Hajir Chele Paji

[Blah]

My parents are devout religious people. They go to Hajj almost every other year just for shitz and giggles. I used to be very religious too; so much so that I spent more time on Kakrail Mosjid doing tabligh than staying at home or school. I even "founded" a mosque in Mohammadpur, Dhaka. Me and few of my friends raised money (I think its called "chandha"?) going around houses in our neighborhood and businesses for 6 months. We raised enough money to lease a land, construct a basic mosque from "bash and patti" and even had enough money to employ a full time imam. The main reason we wanted to build a mosque because the closest mosque we had was about 30 minutes away by walking distance. The mosque is still there, full-fledged, much bigger and better than its ~14 year old self (So I have been told).

It was fun.

Now that I am going back to BD after so many years and will be there for a very long stay; I need to juggle between my non-belief in any form of religion and god at the same time respecting people who are raging religious people. The first part won't be a problem, other than the internet I don't go around walking up to random people and enforce my view on non-belief. I do enjoy a good discussion about religion and non-belief, but only if asked or provoked and encouraged.

That's all fine and dandy in NY, but I don't think its gonna play so well in BD.

So here is my plan of action to obvious religious conflict:

- Step 1: Avoidance.

Let everyone know in absolute clear terms that you forgot how to do "namaj" (I actually did, mostly) and show very little interest in wanting to re-learn.

- Step 2: Compromise.

Over here, I haven't celebrated Eid, Christmas, Thanksgiving, NewYears, my own Birthday for sometime now. But there is a lesson to be learned from this. Christmas is rarely celebrated as a religious event to non-Christians and even Christians. Its more of a social event. So I can use the same analogy and use Friday Prayers, Eid, using "Salaam" as a greetings; more as a social event with less of a religious connotation. Like I would say "Namaskar" to a hindu neighbor in reply to his greetings or "God bless you" when someone sneezes, without giving a flying frack about god.

- Step 3: Seek like-minded People

To me Atheist Organization is an oxymoron. But they can be a platform for like-minded people to help keep their sanity against the odds and share ideas and thoughts. I have no doubt that there are quite a few atheists in Bangladesh, esp in Dhaka. I have to reach out to some of them and see how they cope with everything. A simple Google search gave few link to organizations:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gi...4368932&v=wall
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2...s_atheists.php


The idea is not to protect myself. The idea is to not offend others who doesn't share my views. I could very well tell everyone in their face that I don't believe in god and not willing to appease their feelings; but that wouldn't make a very happy place to live. After all we bangalis are an emotional bunch.

Any thoughts and ideas?