views.
Science and technology has taken the present world to its golden eon.
In this era, globalization has brought people close to each other
offering them an opportunity to know about people from other religion,
other culture, and other ethnic group. This is an era, when people
have the right to exercise their freedom of speech, freedom of
expressing their own views about anything: sex, religion, ethnicity,
art, culture, virtually everything. However, when it's meant 'freedom
of speech', it, in fact, is meant 'sensible freedom of speech'. You
just cannot go in front of the US White House and shout that you
support Osama Bin Ladin even if you do so. The authority of the
most exercised 'country of freedom' will take you in minutes to Red
Building (Lal Dalan) for 'Infinity and beyond' and won't care about
your 'freedom of speech'. Because this is a comment that will offend
most Americans including many Muslims. However, still this is not a
big deal if the person shouting is you or I, the common people. It may
not have at all any effect in the country's general view. But what if
Pope John Paul II starts supporting Bin Ladin? American
People will become confused and they may split into groups supporting
and opposing him and may get involved in chaos. This is how the
comments, the speeches of national leaders and intellectuals affect
the views of a country's common people and alleviate or raise
national, political and social unrest.
Humayun Azad is a prominent writer and is a professor at Dhaka
University. He represents the most common categorized intellectuals of
our Bangladeshi society, who, often attack and criticize religion
(nothing but Islam) to show off their intellects. This is one of the
dirtiest attitudes that someone can possess. Practicing religion (not
fundamentalism) is greatly admired all over the world, specially, in
western countries, doesn't matter whether it's Islam, Christianity or
Judaism. And I can bet that hardly you'll find anyone in the western
world who criticizes Christianity or Judaism or even Islam to prove
that he/she is an intellectual, a dirty mentality that you will see
mostly in Bangladesh. Being atheist or critic to his/her own religion
doesn't make a person an intellectual. It's his/her talent, education,
depth of knowledge, and his/her attitudes and respects for other’s
belief (political or religious) make the person an intellectual. While
it's been greatly expected that our intellectuals like Humayun Azad
should criticize the way religion (Islam) is abused in our country by
political parties (like Jamaate Islam) or by political leaders (e.g.
abuse of Islam by former dictator Hussain Muhammad Ershad or
by Shaikh Hasina who always covers her head before every election and
gets rid of that soon after the election or Khaleda Zia who often
wears thin vulgar 'saree' and covers one-third of her puffed hair with
difficulty) and should respect the religious belief of common
Bangladeshi people, doesn't matter whether they themselves are
believers or nonbelievers, his (Humayun Azad) and his fellow
intellectual's every effort has been seen to attack and to undermine
the religion (Islam) itself and thereby, they lost their respect to a
greater extent and undermined the face value of Bangladeshi
intellectuals.
Dr. Ali Murtoza, current BUET VC, is a very talented and devoted
teacher. He's just started his term as a BUET VC. It's true that he
failed to properly handle recent BUET situation and made some unwise
comments about using police in the campus, naming the ladies hostel
after 'Soni' etc. Although, it's too early to say he's an unsuccessful
VC, but it's also true that the situation wouldn't have been this
worse if he could handle it more intelligently. We hope that a
situation like this will never happen again in BUET during his term
and whoever comes after him.
But has it anything to do with his piousness? He's simply pious. He
has beard and he prays regularly, that's it. He's not a fundamentalist
(moulobadi); never he was. He doesn't support any fundamentalist party
in Bangladesh; never he did. He's become VC through his seniority and
administrative involvement. Being a former student of BUET and a
former student of his department, I personally know him and know what
an honest person he is. Then why Humayun Azad compared Dr. Ali Murtoza
with 'Madrasa Teacher'? Does his piousness automatically make him a
moulobadi? Maybe he couldn't show his capability so far as a
successful VC. The former Dhaka University VC wasn't a successful VC
too. But nobody including Humayun Azad ever compared him with 'Madrasa
Teacher'. Then why it's Dr. Murtoza? Yes, this is the dirtiest trait
of Bangladeshi so-called intellectuals who always smell fundamentalism
even in simple religious practice.
