As
we say goodbye to the year 2012, we might take time out to reflect on our
achievements and failures in the year gone by, examine our prospects for the
future and the challenges that lie ahead. Religious extremism leading to
terrorist activities is one such area that needs to be reviewed. While many
South Asian countries are deeply embroiled in the fight against terrorism,
Bangladesh had generally been free from terrorist attacks since 2005. As we
tended to relax, two incidents in 2012 brought our focus back to the terrorism
issue. The first was the burning and looting of the houses and temples of the
Buddhist communities in Cox’s Bazar area on 29-30 September. The second was the
arrest on 17 October of a young Bangladeshi man caught while planning to bomb
the Federal Reserve Building in New York, USA. As the year was coming to a
close, the violence unleashed across the country by the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), a
right-wing Islamist party, sent us a clear signal of the growing strength of
Islamist politics.
These
are happening at a time when an avowed secular party, the Awami League (AL), is
in power. AL won the 2008 election with a commitment to amend the constitution
to restore its secular character. It also promised stern action against all
forms of religious extremism and terrorism. Four years down the line, much of
those promises remain unfulfilled. Constitutional reform was half-done; Islam
remained a state religion. Religious parties are more organised today than ever
before. Their student fronts are active in most educational institutions. While
Islamists are active on political fronts, more radical amongst them are
organising themselves for terrorist activities as and when opportunities
appear.
Rise of Islamic extremism in Bangladesh
On 16 December 1971, we hoped that Bangladesh would emerge as a
modern democratic state. The spirit of the nation was epitomised in the
Constitution (1972) that adopted secularism as a state principle and prohibited
the political use of religion. The Constitution barred the state from declaring
any religion as state religion. However, it all changed after the killing of
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and many top-ranking political leaders in
1975. Those who seized power at the time found the Islamists as their political
ally and started islamising the society and the state. Islamist political
parties, such as JI, started building their party structures. The power elites
established thousands of madrassas that produced religiously indoctrinated
youths who would be the front-line activists of the Islamist parties. Poor,
jobless students from the madrassas became easy target of the recruiters of
militant Islamist organisations. By late 1990s we had militant organisations
such as Jamiatul Mujahedin Bangladesh (JMB) and Harkatul Jihad Al-Islami (HUJI)
that took roots in Bangladesh.
Starting
from 1999 to 2005, the militants bombed temples, churches, political rallies,
cultural functions, cinema halls etc. The government and the opposition kept on
blaming each other for those attacks. Even when grenades attack was made on the
AL rally in Dhaka on 22 August 2004 killing 22 people and injuring the AL Chief
Sheikh Hasina, the government blamed it on the opposition. The series bombing
on 17 August 2005 finally compelled the government to come out of the denial
mode and stand up to the terrorist threat. In 2006-07, we saw a series of
arrests, prosecution and handing down of sentences, including death sentences,
on some of the terror leaders. Since then there has been no major terror attack
in Bangladesh, but that the terrorists are active is evident from the frequent
arrests of activists and seizure of large cache of arms and explosives from
their hideouts.
Bulk
of the Islamic militants arrested so far had come from poor rural communities.
Many were from the Quomi Madrassa background. However, recent years saw a new
breed of extremists called the Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HuT). HuT members are drawn from
children of urban, upper income parentage, educated in the mainstream or
English medium schools and colleges. HuT is targeting the cream of our youth,
the nation’s future, and therefore, poses a clear danger. It is feared that HuT
has penetrated among schools and universities, professionals – engineers,
doctors, government officials and even among the security apparatus. Although
the party was banned in 2009, its clandestine activities continue in the
country. On the political front, JI continued to grow in strength in
Bangladesh. The party is small in size, but highly disciplined, well-organised
and has a well-defined hierarchy. Jamaat’s aim is to establish a pure Islamic
state based on Sharia. The party had opposed the Liberation War of Bangladesh
in 1971 and actively collaborated in the genocide. Some of the top leaderships
are now facing war-crime trial.
