Two social media influencers currently living in England and France have taken to the internet to call for the murder of a leading human rights activist.
The two activists have declared that Asad Noor, a well-known counter-Islamist currently in exile from his native Bangladesh — should be killed if he can be found.
In response to the threats, Noor, a prominent counter-Islamist who has written for Focus on Western Islamism (FWI), is asking Westerners to alert authorities in Europe on his behalf. Noor has also been threatened repeatedly by Islamists based in Bangladesh, he told FWI.
“Today or tomorrow, I might be killed by one of them,” Noor said in a video documenting Islamist threats against his life. “However, if one day you find yourself speaking out against child marriage or rejecting support for Sharia law, you might face the same brutal fate within your country.”
The first threat from Europe against Noor came on August 8, 2023, when a young man who goes by the name of Bijoy Hossain Tanjil, posted a video on Facebook of himself walking the streets of Paris. In the now-deleted video, Tanjil declared that “If I get a hold of [Noor] I will kill him and make a video in TikTok.” Tanjil’s TikTok account boasts almost 250,000 followers.
“An atheist like Asad Noor has no right to be alive in Bangladesh!” he declared. Tanjil acknowledged, and subsequently ignored, an FWI request for comment.
On August 10, a self-styled comedian who uses the name Farhan Choudhury and posts on Facebook under the moniker “Sorry8” published a now deleted video of himself sitting in a car with two friends. According to a translation of the video provided by Noor (and verified by MEF) the video explicitly calls for Noor to be murdered. After condemning Noor for leaving Islam and criticizing the faith after his departure, the London-based Choudry, whose Facebook account has 174,000 followers, asks “What shall we do with [apostates like Noor]?”
One friend declares that “We should cut off their tongue so that they don’t criticize our beloved Muhammad in the future.” The other friend then states, “Asad Noor’s hands should be chopped off so that he cannot write anything in any language about our beloved Muhammad. His legs should also be chopped off.” Choudhury, who has not responded to an FWI email requesting comment, ends the video by declaring that Noor should be killed “just like Samuel Paty [the school teacher] who was beheaded in France for criticizing Islam. Asad Noor’s hands and legs should be broken.”
Source: Focus on Western Islamism (FWI)