OP-ED: The ideology of Hefazat

What does it stand for?
Al-Ma’arri was an Arabic poet, philosopher, and writer who lived (December 973 – May 1057) during the Islamic Golden Age under the Abbasid era in Aleppo, which is in modern Syria. 

In 2019, Al-Ma’arri statue was vandalized in Syria by the al-Nusra Front, about a thousand years after his lifetime, because Al-Ma’arri was a rationalist, someone we might call a “nastik” (atheist) in Bangladesh. According to some accounts, he was a deist. He questioned Islam and its practises; at the same time he was critical of Christianity, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism. He was an ethical vegetarian who was also an antinatalist. 

Despite his critical views on religion, he was not harassed or harmed during his lifetime. He lived in the centre of the Abbasid Caliphate and yet he did not fear to speak his mind. He lived when Islam was at its zenith and it represented the most advanced civilization in the world. Muslim cities were centres of culture while European cities had a barely functioning sewage system. This was a civilization at the peak of its development, filled with optimism and confidence.