Mr. Irfan Chowdhury seems to have a similar kind of smelling nose like
our so-called intellectuals although he probably won't claim to be an
intellectual, will he? He claims that it's the clerics and mullahs who
are scandalizing and polluting Bangladeshi culture, a very common
quote you'll often hear from many of our so-called modern educated
class (doesn't matter whether they're living in or outside of
Bangladesh) and of course, from our so-called intellectuals. Have you
ever think who these mullahs are or do they really have any influence
over our educated society to pollute it? 'Mullah'r dowr masjid' – this
is not just a proverb; this is a fact in our Bangladeshi society. They
are so weak, so intimidated that they often don't dare to say what is
religiously right and what is wrong. Do you listen to any mullah? Sure
you don't. So does everybody. Our ministers don't listen to mullahs,
our secretaries don't listen to mullahs, our intellectuals, national
writers, national artists don't listen to mullahs and eventually the
smallest part of the educated people who go to mosque everyday to
pray, hardly any of them listens to mullahs. If this is the case, then
how they are polluting our society and culture? It's not the mullahs;
it's our ministers, beaurocrats, political leaders, intellectuals,
writers, artists, and it’s us, the modern educated people, the main
controlling body of our society, who are polluting Bangladeshi society
and culture through hypocrisy, dishonesty, corruption and whatever
other evil things you can think of. Please don't make mullahs the
scapegoat for which you are to blame.
Mr. Chowdhury also mocked at Mizanur Rahman for his Bangladeshi
attitude and uptight value about sexuality and called him 'rigid and
coy' and mentioned about it's positive value in western cultures that
he learnt. Unfortunately, I couldn't agree with him and would like to
say little bit about this point. Perhaps you won't find any other
country in the world like America where sexuality is being discussed
so openly – in family, at school, at workplace, virtually everywhere
to prevent sexual abuse, harassment, perversity and sexually borne
disease or early pregnancy.
But what you see in reality? If you drive your car on a state highway
and turn on your radio, in every hour you'll hear news about sexually
motivated crimes including murder, rape, perversity, and child abuse
(both boys and girls). You'll be appalled with hundreds of news that
involve sexual abuse of children by stepparents or foster parents
other than by perverted maniacs. About a month ago, US police caught
more than 20 couples in California who sexually abused their own
children, videoed them and sold the dirty stuff over the Internet to
make money. God (Allah) save us! Mr. Chowdhury is free to participate
in any open discussion regarding sexuality within family environment
or whatever environment he wants (that he mentioned) and accept the
consequences (abuse or get abused). But I humbly would request him not
to try to import this 'western open sexuality' culture in our
Bangladeshi society that is based on a great family and religious
(Hindu, Muslim and all other religion) value. We, the Bangladeshis,
respect and nurture our social, religious and family values greatly
and won't let you disrupt them by any means.
N.B. I also wrote an article protesting Humayun Azad's comment about
BUET VC (Heading: BUET'er Moulobadi VC) in 'Vinnomot'
(http://www.vinnomot.com), a Los Angeles based Bangla web magazine.
You may take a look into that article in your spare time.
___________________________________________________
Protest on The Comments of Humayun Azad
Muhammad Mizanur Rahaman
(Batch 92 BUET)
Helsinki, Finland
e-mail: mizanur...@hut.fi
I am greatly dishearted by the comments of Humayan Azad in a
discussion meeting organised by BUET all party alliences in Ingineers
Institution Bangladesh on 12th september 2002(Ref: Ajker Kagoj,13th
september 2002, internet addition).
I also strongly oppose the situation of BUET now and I also blame BUET
authority for their failurity to control the situation and fulfilling
the demand of students. But Humayan Azad made some disapointing
comments to BUET teachers and BUET environment which reveals that he
support some political party which party always tring to introduce
Bangladesh a Taleban Country. It is a fact of pity that BUET is
running by the 1961 Act and our teachers and authority also want to
follow that Act as this act give them absolute power to run the
administration without considering the views of students and
others.When we were student of BUET we also tried a lot to
resolve these situation and protested against 1961 Act. I stongly
beleive that to make BUET a democratic institution its now necessary
to rethink about 1961 act.
But Humayan Azad made some extremely dissapointing comments against
the religion. He just criticize the BUET teachers for their prayers in
Mousque and he also told that BUET teachers are interested to go in
Mousque instead of going to classes. Consequently he want to make the
image of BUET as a taleban authority which is shamefull. It reveals
that he is not interested to resolve the situation of BUET rather than
he is interested to humiluate BUET image in all over the world.
Humayan Azad is a professor of DU and he must have to think about his
own institution not for others as I think he is not fit for thinking
of BUET.
