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There is no need to call Akbar Hussain an infidel for I doubt that he is worth that importance (February 23). Frankly reading his reaction, I feel my initial comments calling him a parrot reading and representing what he hears in his adopted country seems re-asserted. I don't know by what logic he concludes that anger is frustration and hence 'unstable and destructive'. Really, it would be silly to consider his letter seriously. Nevertheless, there are many others who read this column seriously and therefore it is for them I am giving a few points to ponder on what Hussain has written.
   The cartoons have aroused anger because of the malicious provocation deliberately committed about our Prophet. But how this relates to hunger, poverty and illiteracy in the Muslim world defies logic. Similarly, I do not know where Hussain has learnt that the Muslim world places the blame for its poverty, homelessness and hunger upon the west. We just want the west to leave us alone to deal with our problems. We are convinced that left alone, we would be far better off because most of our problems are the direct cause of west's interference and provocation. We cannot have a plan for the betterment of the Muslim world till the west stops interfering with us. Malaysia, that has succeeded in the socio-economic development because it has not allowed western interference, should be a case in point.
   Hussain makes a few absurd comparisons. He refers to Salman Rushdie and Taslima Nasreen and asks of me what good have the fatwas done to the Muslims. Who told him these fatwas represent us the Muslims? In case of Rusdie, it was by Iran and the reason for that fatwa was political given by an Irani that was dealing with an Iraq invasion inspired by the United States. Taslima Nasreen's fatwa was different as it was also ridiculous, made more so in the context of this letter by Hussain's reference. Then and now, she was of no consequence to anyone in Bangladesh for then as now, her literary pretensions are less than average to Bangladeshis and that too in the category of pornography. The fatwa against her was given by a group, which has no well-known existence in Bangladesh. She played a prank that was picked up by a west eager to use anything to humiliate Islam. This grade C author of Bangladesh of whom very few in Bangladesh had any knowledge was overnight turned into an international figure because she chose to humiliate Islam and an unknown religious group had imposed on her a fatwa.
   Washington Post that would not spare a line for any news from Bangladesh gave this pornographic author a front-page interview fit for world-renowned figures who have achieved something extraordinary. Taslima's feat was her attack on Islam. The extraordinary part of the Taslima episode was the way she was turned into an international celebrity for reasons that would defy logic. If Taslima had been a Hindu, had written against the Hindu religion and had been threatened with life by a group as insignificant as the one that actually threatened her, she would have been ignored even by the local press. In fact, the achievements of Taslima as a writer, the fatwa given by an insignificant religious group, the almost total public apathy to the entire episode in Bangladesh and the reaction to it by the western world should leave no right thinking person with doubt about the motives that turned Taslima into an international celebrity which is deep rooted hatred in a section of people in the west to see the end of our great religion.
   It is good that France used the veto at the UN during the Iraq war but how does that relate to the Muslim world being cowards again defies logic. The way Hussain speaks of 'millions of your brothers and sisters' flocking western embassies for visas stinks! Has he also bleached himself white? Well no one suggests that he or millions of Muslims should leave the west for the cartoons. The west is saying this. About migration, here is what Hussain should think about to get rid of his inferiority complex. The whites in USA and Canada are as much migrants as he is and Europe, before it says anything about Muslim migrants, should consider the billions of dollars they have looted from us during our colonial days. Thus on moral grounds, we Muslims stand on Mount Everest and the west is the one that needs to defend itself.
   Rashed Ahmed
   Gulshan, Dhaka

When Socrates was forced to drink hemlock, he decided to embrace death to uphold the truth. That was the priority of a highly principled man. His death held high the values of truth and morality. In such matters there is no place for dialogue. Jesus Christ was crucified not because he preferred death to truth but he felt that his sacrifice would establish a solid reason when truth becomes a priority over life. That was his greatness and magnanimity that he felt that way.
   We can assume that Socrates and Jesus both stood firm on their own principles and priorities. In this century with an entirely different social condition, the principles of priorities need to be redefined. If we take religion as a guide, although many people believe that our modern jurisprudence and education hold more power than religion, the interpretation of its real role in our contemporary life appears a matter of great controversy. That's the reason why our extreme sense of liberalism has kept many people away from reacting on many controversial issues. That is what happened when a film was made on Jesus' sex life, Salman Rushdie wrote 'The Satanic Verses' or Taslima Nasreen said that Quran should be revised and very recently the Danish cartoons on Prophet Muhammad. The people who fear that these acts will harm any established religion are not really thinking about the real priorities. The emotional outburst and fear do not really establish anything. We complain that the west is oppressing us, trying to annihilate us and also sucking our blood. How can we come out of this situation, is it through protest or rather we need to be strong enough to withstand their onslaught?
   The reality is that the Muslim world is weak in all the way possible, they need to gather economic power to make their voice heard. This should be their priority and nothing else. As a matter of fact it is very unrealistic in many ways to think that the west is trying to annihilate the Muslims. They are just using their superior powers to overwhelm the weak. We must understand and accept that religion can be used as a moral guide but we need to update and translate them to face the modern realities. We can't say that this life is temporary and the life after is permanent in the hells or heavens. This is a ridiculous logic, which does not conform to any practical cause.
   Another thing we need to realise is that the brew of religion and politics is always lethal.
   Akbar Hussain
   Toronto, Canada

