Hypocrisy and scapegoating seems to have blanketed the domain of international politics as well as certain genres of intellectual dialogues of the present time. The chaos, anarchy and mayhem being perpetrated by Bush-Blair's neo-con hegemony, has engendered a dirty atmosphere of blaming the victims. Taj Hashmi's 'Jihad against partisan political use of Islam: Struggle of a Bangladeshi Muslim' (Daily Star, Dhaka, 27.3.05) dedicated to promote his supposed guru Fatemolla's newly-shaped old diatribes against Islam and against established Muslim thinkers, is nothing but drifting down the same stream of scapegoating and hatemongering.

Fatemolla-Hashmi's new approach to harming the noble image of Islam by denigrating renowned Islamic personalities of past and of the present time, has rendered their enterprise even more insidious, because of their desperate effort to project themselves as Muslims, who are supposedly trying to 'reform' Islam. A careful look at Fatemolla's ill-presented ideas put on different scratchy websites and at Hashmi's article designed to publicize them, will give reasons to readers for the enormous displeasure among Muslim community against these proponents and against their propagandas.

Mr. Hashmi appears too ambitious in his invective. He not only attempts to sell Fatemolla's 'views' but also to comment on the huge bulk of Islamic literatures by Hasan al-Banna, Sayyid Qutb, Abul Al'aa Mawdudi, Imams Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawood, Tirmizi, Abu Hanifa and Shafi in just one newspaper article! I leave it to Mr. Hashmi himself to introspect upon how much effort he actually made to know the pros and cons of the scholarship of these towering Islamic jurists, thinkers, reformers and political philosophers.

I just want to touch upon Hashmi's debate about one former well-reputed civil servant and distinguished Islamic thinker of Bangladesh Mr Shah Abdul Hannan. I can say it for sure that Mr. Hashmi does not know much of the noble activities and intellectual works of Shah Abdul Hannan. In his article, he even does not appear to be familiar with the fact that Bidhibaddho Islami Ain is a compilation of coded Islamic law mostly based on the works of great jurists like Imam Abu Hanifa. This is just a result of a studied research and juristic opinions of some scholars who did the work just to meet the demand of time. Given the nature of their work, it should be approached as a compilation of jurisprudential opinions, and not as enacted laws. Bidhibaddho Islami Ain opens doors to more research, and it does not impede further study of Islamic law on the basis of ijtihad. Competent Islamic scholars may differ with the views expressed in the volumes of the Bidhibaddho Islami Ain; but this has to be done in an academic way, not in the method and in the line of attack Mr Hashmi has attempted.

I have formed a well-founded doubt in my mind whether Mr Hashmi had ever seen or read the book before he wrote his article. Whereas Shah Abdul Hannan is just one member of the board of scholars, who compiled this seminal work, Mr Hashmi has represented Mr Hannan as the sole author of the book. It is worth mentioning here that the other members of the board are: renowned legal expert late Gazi Shamsur Rahman (chairperson), A Z M Shamsul Alam, Maulana Obaidul Huq, Mohammad Musa and Muzammed Huq. Hashmi mentions Bidhibaddho Islami Ain as presumably Mr Hannan's single-handed work and terms it as Mr Hannan's 'recent' book, though its first volume was published in April 1995. This adequately speaks louder about Mr Hashmi's inacquaintance with Mr Hannan's later published books and newspaper articles. Shah Abdul Hannan has authored 10 books so far. For the kind information of readers, I mention below some of his recent works:

1. Bishoi-chinta (a collection of essays) 2004

2. Law, Economics and History (2003)

3. Desh, Somaj O Rajniti (Nation, Society and Politics) 2003

4. Islami Orthoniti: Dorson O Kormokaushol (Islamic Economics: Its Philosophy and Strategy) 2002

5. Nari O Bastobota (Women and the Reality) 2002

6. Social Laws of Islam (1995)

What is extremely preposterous about Mr Hashmi is the fact that he aligns Mr Hannan with the tradition-bound misogynistic line of Muslim thinking! It disregards and undermines Mr Hannan's lifelong struggle to create an awareness about the need for intellectual exercises among Muslims internationally, and to make them understand Islamic rulings contextually. Mr Hashmi's unforgivable ignorance about the towering personality of Mr Hannan becomes even more conspicuous if we take into consideration the momentous intellectual efforts the latter has put forward both in print and on the podium to promote women's condition in the Muslim world, especially in Bangladesh. The fact that Mr Hannan has taken Islam as his framework to promote women's causes maybe the reason why Mr Hashmi has made him a target of his tirade.