Personally Humayan Azad is a writer and he used to write about sex
nothing else. And in his personal life he is not a good family man and
he doesn't belongs to our culture. Now one request for the BUET all
party allience " Please dont involve such kind of man who is
trying to destroy the image of BUET all over the world and personally
who is not a secular man.
It will not helpful for fulfilling your demand as well as our demand
to resolve the present situation of BUET. You people will get us in
your side in all the troubles as any mishappen of BUET hurt us more
severly than this kind of people who doesn't belongs to BUET family."
In Bangladesh People respect and trust on only two organisation that
are Supreme court and BUET (Quoted by chief justice of Bangladesh on
BUET convocation in 2000). And we have to be carefull so that no one
like Humayan Azad can decrease our image.
Lastly I just want to say Mr. Humayan Azad not to think himself as a
intelectual and dont try to interfere the situation of BUET. We will
resolve our problem by ourselves. And BUET student will get guidance
from their senior students who already famous in home and abroad in
their own field.
Dont try to criticise the research capability of BUET think about
yourself. As of today our BUET output are working in all pioneers
research centres all over the world and they are doing very
well. We are gratefull to our institution that BUET prepare us to
introduce Bangladesh all over the world. Mr. Humayan Azad try to
develop the research capability of DU and yours also then come
to make comment of other institution. First build yourself. Mr.
Humayan Azad try to write something which will be helpfull to develop
our young generation don't write something like "SHOB KISCHU BHENGE
PORE" which in fact harmfull for our younger generation as well as our
country. Try to learn the positive things from developed country dont
follow the western world blindly.
For all the BUET students I want to say "you will find us on your side
always and we the graduates of BUET always fell you a lot. We are with
you. Go ahead to get your positive demands and of course avoid these
kind of cunning man."
______________________________________________________
Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2002 11:47:19 -0800 (PST)
From: Syed Munir Islam
Subject: The Imaginations of Dr Humayun Azad
"Imagination is funny, it makes a cloudy day sunny
... ... ...Imagination is crazy, your whole perspective gets hazy"
~Jazz song sung by Ella Fitzgerald
At the above link, Dr Humayun Azad made some "off-the-record"
comments. While he spoke "freely and frankly", I considered some of
his comments "off-the-wall"--speaking freely and frankly.
"I already miss the America of my imagination," he said. "I miss the
America of free thinking and unfettered independence, something I did
not see in the behavior of people on the street."
If Dr Azad is disappointed NOW, I wonder what he might have felt
(being a feminist) in the pre-1920's America when women could not
vote, or pre 1964's South when Blacks could not drink from the same
fountains, go to the same schools, and ride on the bus exactly as the
whites did.
Arguably, he misses the America that does not exist, at least not in
the manner he "imagines" it to be.
Dr Azad claims, "...the Muslim countries do not practice democracy
themselves." (Ibid.) Is that an imagination, too, or was it is a
GENERAL opinion? What if a Muslim majority country votes in a
political party that preaches theocracy? Would it not be democratic?
After all, that's what democracy preaches...majority opinion.
Dr Azad is also saying: "Their experiences here are making them appear
more religious, and it’s bad for Bangladeshi society". (Ibid.) Now is
this based upon evidence, or is he, once again, imagining this (bad)?
I ask because, evidently, reality seems to disappoint him, as in case
of the US he saw in his visit; he'd rather "imagine" how it ought to
be.
My respectful advice would be to suggest that he play "Imagine" by
John Lennon 24 hours a day---and, you guessed right, imagine ('there
is no country...') away. And also endeavor to understand reality
before offering shallow and autocratic opinions as to what is GOOD or
BAD for a country's people, in general.
An often-observed phenomenon with some liberal cultural activists is
that, when they critique conservatism that, when laced with religious
bigotry, could become autocratic, they themselves could also be just
as autocratic when dictating the choices of others.
The difference then becomes merely that of perspective: conservative
versus liberal. The commonalty: the desire to TELL others what to
think! What is lacking in both: respect for others' right and freedom
to judge for themselves (choose).
Mr Azad is probably better off imagined as a "poet" who "imagines",
but NOT as a visionary socialist or feminist of any sort.
Evidently, he cannot seem to handle reality too well. How could he
possibly propose any solutions that are rooted in reality? Or does it
not matter? We certainly do not need more imagin-ers who get
disappointed with reality and seek to rewrite the natural laws of
evolution, playing the self-appointed arbiters of social progress.
We have had our fun with Karl!