Ashik Kabir

The liberation of Bangladesh was on the basis of creating a secular nation. The country initially started its journey with this ideology where people of all the religions will be living inseparably. But when the reality collided with the dream of making a secular Bangladesh it was too late. The architect of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the father of the nation, was assassinated only three years after clinching the liberation from Pakistan. Being a part of Pakistan, put a tag of Islamic nation on East Pakistan, now Bangladesh. Just because the Bengali sentiments clashed with Pakistan and the ill treatment of Pakistanis towards the Bengali people made us chose the path of separation. The kind of dilemma we have to face right now, is still not clearly solved after departing from Pakistan.
The introduction of Islam into politics in Bangladesh took place during the military dictatorship of 1970’s and 1980’s. and later under the BNP government. After the 2001 election, when the BNP government was in power for the last time, we show the rise of Islamic fundamental groups like Harkatul Jihad and Jamaitul Mujahidin Bangladesh. This sought of incidents have put an evidence of gradual building of fundamental sentiments in the country.
When Awami League, which claims to be a secular government in Bangladesh, came to power in 2009, they were adamant to trial the war criminals of the 1971 liberation war. BNP and its allies the right wing extremists of Bangladesh including Jamat-E-Islami Bangladesh were in lot of trouble. Most of the accused war criminals were from their parties and after some of them are executed through rapid trials there are sought of misunderstandings and weakening in between the parties. Previously their accused and some of them who are executed recently had enjoyed the ministerial post or higher posts during the BNP- Jamaat government. Before, during and after the election of 2014, when BNP government didn’t come for election and Awami League won the election without any challenge from BNP-Jamaat, the BNP-led alliance had created havoc in the country. Previously there were protests from the oppositions but this was the first time the civilians were attacked. Public buses were the targets of petrol bombs, thousands of people suffered burn injuries many gave their lives. Even afterwards during the Awami league government, the number of attacks on free thinkers, minorities and on civilians didn’t reduce. Everyday there are news of murders, abductions, rapes etc. the government is facing one after one challenges and they are kind of struggling in controlling the situation. Recently the killings of the few foreigners raised the question of IS presence in the country. But it’s evident that it’s the local thugs took the advantage from the IS name. It also warns us that the possibility of IS ties with the local extremists are a huge threat to the country. The IS will be achieving its goals in this alliance and local extremist thugs will be getting international recognition.
In a country like ours where there is still a higher level of illiteracy and people are growing more and more conservative everyday with new propaganda coming to them, the country is in a fix, whether to be secular or follow the new restrictions imposed from the religious authorities. Where millions of Bangladeshi people works in the Western Asian countries or Middle East, sending a huge remittance to the country, they not only increase the foreign aid in Bangladesh but also bring in conservative ideologies from those Islamic countries. The Middle East, in where most of the countries are run by Shariah laws are funding the mosques and madrasas in the country and they want us to be conservative like them. In many of these countries they follow the Wahabi systems and if those ideologies are brought into ours the Bengali culture and the orthodox practices will bring in internal tensions in the country, which is quite visible in the country recently.
The attacks on the free thinkers recently have put a question mark in the level of tolerance in the country. You cannot simply kill someone for having a different opinion from yours or being an atheist. It has became a trend in the country that who all come publicly saying they are atheist, are being attacked. It’s like bringing the Middle Eastern ideologies again. Islam identifies two types of non-believers, the Dhimmis and the other non-believers. The Dhimmis are the people of the book, means the religious groups who have their own sacred book suck as- Christians, Jews etc. Islam doesn’t recognize the other religious groups. According to the Middle Eastern scholars people who converts themselves to any other religion or became an atheist should be penalized with death. It’s not the laws of Islam, it’s the conservative mindset of orthodox people who have different opinions of them. Previously scholars like Daud haider in 1970’s and Taslima Nasreen in 1990’s were controversial and made to live in exile from their own country. Humayun Azad, a famous free thinker of the country was hacked and recently Abhijit Roy and other bloggers were killed and making this country intolerant.
But it’s the Bengali culture that still makes us secular, even though a lot of threats were made from the extremists for not celebrating the Bangla new year. Our ladies came out in large number on that day and proved that it’s not possible to stop us from being liberal. Even though we proved our faith in our culture but we have to ensure that we raise our voices against any wrongdoers. It’s obviously wrong to hurt the feelings of the Islamic sentiments, but it’s condemnable and non-Islamic to kill the free thinkers.
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