PROTECT TASLIMA NASRIN

A petition is being circulated urging the Indian government to
protect Taslima Nasrin, an exiled Bangladeshi author, after an
Indian Muslim groupoffered a 500,000 Rupee (US$11,800) bounty for
her beheading.

The president of the All India Ibtehad Council, Taqi Raza Khan,
said last month that he would reward anyone who carried out the
extermination of the “notorious woman.” The only way he would
lift the bounty would be if Nasrin "apologises, burns her books,
and leaves."

Nasrin was forced to leave her home in Bangladesh in 1994 after
receiving death threats over her books that criticised Islam and
its treatment of women.

The petition was created by activist Maryam Namazie (email:
m.namazie ukonline.co.uk).

To sign the petition, click above the link:

http://www.petitiononline.com/taslima/petition.html

The petition

To: Indian Government

We, the undersigned, are writing to register our strongest protest at yet more death threats made against writer, humanist, secularist and human rights activist Taslima Nasreen. This time, Taqi Raza Khan the president of an Islamic group, the All-India Ibtehad Council, has offered a bounty of about £8,000 for her beheading. This and other clear threats to her life require that the Indian government bring the full force of the law to bear on him and those who threaten and incite murder and terror.

Taqi Raza Khan has warned the Indian government that if she is not driven out of India within ten days ‘all hell will break loose’. In fact, it is the other way around.

Taslima has every right to freely express her views on Islam and Sharia law and in favour of women’s rights and equality. The Indian government is duty bound to protect her from these threats and grant her the citizenship she requires so that she may live without fear of expulsion.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned