Bangladeshi Muslim Extremists Publish Blogger Hit List

There are two Americans and nine Britons on it, but the names are wisely not being re-published in the news. This report is from the Washington Times:

A group of Bangladeshi Islamic extremists, linked to the brutal deaths of four bloggers who were hacked to death with machetes this year, has published a new hit list calling for attacks on bloggers across the world.

The hit list, purporting to be from the militant group Ansarullah Bangla Team, targets people in Europe and North America. Bangladeshi Islamists have published similar hit lists of writers they view as enemies of Islam before — and acted on them.

“Let Bangladesh revoke the citizenship of these enemies of Islam,” a statement accompanying the list says, CNN reported. “If not, we will hunt them down in whatever part of God’s world we find them and kill them right there.”

The list contains nine people in the United Kingdom, eight in Germany, two in the U.S., one in Canada and one in Sweden, CNN said.

Last year, Reporters Without Borders said a group calling itself Ansar al Islam Bangladesh published a list of writers it saw as opposing Islam. A few months later, blogger Asif Mohiuddin, whose name was on the list, said at least nine of those on it had been killed and many others attacked, CNN reported.

Last month, police in Bangladesh arrested three suspected members of Ansarullah Bangla Team, one of them a British citizen, in connection to the killings of bloggers Avijit Roy and Anant Bijoy Das.

At least four bloggers have been hacked to death in Bangladesh this year after posting articles critical of Islam online.

“This international threat to writers and bloggers is an unacceptable attack on freedom of expression,” said Thomas Hughes, the executive director of Article 19, a group that defends bloggers’ rights worldwide, CNN reported. “Such threats often have a chilling effect on expression, encouraging individuals and organizations to self-censor for fear of violent reprisals.