The ‘accidental’ shooting by US Vice President Dick Cheney of a Texas lawyer Harry Whittington in a Texas ranch where they were hunting for birds is not a rare phenomenon in gun-loving Texas. In Texas, both accidental and intentional shootings are rather widespread. A closer look will make the point clear.
   When 14-year-old Juan Ramon, of Halthom City, near Fort Worth, Texas, got angry after a family row, he didn't kick the family cat or sulk. He did what many Texans do when they are very angry: with a family gun ready at hand, he started shooting. Like most Texans, his father had a collection of guns. He had also given his son a .22 calibre rifle for Christmas.
   Earlier that afternoon, Juan had begun sniping with a high-powered rifle from his bedroom window. He shot a dog, and seriously injured three neighbours, before killing a cop who had answered an emergency call. Later in the afternoon, Juan was killed in a hail of police bullets.
   Nobody really knows why Juan did it - but everyone knows that if there were no guns in the house, this would not have happened. Juan Ramon's weekend shooting spree was quickly followed by several other shooting deaths in Texas and all within weeks of February 28, 1993 shootout at the Branch Davidian sect's compound at Waco. In the Lone Star State, the national capital of gun culture, such stark tragedies are nothing unusual.
   Texas has a population of about 17 million. Between them, they own 68 million guns, or four guns for every man, woman and child. Not surprisingly, thousands are being killed every year in Texas - the vast majority cut down by gunfire.
   In an editorial after Waco, the Houston Chronicle railed against the Texan gun culture. It decried the Waco killings, recalling also the 1991 massacre at Luby's Restaurant in nearby Killeen, where a crazed gunman armed with an assault rifle shot dead 22 staff and customers. ‘These high-profile slaughters are sickening,’ the editorial said. 'But are they really any more so than the slow-motion mayhem going on in virtually every city?
   A steady drumbeat of violence plays itself out daily, felling our fellow citizens one by one. ... But society seems to cruise along, largely oblivious to the depth of the problem, until one of these mega events occurs and then society goes ballistic.’
   While these observations are largely accurate, 'society going ballistic' for gun control may be a pious hope. But for most Texans, the bloody shootout is essentially a freak show - something happening to somebody else. Somehow, they fail to relate events like Waco and Killeen to their own lives and habits, any more than they do the routine bloodshed in the homes and streets of Dallas and Houston. Perhaps, it is because they don't understand or don't care.
   The confusion and indifference over what to do about the anarchic proliferation of guns is not confined to Texas. In Washington, the Republican-dominated House has let the Brady Bill (a modest gun control legislation named after Ronald Reagan's press secretary who was maimed in the 1981 assassination attempt) to expire. The shootouts at Columbine High School and other schools by children have time and again shocked the world.
   It is in red-necked, gun-loving, unregenerate Texas that the results of this virtual paralysis are often displayed in their most extreme forms. Vice President Dick Cheney's 'accidental' shooting of his friend is the latest example of such recklessness.
   Mahmood Elahi
   Ottawa, Canada

