As an atheist ex-muslim blogger of very similar descent, I don't see how this is relevant to hacker news. I sincerely doubt it will generate any useful discussion.
Bangladesh has a population of about 20 million hindus who even if the number seems huge, are a minority given that the country has a huge population.
I have been extremely fortunate to have had my dad make the sensible choice of abandoning his homeland for a job in Dubai which even if is not the best he could be doing. Is way better than being scared of your life.
Most of my rest of family moved illegally to India and managed to get an Indian passport and are living peaceful lives.
However it saddens me to see the situation in Bangladesh, since I have been there countless time and a lot of my cousins still live there. I also hold an bangladeshi passport.
I really would want to do a tech job in bangladesh if given the opportunity. I am currently finishing in undergrad in an top British University and the situation here is so much nicer.
One my goals is to one day open a research lab / company in bangladesh involving robotics.
Bangladesh suffers from a lot of political corruption / cultural disintegration / poverty / natural disasters / education / . . .
My dad sometimes worries about my online activities lol
Since I am myself an atheist but I make sure to stay anonymous.
My family due to so many problems in the past has adopted a closed mouth policy since we have lived all our lives in muslim majority countries. The only safe haven seems to be India.
In any case these types of news is much more common if you keep in touch but I am surprised to see this becoming news here.
To put this in some random hint of potential perspective, Sylhet is the center of the overseas Bengali community in Europe, ie. it's probably one of the most educated, wealthy and progressive parts of the country with the exception of the capital, Dhaka.
I find your comment to be thoroughly xenophobic and unwilling to face the reality of the United States. Sure, you aren't likely to literally get attacked by Islamists with machetes in the US. But minimizing the threats of gamergate violence is completely unnecessary and unrealistic.
Is it really that difficult to imagine one of the gamergate threats to be from an individual like the UC Santa Barbara shooter or the Aurora Colorado shooter? Don't you think that's the worst fear of the women targeted by gamergate? And frankly, a legitimate fear based on events in the United State over the past 5-10 years? The United States has a huge public violence problem, it just happens to be different from the one in Bangladesh.
These gruesome murders are obviously politically motivated. Aren't they inadvertently being helped by the media (not necessarily US media) who publish the grizzly photos of the victims. Just finished "Influence" by Chaldini, and I wonder if publicizing specific murders with gruesome details of death might inadvertently also be encouraging copycats.
Religion, held at any level above personal, is destructive to the larger population, in the long run. There is very little true tolerance from anyone who wishes religion to guide governing. It may be horribly violent attacks like this in Islam, but just as quickly it pushes for mandatory trans-vaginal ultrasounds in the U.S.
I may get downvoted, but I fail to see how religion will ever help guide the human race to a better place. You may be able to point to impoverished places where missionaries are saving lives and providing support, and yes, that is fantastic. But just as quickly it turns into imprisoning homosexuals and local government policies being driven by religious dogma.
Organized religion scares and saddens me. I wish it didn't, I'm aware there are many religious participants on HN. I do not mean to cause personal offense.
Please don't take HN threads off on generic ideological tangents. This comment is the very definition of one, and has had the predictable effect.
Especially please don't conduct religious flamewars on HN. There are other places on the internet to fulminate against insert-opposite-position-about-religion-here.
"Destructive in the long run" is nearly empty of content. You could trivially make the same claim about the steam engine. (Industry leads to pollution leads to disaster.)
Organized anything is powerful and dangerous. Organized goverment, organized commerce, organized labor, organized rationalism, organized kittens. Animals are scary and dangerous, humans most of all.
Your comment reminded me the scene from Kingdom of Heaven where religion is discussed:
I put no stock in Religion. By the word of religion, I've seen the lunacy of fanatics of every denomination be called the "Will of God". I've seen too much religion in the eyes of too many murderers. Holiness is in right action and courage on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves. And goodness - what God desires - [pointing at his head then heart] is here and here. And what you decide to do every day, you will be a good man, [smiles] or not.
American Mormons seem to use religion in fairly constructive ways - choose pretty much any social indicator, and they drastically outperform nearly any other group at a similar income level.
Realistically, most of the violence perpetrated by religion these days is done by a subset of Islam. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any attacks comparable to 9/11, 26/11, Baga or similar that were perpetrated by anyone besides Islamists. A quick google search finds an article on Daily Beast which purports to disagree, but can only come up with a small number of minor attacks.
How can an inanimate idea be held at fault? People use Religion to do bad things, not the other way around. Get rid of Religion and people will justify doing bad things for non-religious reasons.
You don't think people have used Science as an excuse to do evil?
>Religion, held at any level above personal, is destructive to the larger population, in the long run.
This is simply not true. What is true is that group-think which allows people to completely disregard others in such a fashion that they are willing to murder, is destructive to the larger population.
Religion has held together many a society which would have cannibalized itself time and again, over and over. It is simply the desire to abandon morality and murder a fellow living being which must be dealt with, and Religion definitely does not have a monopoly on this facet of our social existence.
