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Malaun (Bengali: মালাউন) is a derogatory religious slur for hindus in Bangladesh.[1][2][3][4] The word is derived from the Arabic "ملعون", meaning "accursed" or "deprived of God's Mercy".[5][6][7]
The Arabic word "ملعون" (mal'un), literally meaning 'cursed' is derived from the root "لعنة" (la'nat) meaning "curse". In Islamic parlance, it means 'deprived of Allah's mercy'. The word has been loaned into languages of non-Arabic Islamic countries like Malay and Indonesian.[8][9] The dictionary published by the Bangla Academy gives the meaning of the Bengali word "মালাউন" as someone cursed or deprived of Allah's mercy or forcefully evicted or a Kafir.[10] It mentions that the word is used as a slur by the Muslims against the non-Muslims.[10]
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Nirmal Kumar Bose noted the usage of the term as early as 1946 in Noakhali.[11] During the 1971 Bangladesh Genocide, the Pakistani officers addressed Dr. Govinda Chandra Dev as malaun before executing him.[12] According to eyewitness, AKM Yusuf had addressed a gathering of Peace Committee at Rampal in Khulna district on 19 April. At the gathering he addressed the Hindus as malauns and the Hindu women as spoils of war and exhorted the audience to kill them and loot their women.[13] Hussain Muhammad Ershad, while serving as the President, had referred to the Hindus as malaun at a rally in Chhatak. He apologized for his remark after protests from the Hindus.[14]
In December 2013, Ganajagaran Mancha presented a deputation to the Home Ministry complaining about police torture. The deputation alleged that on 19 December 2013 the police abused a Hindu woman activist as malaun because she had put sindur.[15] In December 2014, Nasiruddin Pintu, a convicted BNP politician, abused a Bengali Hindu police officer by calling him a malaun when he attempted to stop his lawyers and supporters from meeting Pintu illegally. Pintu threatened the officer with loss of job and called him son of a pig.[16] In January 2015, Awami League workers Shahnawaz abused fellow Awami League worker Sushanta Dasgupta at a party function in London.[17]
In the Internet, a Jamaat-e-Islami run social media handle named Basher Kella has given the call for killing all the malauns and turning Bangladesh into a country where only the Muslims will live.[18][19][20]
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- Other pejorative terms for Hindus
- Persecution of Hindus and Buddhists in Bangladesh
- 1962 Rajshahi massacres
- 1964 East-Pakistan riots
- 1971 Bangladesh genocide
- 1989 Bangladesh pogroms
- 1990 Bangladesh anti-Hindu violence
- 1992 Bangladesh violence
- 2012 Chirirbandar violence
- 2012 Fatehpur violence
- 2012 Hathazari violence
- 2012 Ramu violence
- 2013 Bangladesh Anti-Hindu violence
- 2014 Bangladesh anti-Hindu violence
- 2016 Nasirnagar Violence
- Noakhali riots
- Persecution of indigenous peoples in Bangladesh
- Persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh
- Persecution of Buddhists in Bangladesh
- Persecution of Chakma buddhists
- Persecution of other non-Muslims in Bangladesh
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