Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 16:27:50 -0800
Subject: Assoc. Press report "Islam Radicals Want Author's Death"


September 18, 1998

          Filed at 4:58 p.m. EDT

          By The Associated Press

Islam Radicals Want Author's Death

          DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) -- About 800 Muslim militants marched in
the Bangladeshi capital onFriday demanding the death of Taslima Nasrin, an
author who returned to her country just days ago after four years in exile.

Nasrin fled to Europe in 1994 to escape death threats by
Islamic fundamentalists. They accused her of blasphemy after a newspaper
quoted her as saying the Koran, the Islamic holy book, should be rewritten.

 Nasrin said she was misquoted but does favor changes in
Islamic laws to give more rights to women in Bangladesh, a Muslim nation.

``Arrest infidel Taslima and hang her!'' chanted the protesters, emerging
from the main mosque in Dhaka, the capital.

 Nasrin, 36, secretly flew into Dhaka on Monday from New York
with her mother, who has cancer. The author's whereabouts are unknown.

Nasrin also angered fundamentalists with her novel Lajja
(``Shame''), which criticized Muslims for attacking minority Hindus in
Bangladesh following the 1992 destruction of a mosque by Hindu  zealots in
neighboring India.
------------------------------
C. J. S. Wallia,  Ph.D.
Publisher, IndiaStar: A Literary-Art Magazine
http://www.indiastar.com
Phone and Fax: (510) 848-8200
P.O. Box 5582, Berkeley, CA 94705, U.S.A.
--------------------------------
------------------------------
C. J. S. Wallia,  Ph.D.
Publisher, IndiaStar: A Literary-Art Magazine
http://www.indiastar.com
Phone and Fax: (510) 848-8200
P.O. Box 5582, Berkeley, CA 94705, U.S.A.
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