It
is extremely important to note that Jamt-e-Islami Bangladesh targets the
religious minorities to initiate its campaign to protest the death sentence of
its leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee. This is significant as the global media is
reflecting to recognize that Bangladesh (the present Government and Youth
uprising in Shahbag) is attempting to bring those to justice for war crimes who
are radical Islamist, undemocratic and anti-humanist communal opposition to the
secular state of People’s Republic of Bangladesh.
What BBC wrote on the aftermath of the first wave
of recent violence against the minority population in Bangladesh requires a
closer scrutiny. BBC reports,
“The attack started hours after a senior
hardline Islamist leader was sentenced to death by a special tribunal in late
February. Jamaat-e-Islami party Vice
President Delwar Hossain Sayedee was given a death sentence for crimes
committed during the war of independence from Pakistan in 1971. The sentencing
triggered a wave of angry protests from the Islamist party's supporters. In
many districts, buildings and vehicles were damaged. More than 60 people were
killed in clashes with the security forces….. While people like Mrs Das
witnessed communal violence for the first time, Hindu businessmen like Subash
Chandra Ghosh in southern Satkhira district say it was similar to what happened
to them in 1971, when Bangladesh fought a bloody nine-month war against
Pakistan to gain independence. "In 1971, our house was damaged and our
neighbour's house was set on fire by anti-liberation forces. We are being
targeted again. What should we do?" laments Mr Ghosh, who fought for
independence. Some say the minorities are attacked because they mostly support
the governing Awami League party and are a soft target.” The first part of
this report is clear in noting that-
1.
Jamat-e-Islami Bangladesh initiated the violence
against religious minorities in Bangladesh to counter the verdict against its
leaders in ICT.
2.
This is not the first time Jamat-e-Islami (i.e. “the
anti-liberation forces” as mentioned in the report) has launched such campaign.
In fact the leaders in questions, among other issues, are accused of committing
violence against religious minorities (murder, looting and raping etc.) during
1971.
Before we proceed further, for those who are not
too familiar with the history of Bangladesh, it should be clarified that Awami
League, the current governing party, led the War of Independence against
Pakistan and its auxiliary forces (including Jamat-e-Islami). On the other
hand, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has played a key role in dismantling
the legal process of bringing the war criminals to justice; right after it
ceased power as an outcome of a military coup that had toppled Awami League and
killed the leader of the War of Independence – Shiek Mujibur Rahman, the first
Prime Minister of the newly independent Bangladesh. BNP also released the war
criminals under trial at that time. It brought back the key leader of
Jamat-e-Islami (Gulam Azam) whose nationality was revoked. BNP also allowed
Jamat-e-Islami back to politics by lifting its ban. In the last national
election BNP and Jamat-e-Islami formed an alliance to form a government in
which the leaders of Jamat did not only became law-makers but also took-up few
Ministries. Jamat-e-Islami made it a point to keep its leaders accused of war
crimes in the key leadership position as it never found any fault in
collaborating with the Pakistani army during 1971. Presently, BNP and
Jamat-e-Islami are in an alliance against the present government which is an
alliance of liberal and mainstream left parties with a priority (as a part of
its election pledge) of bringing the war criminals to justice.
Now this being clear, the report informs us,
without giving any notion of who are these community leaders of the minorities
it was citing, (as we will have a look at the statement issued by the forum of
the minorities contradicting this statement right after this) something truly
amazing. It says, “Hindu community
leaders say the attacks are systematic and have been going on for years. They
say they are not only carried out by hardline Islamists but also by supporters
of other mainstream political parties, including the Awami League and the main
opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party.” This is an attempt to portray a
scenario of communal violence in which the war crime tribunal and its verdict
against the leaders of Jamat-e-Islami play no role. However, what in reality
the minority leaders of Bangladesh
Hindu-Buddha-Christian Oikya Parishad are stating is not difficult to track
on media.
One such report
informs, “The country's minorities have
been the target of attack of the reactionary forces after Jamaat-e-Islami
leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee was sentenced to death Thursday for war crimes
in the Liberation War, minority leaders said yesterday.” Mentioning its
source, the report continues, “Following
the trend of the 1971 atrocities, nearly a thousand minority houses and around
50 worship centres were attacked in the last two days, said Advocate Rana Das
Gupta, general secretary of Bangladesh Hindu-Buddha-Christian Oikya Parishad….Rana accused Jamaat and Islami Chhatra
Shibir of the atrocities. He mentioned that Rejaul Karim, chairman of Choroti
Union Parishad, was involved in the attacks in Satkania and municipality
councillors Abu and Amir in Banshkhali”.
Therefore, why BBC tries to implicate Awami
League by passing the comments of minority leaders; needs to be explored. Let
us see what this type of allegation implicates:
1. This
undermines the exclusive and anti-humanist role of Jamat-e-Islami Bangladesh in
bringing death and devastation against the minorities in Bangladesh.
2. This
decouples recent eruption of violence against the minorities with the verdicts
of the ICT- as if the Muslim majority in general (regardless of political
affiliation) is wedging a riot against the minorities.
3. As
a consequence, the significance of ICT process in Bangladesh is undermined. ICT
process in true sense is attempting to re-establish the secular spirit of
secularism based on which the nation won its independence.
Thus BBC’s angle in reporting the recent cases of
violence against the minority communities in Bangladesh can be viewed as an
attempt of imposing a stereo-type image of a communally violent “Islamic Nation” upon Bangladesh- while
the truth is just the reverse. History of emergence of Bangladesh is unique.
India and Pakistan won its independence from Britain based on the religious
divisions between Hindus and Muslims. Bangladesh on the other hand, emerged through
the cultural identity of Bengalis and opposed the Pakistani nationalism based
on the concept of “Islamic Brotherhood”. This does not however imply that there
is no space of Islamists in Bangladesh politics. In fact Jamat-e-Islami
represents the Islamists in Bangladesh which opposes this secular construction
of nationalism and constitutional premise of secularism as a principle of the
People Republic of Bangladesh.
In Bangladesh the demand of bringing those who
committed crimes against humanity in 1971 therefore merges with the struggle
for a secular-democratic state. When this is ignored in media reporting, the
true content of Shahbag uprising is missed. At the same time reporting angle
such as BBC helps to mask the undemocratic and anti-humanist position of
Jamate-Islami-Bangladesh vis-à-vis the secular democratic spirit of the
movement that shaped the Bengali nationalism and eventually gave Birth to the
nation state of Bangladesh. It is high time that we recognize that
Jamat-e-Islami is not the main opposition to the present government- it is
primarily the main opposition to the nation state of Bangladesh and its
secular-democratic spirit of independence.