The party, therefore, is on a back foot now,
but given the fact that a new election is around the corner, its rank and file
might align with the major opposition party to make a bid for power. JI’s
student wing, Islami Chattra Shibir (Islamic Students Front), is now a potent
student organisation, from schools to universities. The other Islamist party of
importance is Islami Oikyo Jote (Islamic Unity Front), a collection of small
Islamic parties. Like JI, IOJ also wants to establish an Islamic state in
Bangladesh, but there are differences in outlook. IOJ members are exclusively
from Quomi madrassa background and more traditional. IOJ has been in the
forefront, along with JI, in the movement to declare Ahmedia community as
non-Muslims. Present government’s attempt to register Quomi Madrassas and
reform their curriculum was thwarted by IOJ’s agitation.
None of the Islamist
political parties gave open support to the militant activities, however, many
of the JMB and HUJI activists had previously been members of Islamist political
parties. The Islamist parties have multifarious social, economic and financial
investments. Some of the largest banks, insurance, hospitals, diagnostic
centres, schools, universities, coaching centres, and travel agencies are
operated undercover by the Islamist parties. The Islamist parties have been
gaining in strength in Bangladesh at the expense of the two major political
parties – BNP and AL. Both parties at one time or other have been courting
these parties in order to gain short term advantage over the other.
Countering the extremists
Bangladesh government has taken a number steps to check
extremism and militancy. Notable among those are: Anti-Terrorism Act 2009 and
Money Laundering Prevention Act 2009 as amended in 2011. The two acts provide
for deterrent punishment to offenders in case they engage in acts of terror or
launder money to support terrorism. Based on a series of dialogues, workshops
and seminars, participated by academics, researchers, politicians,
parliamentarians, civil and military officials, a national strategy to combat
terrorism in the country has been proposed.Bangladesh has banned a total of six
terrorist organizations, including JMB, HUJI and HuT. A number of Islamic NGOs
have been banned who had terror links, including Revival of Islamic Heritage
Society (Kuwait), Rabita Al Alam Al Islami (Saudi Arabia), and International
Islamic relief Organization (Saudi Arabia), Muslim Aid (UK). More than 1,300
militants were arrested; most of them belonging to JMB, HUJI-B or HuT. 29
terrorist kingpins have been sentenced to death and many more sentenced to long
imprisonment or are awaiting trial.While our police action has been
commendable, we did not do enough on the social front.
We need to address
urgently the problem of poverty, ignorance, and backwardness. Democratisation
of the society is an insurance against extremist ideology. We need to improve
governance and provide access to justice for the poor and downtrodden. We need
to impart modern education to our youth that prepare them to face the
challenges of a fast changing world. A thorough overhaul of madrassa education
in our country is long overdue. We need an education system that produce people
with high ethical and technical standards, a system that encourages
freethinking rather than rote learning. Emergence of HuT points out a lack of
pride and a sense of disillusionment among the children of affluent class. This
is because English medium schools, where most of the rich parents send their
children, follow a curriculum that has no relevance to our culture, history or
traditions. Therefore, English medium school syllabus too needs a thorough
review.Government must legislate not to allow use of religion to gain political
mileage. We need to check creeping ‘Sudiaization’ of Islam. Along with the
money from the ME donors, comes the ideological package of Wahhabi Islam which
is alien to South Asia. One of the prices we pay for the remittance from our labour
force in the ME is the influx of Saudi brand of Islam. How do we de-radicalise
these migrant workers is a big challenge for us. Meanwhile, hundreds of
extremists who are arrested or under trial must be segregated from other
prisoners. At present, these extremists are finding a captive audience 24 hours
at their disposal, busy recruiting new ones from among the prisoners. We need
to isolate the extremists and start a de-radicalisation program so that when
they return to the society they become useful citizen.Our effort to counter
religious extremism must be supplemented by regional and global effort.
We need
to have close cooperation and coordination between the governments of the
region. Border monitoring, passport control, anti-money laundering measures,
exchange of information on the movement of suspects, arrest and deportation of
fugitives are some of the areas where regional countries could cooperate.
Checking of arms smuggling across the porous border is another area where
regional cooperation is the answer. In short, a total, comprehensive strategy
has to be adopted for fighting religious extremism. If Bangladesh is to emerge
as a modern, democratic state, the menace of extremism must be eliminated.
No comments:
Post a Comment