Shahnoor Wahid’s column ‘From the Street Corner’ (February 23) was an eye opener in more ways than one. It was a very informative and analytical summing up of issues that our powers to be ignore and always avoid. We are already on the threshold of a failing if not a failed state. This article should open our eyes!
   I think it should be translated in Bangla, copied and distributed to all our honourable parliamentarians. Hopefully it will open some eyes, ears and minds, as we feel that many of them are busy pursuing permits and percentages rather than our poor state of affairs in governance.
   Take the case of power and energy; our top echelons of the country see nothing wrong as highlighted the same day in the paper where it states that our state minister of power was dazzled by all the lights all through the night in his journey of discovery from Sunderbans to Dhaka. Unfortunately power shortage of 1000MW is usual and there is acute shortage in North Bengal which even the Chairman, BPDB admitted (Energy & Power: February 16) in his interview! May be we have sacrificed irrigation to have rural houses (a relatively smaller electricity consumer) lighted to keep our minister happy!
   Meanwhile, let me irrevocably state that in Gulshan 1 we have 'load shedding' at around 10 am again around 3 pm, 7 pm and 9 pm varying from half to one hour. But that is only load shedding. After all we shed unbearable loads, and the power to be in its wisdom wants to shed the load of 'electricity' as it is 'unbearable'. Could be that the heat of the hot summer is good for our health, and in the days to come may be the health minister may say something about it as we shed more of the 'load of unbearable electricity' to the rubbish heap. Good riddance too; is it not! How about 'minister shedding' to usher some decrease of load demand?
   Electricity miser
   On e-mail

It was a pleasant surprise to read the headlines, ‘Bangladesh Claim Historic Victory’ on BBC website’s sports pages as I set about doing my day's experiments at Stanford University's nano fabrication facility earlier this morning. I announced the joyous news to my only other compatriot in the lab: ‘Bangladesh won the ODI against Sri Lanka.’ A big smile spread over his face as he sought reassurance, ‘Really?!’ and I replied, ‘Yes! We beat the hell out of them.’
   Then we joked and laughed about the sudden flip flop in Habibul Bashar’s comments which started from a defensive, ‘It was a failure of our batsmen who were away from international cricket for four months’ following the defeat and after the victory turned to ‘Now we want to win the series, we want to be more competitive’ - all the while giving him and his team a huge big pat on their backs.
   England, West Indies ... watch out … we may be the new and weak kids on the block but we WILL beat you too one day.
   Shabash Bangladesh!
   Shabbir A Bashar, PhD
   San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA

The Danish cartoons meant to touch a nerve by publicly drawing an association between violence and Islam, and they obviously proved a point when a KFC was burned down in Pakistan and protesters arrived at Trafalgar Square in London to demand the beheadings of the cartoonists several months after the cartoons' publication.
   Meanwhile, contributors to your letters page 'Feedback' exercise their valued freedom of speech everyday by condemning Danish people and European media and even western media in general. All of them are angry because someone in Denmark exercised that same freedom several months ago. The irony is obvious.
   So why are people on this page lashing out against Europeans and supposed conspiring elements in the western media? This isn't about a continent or a religion or a race, and it isn't about an imaginary unified 'West' standing up against some imaginary Muslim brotherhood. Your insecured contributors are only highlighting their own prejudices - and wasting space of your page - when they use one insignificant incident as an excuse to condemn an entire hemisphere.
   Travel the world and see a bit more of the prejudices and hatred that exist in every corner of it, and then some stupid cartoons printed by some stupid cartoonists a long time ago won't seem worth stressing about.
   Sajid Chowdhury
   On e-mail

Man reacts, sometimes violently, when hurt or insulted, or when inflicted with hardships. When these acts occur routinely, he gradually gets used to atrocities, exploitations and to conditions considered inhuman for human’s survival. The doyen of the superpowers now wants the Muslims go by his terms and get used to taking insults and miseries just as normally as every day happenings. After all, their thirst for oil is insatiable, and they must have oil and gas pipelines (or life lines) safe and secure.
   The superpowers did it before and are doing it now. In the American continent the Red Indians fought the colonial powers once tooth and nail. They are now a negligible minority, mostly to be seen at the reservations. And who is not aware of what the European colonial powers did in their heydays in the continents of Africa and Asia. They decimated the indigenous populations and plundered their resources, and the vanquished accepted all as a fait accompli. Iraq was taken only the other day, based on falsehood.
   The aggressors are now targeting the Muslims primarily because some Muslim nations have proven and substantial energy reserves. The Muslims are variously described as Islamic terrorists, Islamic fundamentalists, Islamists - these are the connotations they find suitable to describe the Muslims. Name-calling wasn't enough perhaps. They are seeking now newer ways to entice the Muslims into a big fight. Cartoons about the prophet printed and reprinted in the European countries have angered the Muslims all over the world; soon after came the horror scene on the TV footage, the British army bashing the young Iraqi boys inside the army barrack, a scene the like of which is often shown on the Discovery channel - a pack of wolfs feasting on their kills.
   These events are enough to provoke reprisal from those who are affected and humiliated. Violent resistance is only likely, and the occupation forces wish it. They are well on finding excuses for attack. The doyen of the superpowers is absolutely oil hungry (Iran may be on his priority list). The message to the Muslims is crystal clear - ‘submit or fight and perish.’
   Before killing, the victim must be given a bad name. After all the aggressors must have some grounds to justify their aggression.
   Moni Khan
   Dhania, Dhaka

