By
Arshad Alam, New Age Islam
10 December
2020
The birth
of Bangladesh was the very antithesis of one religion, one nation principle.
Against the quasi theological state of Pakistan, Bangladesh defined itself as a
secular multicultural republic. The state, having no truck with religion, was
to protect and enhance secular and liberal principles, and respect the right to
dissent and democracy. It was an experiment lauded by the world community.
Unfortunately, what we are witnessing today may be the unwinding of that
experiment. It appears that Bangladesh is moving slowly but surely towards a
polity which will be defined by Islamism.
Sheikh Hasina
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The recent
upsurge in anti-government demonstrations by the Hefazat e Islam, a
conglomeration of religious interests, is a pointer that if not handled
sternly, Bangladesh might go the Pakistan way which will have implications for
the whole of South Asia. The current crisis has been precipitated by the
decision of the Sheikh Hasina government to install a statue of Shiekh Mujibur
Rahman, the founder of Bangladesh. Arguing that sculpture is against Islam,
Hefazat has vowed to tear down any such statue thus setting the stage for
another confrontation with the government. The Islamist argument always has
been that any representation which might lead to ‘idolatry’ must be prohibited
in an ‘Islamic’ nation. The argument is simply ridiculous: there is a
difference between idols and statues, the deference shown to both is
fundamentally and qualitatively different.
In fact,
rather than statues, the threat of idol worship comes from the cult like status
which many sovereigns of Muslim nations enjoy. But then, questioning the
‘divine right’ of one family to rule in perpetuity might amount to sedition and
hence not just people of the Arab world, but even the Bangladeshi Mullahs will
never raise such issues. It is extremely hard to believe that these Mullahs are
themselves convinced of the veracity of their argument against installing Mujib’s
statue. The problem to understand then is not the absurdity of such claims but
what lies behind them. And it is becoming clear that the Islamists in that
country want to imagine the state in their own image; in other words it is a
power struggle to re-make Bangladesh into an Islamist republic.
One of the
important reasons why these Islamists feel so emboldened is because the Hasina
government has been soft on them. In 2017, the Hefazat tasted victory when they
successfully rallied to pressurise the government to remove the statue of ‘lady
justice’ which was installed in front of the apex court. Sheikh Hasina in fact
supported the Islamists by publically criticising the installation of the
statue. If the idea was that she would gather the support of these Islamists,
then surely she did but at what cost? If an officially secular state
capitulates to such ridiculous demands, then perhaps it is time to look at how
the government itself is undermining the secular system which it claims to
uphold.
Similarly,
the government was silent and even at times supportive of the Islamists when
there was a spate of killing of secular bloggers in the country. Senior
ministers put the blame for such terrorist acts on the bloggers themselves,
arguing that these bloggers had provoked ordinary Muslims and that they should
have been sensitive to their religious feelings. Again, the government was
bending over backwards to appease the hardliners. At times, the government was
even seen to be actively on the side of Islamist killers by being extremely
slow in prosecuting such cases. The government needs to understand that by
accommodating the feelings of such hardliners, it is digging its own grave. No
matter how popular Sheikh Hasina may be with the Islamists, the latter will not
stop until they make fundamental changes to the constitution of that country.
Hasina must realise that she will not be able to ‘contain’ the Islamist Ulama
through such mollycoddling; they will only be emboldened to make further more
hardline demands. Only a principled opposition to the ideology of the Islamists
can make sure that these Islamists remain on the periphery.
The
Islamist network in Bangladesh is grounded within independent/community (qawmi)
madrasas. There are many large madrasas housing thousands of students who act
as captive foot soldiers to implement the agenda of their bosses. According to
one estimate, these community madrasas together house about 4 million students.
The Sheikh Hasina government, again, in order to appease this section, made the
certificate of these madrasas equivalent to certificates given by government
schools and colleges. This resulted in ‘mainstreaming’ of madrasa education in
Bangladesh but at the same time also led to rising aspirations of madrasa
graduates. Although their certificates had become recognised and they could
apply for government and other jobs, the teaching within their madrasas hardly
equipped them to enter the professional job market. So while the aspirations
had risen, the harsh reality outside led to rising levels of frustration within
these madrasa students. It is not surprising therefore that this section is the
first to hit the streets whenever a call is made by the Islamist Ulama.
Moreover, this section is now convinced that their interests can only be
fulfilled by an overtly Islamic regime and therefore it is in their interest to
campaign for the abolishment of the existing secular system of governance.
Lastly, in
its quest for absolute power, the Sheikh Hasina government has decimated the
opposition. Leading members of the opposition have been jailed on trumped up
charges. Even the civil society in Bangladesh is facing the heat. All this has
ensured that the Hasina government has no rival in the foreseeable future. This
vacant opposition space has now been filled by the Islamists. Since there is no
other opposition, even people who are not Islamist have no other option but to
support such Islamist parties. A sagacious move by the Hasina government would
have been to keep alive the secular opposition space but in her quest for
absolute power, she has made sure that the whole polity of Bangladesh has moved
decisively to the right.
Sheikh
Hasina has managed good press for herself so far. She is portrayed as someone
who is fighting the Islamists but it appears that she has in many ways paved
the way for such an Islamist scourge to emerge in the first place.
----
Arshad
Alam is a columnist with NewAgeIslam.com
URL: https://newageislam.com/radical-islamism-jihad/sheikh-hasina-reason-rise-islamists/d/123717
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