Who is Taslima Nasreen to attack my freedom?

A couple of nights ago, scrolling down my Twitter timeline, I came across Taslima Nasreen's name, the context in which it was mentioned, honestly, I don't even remember. Idly, I clicked on her name, and that was the first time I read her tweets. Slightly amused at first at her one-track posts, two tweets struck me the most, both her responses to two Twitter handles presumably of Muslim males. The tweets:

I was taken aback at the careless crassness of her words, since one expects more from a so-called writer who became known to many because of her very loud and categorical stance vis-à-vis her right to express her views. Here were two harmless questions, and her very provocative and rude responses, negating the very stance that's her raison d'etre of fame. Since I don't normally tweet after midnight, I left a few comments in my drafts, and rolling my eyes I resumed my film-watching.

The next afternoon, I posted those tweets, none of which I've deleted from my timeline. And I wouldn't because it is MY right to express my views about anything and anyone. And isn't the entire edifice of Nasreen's very "controversial" existence based on that? An individual's freedom of expression? My tweets were about her constant attacks on Islam, Prophet Muhammad and Muslims, and how she exploits her "exiled-from-homeland-for-being-different" status to spew venom on an entire faith. What happened to her was very unfortunate, and being very vocal about the misuse of blasphemy laws in Pakistan, I empathise and sympathise with her predicament. Despite ongoing online vitriolic, my constant writing on this subject bears testimony to the truth of my fight about the persecution of Christians, Shias, Ahmedis and Hindus in Pakistan. I write because I care.

Do I think Nasreen should be stopped? No. Do I think she has a right to speak her mind even if it hurts my sensibilities, or those of millions of Muslims? Yes. Do I think her atheist narrative has its own place amidst the religious beliefs of you and me? Certainly. Do I have any issue with her existence as a "free thinker?" Absolutely not.

But then I ask: if Nasreen has a right to speak her mind, why am I not entitled to do the same? If even without any provocation, she has a right to insult religious sensibilities of many, who in the world does she think she is that she should escape criticism? If freedom of expression is absolute as per Nasreen's belief, how's she in a position to set the parameter of anyone's right of opinion? Why the double standards, the hypocrisy when it comes to you?

There are no answers, Nasreen, and you and I both know that. But that's the difference between you and me. I speak the truth because certain things are to be expressed. I don't mouth words, or post tweets to evoke violent reactions, to stay in news, to keep the outrage going. In a time where there is too much trouble in the world because of distorted manifestations of an entire faith – Islam – I would be very, very careful not to throw more fuel in the fire. As a responsible citizen of one country, of the world, I would put across my views in an enlightened manner, not simply as a provocateur to sensationalise to get headlines.

As a practising Muslim or Christian or Hindu, or an agnostic, or an atheist, I'd use my power as a columnist or a writer to state my point of view. My words are not my weapon. My words are the best expression of who I am, what I endorse, what I support, and what I wish to share with my readers, or followers on Twitter. The reason why I decided to write this is my bafflement. How a blatant lie could be posted on Twitter by a so-called courageous woman, and 100s of retweets and favourites later, no one asks one basic question: where is the "abuse" I'm supposed to have "spewed" on Taslima Nasreen? And where is my alleged outrage about her tweets about the role of Pakistan army in the 1971 war? The scary thing about Twitter outrage is the blindness of the sheep. Those very determined Pakistan-Islam-hating, rightwing, keyboard bigots in India who think the vitriolic they throw on strangers is justified if the name has Muhammad in it, or the flag is green.

I ask here. How in the world can Taslima Nasreen call herself fearless and morally upright when both her tweets to me are outright lies, innuendo, incitement to hatred and violence and blatant sensationalism of tragedy? What Pakistan army is alleged to have done in Bangladesh is for all history-followers to judge and many of us to feel very saddened about. Many innocent people were killed, many women were raped. Would I ever deny that? No. Did I have a problem with her about her war-mongering tweet while Pakistan and India are helping one another evacuate their people from the conflict-ridden Yemen? Nope.

Nasreen's tweet that I am an Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) agent reacting to her tweet against Pak army, and who would harm her is so outrageously crazy I could only laugh. It's so crazy that despite being libellous I can only term it as a rant of a deranged mind. To allege such a huge thing without a shred of proof is not merely irresponsible it's an incitement to violence.

I expect her to insinuate evil motives to a Pakistani because that to her, I think, is the validation of her existence in India. My tweets were about her very provocative and abusive language to two people who questioned her tweets on Islam and Prophet Muhammad.

Nasreen's extremely malicious tweets to me about a deceased woman were so tasteless I still don't have words to answer her. I just wish to state one thing here: all my tweets from January 15 and 16, 2014 are on my timeline. All there for all to see who started it, who abused whom, and who remained good-humoured about it. While everything about me was attacked, I kept my dignity and turned the whole attack into a joke.

For the very "fearless" Taslima Nasreen to take someone's untimely demise, a family's very personal tragedy, and turn it into an expletive to react to tweets she was not even tagged in is beyond rebuke. It's so ugly, so abominable that I would leave it to her conscience. To feel remorse, some day, about her extremely vicious and careless words about a woman's demise whose family has done Taslima Nasreen no harm. Neither did I when I expressed my negation of her self-importance, or her penchant for sensationlisng small things to keep herself in news.

The scary bit about this apparently insignificant event is the viralling of innuendo. How trolls attack without even verifying what has been tweeted. How media picks up stuff from Twitter and turns it into another sensational bit of gossip. And how long-winded judgments are formed without even bothering to read the allegedly abusive tweets of 140 characters. Taslima Nasreen of all people should know what it is liked to be persecuted. Or it does not matter when the person being attacked is a Pakistani, a Muslim? Right, Ms Nasreen?