অ্যাকসেসিবিলিটি লিংক

Hard Line Muslims in Kolkata Protest Against Taslima - 2004-01-16


Thousands of hard-line Muslims in the eastern Indian port of Kolkata have rallied against exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen, demanding she leave the city.

Police in Kolkata say some 10-thousand people gathered on the busy city streets after Friday prayers, shouting anti-Nasreen slogans and stopping traffic.

Rahman Barkati, the chief cleric of Kolkata's main mosque, said Ms. Nasreen's writings are against Islam. He said a Muslim group has offered a reward of more than 400 dollars to anyone who blackens her face. Blackening someone's face -- most commonly with shoe polish or ink -- is considered a major insult in India.

Taslima Nasreen arrived in Kolkata Wednesday to promote her controversial autobiography "My Childhood."

Last month, the government of India's West Bengal state banned her book "Split in Two", after local Muslims complained it slandered Islam.

Ms. Nasreen was born in Bangladesh but fled the country in 1994 after Muslim fundamentalists called for her death over her book "Shame." She now lives in the United States.

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