Abu Taib Ahmed

Category: Uncategorized

  • Hasina’s trial could easily have been controversy-free

    From the outset of the July uprising’s legal proceedings, I warned relentlessly and in full view of the public that the trial was burdened by the contradictions embedded within its own design. That warning now feels less like cautious speculation and more like prophecy. What I feared is now unfolding, piece by predictable piece, and the →

  • Joint Statement on Hasina’s India Visit: Bangladesh calls its own system discriminatory to India

    Bangladesh has called one of its own systems discriminatory towards India in the joint the statement issued on 8 April by Bangladesh and India during prime minister’s state visit to India. However it was not clear if it was an oversight on Bangladesh’s part. Para 35 of the statement read: “The two prime ministers noted →

  • Political crisis rooted in clash of nationalisms: Prof. Maniruzzaman

    Renowned political scientist and national professor Talukder Maniruzzaman can no longer write and can hardly speak clearly. Born Sirajganj in 1938, Talukder Maniruzzaman graduated from Dhaka University in 1961 and was subsequently awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship. He secured his PhD degree from Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada. He joined Rajshahi University in 1966 as a senior →

  • Of country and freedom

    “দেশ” নামক একটা টেম্পোরারি আবেগি এনটিটি যখন আমাদের সকল চিন্তার কেন্দ্রবিন্দুতে পরিণত হয়, বা ধর্মের/আদর্শের চাইতেও গুরুত্বপূর্ণ হয়ে ঊঠে, তখন মানুষ নামক মনুষ্য সমাজের প্রধান উপাদান তখন তুচ্ছ হয়ে যায়। এই দেশবাদ নামক আফিমই আজ মানব সভ্যতার জন্য কাল হয়ে উঠেছে। কারণ, দেশবাদের মুলে হলো মানুষের স্বার্থপরতার বা এক গ্রুপ মানুষের স্বার্থপরতা!! দু:খজনক হলেও সত্য →

  • Understanding Islam: Paradigm shift is an imperative

    This essay argues that Islam should be understood through the lens of social science, not through the limited view of theology. The dynamics, interplays, and nuances of human society are best explicated by the various branches of social science (and by no other scholarship of knowledge); therefore, a social scientific approach will provide a deeper →

  • The way Hadith replaces Quran!

    Quran never fixed it for us who can read it and who can determine the message of it. It has asked the people to consult the learned persons/scholars though, to better decode and understand Allah’s message out of it. However, it never fixed any criteria a scholar should have for interpreting the Quran. It’s open. →

  • Bangladesh doesn’t need two parliaments. It needs ‘real’ checks on power

    Bangladesh’s political theater is once again consumed by the familiar quarrel over how the next election should be run.  This time, the flashpoint is the proportional representation (PR) system,a debate less about mechanics of democracy than about who stands to gain, or lose, when ballots are finally cast. Jamaat-e-Islami, joined by a clutch of smaller →

  • Bangladesh in 2025: A new beginning or a return to old struggles?

    In 2024, Bangladesh finds itself facing perhaps the most significant moment in its modern history. After decades of suffocating authoritarian rule, the country has finally shaken off its longest and most brutal tyranny. A student-led uprising—a massive, powerful demonstration of the people’s will—has brought down the iron-fisted dictator, Sheikh Hasina. Her name, once synonymous with →