Image by zakir hossain chowdhury “protest at Dhaka after death of US blogger Avijit Roy” via Flickr
UPDATE: The Secular Student Alliance will be hosting an even on Thursday, March 26th from 12:30PM-2:00PM in the FIU Green Library Breezeway to advocate against intolerance.
A man brushed off the still-wet blood of, Avijit Roy, the prominent American atheist blogger, who dared speak his mind in a country where freedom of religion equates to freedom of the religion we chose for you. The photo circulated on the web as quickly and as viciously as fire takes out a dry forest during a California summer; the vulgarity of the images making them spread all the more quickly.
The images were graphic: blood soaking the sidewalk slowly being brushed away with a hand-held, straw-like broom. Roy’s wife, Rafid Ahmed, soaked in the thick, red liquid and finally Haider’s body resting on a stretcher mangled, but recognizable.
Because of Roy’s death “free speech” rallies have broken out all across Bangladesh.
But is this a matter of freedom of speech?
There is no denying that a lack of freedom of speech in underprivileged countries can mean the difference between life and death; Roy’s murder expresses more than just a lack of tolerance with what people say, it expresses a lack of tolerance towards different ideas and beliefs.
As a secular thinker and as a human, I’m furious. This intolerance, found in most religions, towards ideas and beliefs that don’t coincide with their own has to stop.
Religion has become a shield people hold in front of themselves to justify their sick need to carry out violent acts whether it be through spewing harsh words at those who don’t agree with them, or through more violent means, as Roy unfortunately found out.
Religion is a disease, a social form of bullying, and in some people’s minds a cause important enough to murder for.
Extremists whether they be: Christian, Muslim, Catholic and so on, have tainted the freedom to exist by punishing those who dare to believe ideas that do not follow the rules of their myths.
But free-thinking — and thus progression as a human society, not a religious society — is not only being smothered by extreme fundamentalists, but also by non believers.
Western people who have secular views have an unparalleled advantage that we should stop taking for granted.
Though we non-believers don’t fear being butchered to death when we walk out the door, most of us don’t express our ways of thinking for fear of other things: social outcast or judgment.
How do we expect to improve humanity if we do not speak out? There are religious people who seek to cut off our voice by scaring us into silence.
I won’t be silent. I will proclaim that there is no god and that the only thing I fear is the future of the human race if religion continues to suck the vitality out of the human race.
Avijit Roy is a martyr. He will not be forgotten. His death will not be in vain.
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