[This is in response to the blog “Why Muslims hate Taslima Nasreen” by Ansari Mohammed Rehan.]
http://www.ndtvblogs.com/views/viewcomments.asp?gl_guid=&blogname=rehan&q_blogid=18553&ref=8/14/2007%205:27:31%20PM
Unless there is freedom of expression, humans will be stunted. Only through freedom can truth be discovered, lived or re-lived.
To compare Taslima and M.F. Hussain is misplaced. Taslima's was a rebellion against the Islamic society that she felt was oppressing women. She is or was herself a Muslim. Whereas M.F.Hussain was simply giving wings to his imagination when he painted, for example, Sita riding nude on Hanuman's tail. While freedom of expression includes freedom to run riot imaginatively, Hussain has consistently chosen Hindu icons to be colourful with. Why no icons from his own religious world of Islam? Thus I would see M.F. Hussain as a hypocrite whereas Taslima's is a cry of an oppressed womanhood under Islam.
Another point. For example, I might find it questionable that a much married man in his 50s who again marries a 9 year old girl is touted as a model of mankind and may write about it. Would I thereby be charged for character assassination or hurting of religious sentiments? The point is, I would be basing my expression on facts like Taslima and not on imagination like Hussain.