British troops abused teenage Iraqis in despicably brutal and perversely sadistic manner in Basra (Southern Iraq). Since the British are civilised, the Ministry of Defence spokesman suggested this abuse was done 'in the heat of the moment'. Well, Basra is always a pretty warm place, temperatures going beyond 50 degree Celsius in summer. Heat is not momentary but year round.
   The BBC commentators never miss to point out how poor the timing of bringing out the video clip was since the Iraqis and rest of the Muslim world are already angry over the Abu Ghraib scandal.
   These atrocities took place 'in the heat of the moment' and two or three years ago. How irresponsible of the free media? They should know better. But does crime diminish or disappear with passage of time? Then why America is putting Saddam Hussein on trial for alleged crimes of Dujail killings over twenty years ago?
   As fresh pictures were made public, the US spokesman did even better. He lamented more the needlessness of posting pictures of fresh abuses on Iraqi prisoners because it fuels anger and hostile public reaction to the US occupation (liberation?).
   Now the whole freedom of press and expression has come full circle. When free press inconveniences us it is irresponsible; when free press caricatures the Prophet Mohammad of Islam (peace be upon him), that freedom we are told is sacrosanct and non-negotiable.
   Yet freedom to print news and facts is being questioned. Well, you cannot eat the cake and have it too, can you?
   The hypocrisy apart, the cruel and crude irony is that the beastly pervert conduct of occupiers on captives is not the issue, is not of any concern;
   it is the timing of publication in
   the press that is the issue that bothers these civilised democracies.
   One genuinely wonders if colonialism is dead or alive and kicking; if the White Man is still carrying the burden gleefully or otherwise.
   No, in Asia as elsewhere and in America decent concerned citizens are deeply disturbed over Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, Basra, Bagram and numerous other unknown prisons where these civilised democracies are abusing and torturing, violating all norms of international law and justice.
   The first duty in war on terror would be to bring to justice those who knowingly and wilfully carried out human rights abuses and under whose watch torture and murder of innocent prisoners in custody took place. Since when torture and murder became time barred for trial to take place?
   Husain
   Dhaka

We could have been proud of Biman Bangladesh Airlines. But, in fact, we are ashamed of it. Biman never reached even the lowest level of our expectation. I remember, what I read long ago in the reader's column of a national newspaper. The reader used to walk at particular times to the Heathrow Airport to look at the Bengali letters inscribed on PIA aircrafts, Pakistan International Airlines. Now we have our own country called Bangladesh but we feel ashamed of owning an airline called Biman.
   Everywhere in Biman you will see corruption. In every interaction with the genius Biman employees, you will have to bribe. Bribe for your seat confirmation, bribe for bargains on your excess baggage and pay bribe for any transaction you want to make with Biman Bangladesh Airlines. If you are an honest and a patriotic person, I will suggest you not to deal with Biman in your life.
   Biman needs an efficient chief executive officer and efficient executives in key positions. It is not necessary that they will have to be Bangladeshis. They have to be experienced, qualified and proven industry veterans. What a newborn minister or a state minister will know about the aviation, travel and tourism industry? How can he take important and sensitive decisions for Biman in the highly competitive and tough financial environment? Look at the fast growing airline Jet Airways. Their new chief is an Australian. Look at Sri Lankan Airlines, run by British and multinational executives, assigned by the managing partner Emirates Airlines. Emirates bought half of the share of Sri Lankan Airlines but took over the management responsibility as per the terms of the deal. Before the take over, Air Lanka was a poorly managed airline like Biman. They had the same chronic labour union problems. What was it that changed a poorly managed third world carrier like Sri Lankan Airlines?
   The same general work force is working there but Sri Lankan Airlines is now an efficient and competitive airline in our region. What Biman needs is a caring and hard working partner like Emirates. There is no scope for narrow nationalistic views.
   M Khan
   On e-mail