The Heat: Bangladesh’s bloggers under threat

The Heat

Why are bloggers being murdered in Bangladesh? Can authorities there protect writers and activists who fear for their lives? The recent murder of a LGBT blogger brought renewed attention to the safety of Bangladeshi bloggers who are being targeted by extremists.

Several bloggers and activists, many of them atheists, have been murdered in Bangladesh in the last year after posting views on social media critical of radical Islam. Other bloggers and secular activists are also being singled out and are on a hit-list targeted for death. CCTV’s John Gilmore has this report.

To discuss the culture around these blogger executions:

  • Maqsood (Mac) Haque is a pioneer in progressive Bangladeshi music and is very well known in South Asia. He’s also outspoken and he has received death threats for his criticism of Islamic extremism.

To share their personal experience being targeted for their writings:

  • Shammi Haque is a Bangladeshi blogger and activist who fled the country after death threats.
  • Ananya Azad is a fellow blogger who has also been living in exile after being targeted by radical Islamists.

To provide some historical background on the situation in Bangladesh:

  • Subho Basu is a professor of South Asian history at McGill University.