Aww, you took a news item about Islamic fundamentalism in Bangladesh and put in a comment about gender politics in the US south. This is sure to get up-voted, because you know, Amerika is bad. But just to be sure, you put in 'I may get downvoted'. That was a cute touch. No one on HN can resist that combination.
[+] [-] alinajaf|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jcruze|11 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] 1971genocide|11 years ago|reply
This hits so close to home ( my username ),
Bangladesh has a serious problem with religious tolerance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Bangladesh_anti-Hindu_viol...
Bangladesh has a population of about 20 million hindus who even if the number seems huge, are a minority given that the country has a huge population.
I have been extremely fortunate to have had my dad make the sensible choice of abandoning his homeland for a job in Dubai which even if is not the best he could be doing. Is way better than being scared of your life.
Most of my rest of family moved illegally to India and managed to get an Indian passport and are living peaceful lives.
However it saddens me to see the situation in Bangladesh, since I have been there countless time and a lot of my cousins still live there. I also hold an bangladeshi passport.
I really would want to do a tech job in bangladesh if given the opportunity. I am currently finishing in undergrad in an top British University and the situation here is so much nicer.
One my goals is to one day open a research lab / company in bangladesh involving robotics.
Bangladesh suffers from a lot of political corruption / cultural disintegration / poverty / natural disasters / education / . . .
My dad sometimes worries about my online activities lol Since I am myself an atheist but I make sure to stay anonymous.
My family due to so many problems in the past has adopted a closed mouth policy since we have lived all our lives in muslim majority countries. The only safe haven seems to be India.
In any case these types of news is much more common if you keep in touch but I am surprised to see this becoming news here.
[+] [-] WhitneyLand|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ekianjo|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fwr|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] contingencies|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] seesomesense|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] subliminalpanda|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] contingencies|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ramblerman|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] swombat|11 years ago|reply
Very sad that this happens anywhere in the world. Surprised? Not entirely. This is the local Bangladeshi version of Charlie Hebdo...
[+] [-] ritchiea|11 years ago|reply
Is it really that difficult to imagine one of the gamergate threats to be from an individual like the UC Santa Barbara shooter or the Aurora Colorado shooter? Don't you think that's the worst fear of the women targeted by gamergate? And frankly, a legitimate fear based on events in the United State over the past 5-10 years? The United States has a huge public violence problem, it just happens to be different from the one in Bangladesh.
[+] [-] GFK_of_xmaspast|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Killah911|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] themartorana|11 years ago|reply
I may get downvoted, but I fail to see how religion will ever help guide the human race to a better place. You may be able to point to impoverished places where missionaries are saving lives and providing support, and yes, that is fantastic. But just as quickly it turns into imprisoning homosexuals and local government policies being driven by religious dogma.
Organized religion scares and saddens me. I wish it didn't, I'm aware there are many religious participants on HN. I do not mean to cause personal offense.
[+] [-] dang|11 years ago|reply
Especially please don't conduct religious flamewars on HN. There are other places on the internet to fulminate against insert-opposite-position-about-religion-here.
[+] [-] brlewis|11 years ago|reply
Human power structures are what you should fear. A human in a powerful position will be motivated to silence voices that threaten that power.
[+] [-] WhitneyLand|11 years ago|reply
>Religion, held at any level above personal, is destructive >to the larger population, in the long run.
[+] [-] mbrock|11 years ago|reply
Organized anything is powerful and dangerous. Organized goverment, organized commerce, organized labor, organized rationalism, organized kittens. Animals are scary and dangerous, humans most of all.
[+] [-] arethuza|11 years ago|reply
I put no stock in Religion. By the word of religion, I've seen the lunacy of fanatics of every denomination be called the "Will of God". I've seen too much religion in the eyes of too many murderers. Holiness is in right action and courage on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves. And goodness - what God desires - [pointing at his head then heart] is here and here. And what you decide to do every day, you will be a good man, [smiles] or not.
[+] [-] yummyfajitas|11 years ago|reply
Realistically, most of the violence perpetrated by religion these days is done by a subset of Islam. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any attacks comparable to 9/11, 26/11, Baga or similar that were perpetrated by anyone besides Islamists. A quick google search finds an article on Daily Beast which purports to disagree, but can only come up with a small number of minor attacks.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/14/are-all-ter...
[+] [-] WorldWideWayne|11 years ago|reply
You don't think people have used Science as an excuse to do evil?
[+] [-] fit2rule|11 years ago|reply
This is simply not true. What is true is that group-think which allows people to completely disregard others in such a fashion that they are willing to murder, is destructive to the larger population.
Religion has held together many a society which would have cannibalized itself time and again, over and over. It is simply the desire to abandon morality and murder a fellow living being which must be dealt with, and Religion definitely does not have a monopoly on this facet of our social existence.
[+] [-] kghose|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] notdonspaulding|11 years ago|reply
http://www.godandculture.com/blog/ravi-zacharias-on-a-mormon...
I know you didn't say you were atheist, but just so we're clear: atheism is a religion as well.http://reason.com/archives/2012/03/10/atheism-is-a-religion
[+] [-] shrektillian|11 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] shrektillian|11 years ago|reply
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