Author: CulturalUniverse

By M Ahmedullah, 24 April 2023 It was in the late 1980s when I first became aware that not all of what I thought constituted racism was actually racism. Instead, some of what I considered racism was said to be racial prejudice. When my understanding of racism was first challenged by a friend involved in […]

By M Ahmedullah On that day, after I returned to my hotel at around eight pm, I immediately checked the Pacer app on my smartphone and was delighted to see how much I managed to walk: the device recorded more than twenty-five thousand steps. Although I intended to be more physically active during my holiday […]

What constitutes our national cultural identity? By M Ahmedullah, 14 April 2023 The long-term solution to this unending controversy is to abandon the idea of a national cultural identity for Bangladesh and its people. National cultural identity is not attainable as it does not exist. Many diverse historical, local and outside influences shaped our people’s […]

By M Ahmedullah The recent Hindu-Muslim communal violence in several places in India, which I found pretty worrying, prompted and compelled me to take an interest in knowing the details and who was doing what. I wanted to know what was happening and understand their causes. Over the last week, I have watched many discussions […]

Around this time in March 1971, we were marching towards the Rubicon, and by the 25th of the month, there was no going back. I am sharing my 2016 reflection on the nine-month war that followed and some of the questions I have in my mind in order to understand better what transpired. How much […]

Why people supported the 1971 Liberation War in overwhelming numbers? By M Ahmedullah, 12 March 2015 The most credible explanation for Bengali Muslims’ overwhelming support for the creation of Pakistan in 1947 and its break-up in 1971 is not that they were first inspired by Islamic ideology and later by the ideology of Bengali Nationalism. […]

By M Ahmedullah This is a slightly edited version of what I first posted on Facebook on 20 September 2020. I was thinking about writing something on ‘Tetul Hujur’ (Shah Ahmed Shafi, the leader of Hefajat-e-Islam Bangladesh) after he died a few days ago. However, as I am quite busy right now, I cannot dedicate […]

An opinion piece by M Ahmedullah, first posted on 7 February 2015 February 2023 is the tenth anniversary month of the start of the Shahbagh Movement. I am reposting a slightly edited version of the writing I originally posted on Facebook in February 20215, on the second anniversary of the Shahbagh Movement. The unprecedented movement […]

I wrote this as a Facebook piece two years ago when I learnt the planned launch of The Journal of Controversial Ideas. Since then, I believe one edition was brought out early 2021. I did not have the time to search or find the journal’s first publication. My piece was around controversial issues and free […]

By M Ahmedullah This was my contribution to a project called Knowing One Another Through Philosophy – delivered by Brick Lane Circle and completed on 14 June 2022 with a project completion celebration that included dramatised performances of nine contributions by diverse individuals who examined a range of community cohesion issues faced by local communities […]