Islamist Appeasement – Islamist Parties Could Spell Havoc for Bangladesh’s Democracy
By
Manas Nag
December
22, 2020
Flickr/Hassan Sami Adnan
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In early
2017, a tussle around a statue of a woman personifying justice became a proxy
for the longstanding tensions between Islamist and secular groups in
Bangladesh. The sculpture, erected in front of the Supreme Court Complex in
capital Dhaka, triggered a series of protests spearheaded by Hefazat-e-Islam, a
hardline Islamist group based in Chittagong. Islamist groups deem such statues
to be anti-Islamic, often associating them with idol worship – a strictly
forbidden practice in Islam.
Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina subsequently signalled support for the statue’s removal
from the Supreme Court premises. Despite the outcry from secular groups, the
authorities quietly relocated the statue to the annex building of the Supreme
Court, away from the public eye. The ruling Awami League – an in-principle
secular political party – is not new to the religious groups’ threats of
escalating protests. In hindsight, this may look like a minor political
compromise for a government in a Muslim-majority state. However, three years
on, agitations over another sculpture has turned out to be Awami League’s deja
vu moment. For Hasina, the ball this time has rather hit too close to home.
The
government had sanctioned several projects to erect sculptures of the country’s
founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 2018. For Hasina, the daughter of Rahman, the
emotional value of such projects far surpassed the necessity of having a statue
in the Supreme Court premises. Despite the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the
regime was busy celebrating “Mujib Year” – the centenary of the founder’s
birth. Disregarding the risks related to the spread of the virus, fireworks and
other celebratory gatherings continued in Dhaka.
However,
agitations over the sculpture issue were renewed in November, when popular
leaders from the hardline Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh (HIB) and Islami Andolan
Bangladesh (IAB) demanded the removal of a statue of Rahman under construction
in Dhaka’s Dholaipar area. The demands intensified in the succeeding religious
gatherings by HIB and other Islamist groups. In a November 13 rally, IAB leader
Syed Fazlul Karim reportedly threatened to “dismantle the statue and throw it
in the Buriganga River” if the installation works were not stopped. On December
4, another under construction sculpture of Rahman was vandalized in Rajshahi
division.
While the
agitations in Dhaka were quickly thwarted by the police, the ensuing chain of
events were a major embarrassment for the government, given that groups like
Hefazat have long been courted by the Awami League regime. Sedition charges
were eventually brought against several HIB and IAB leaders over public
comments they had made on the issue, which has subdued the agitation. The
developments nevertheless raise tough questions about the Awami League’s
approach to dealing with hardline Islamists. Years of appeasement and concessions
toward Hefazat and similar groups have only emboldened hardliners, who see such
policy shifts as empowering and mobilizing changes in the social sphere while
not being in the power.
Hefazat-e-Islam
rose to public consciousness in May 2013, staging mass protests and sit-ins in
Dhaka with a 13-point charter that included implementing the death penalty for
blaspheming Islam or the prophet. The hardline group, which claims to be
apolitical, also advocates for the separation of boys and girls in public
schools, declaring Qadianis as non-Muslims, and other stringent Islamic laws.
Following the police raid at a HIB rally in 2013 in which several students from
a madrasa (Islamic school) were killed, the Awami League was forced to
negotiate with the group in order to deter further unrest.
To win over
HIB, three bloggers were arrested in 2013 for allegedly posting blasphemous
content on social media and blogs. The move came after hardline Muslim groups
had submitted a list of 84 bloggers to a committee formed by the home ministry,
accusing them of atheism and blasphemy. In the same year, the government
amended the controversial Information and Communication Technology Act and a
number of bloggers were charged for hurting religious sentiments. The law was
replaced in 2018 with a more stringent version, named the “Digital Security
Act,” which has been used to arrest bloggers, journalists, and civil society
activists. The DSA has even been exploited to arrest a number of Sufi and
folklore singers for allegedly hurting Islamic sentiments.
In the
years between 2013 to 2016, when secular bloggers were killed by militant
groups, the regime resorted to blaming the victims for their offensive
writings. In 2017, the government responded to HIB’s demand by removing 17
popular poems and stories by non-Muslim writers as the group accused such
writings of promoting secularism. In 2018, ahead of that year’s general
elections, the government decided to recognize the Dawra-e-Hadith, a top Qawmi
madrasa degree, as the equivalent of a Master’s degree, despite its
considerable differences with the mainstream curriculum. Understandably, the
religious groups considered such appeasement policies as empowering, and have
since continued to push their agendas to further Islamize the society and
public sphere.
The ruling
party is no stranger to the threats posed by Islamist militancy; neither is it
alien to the demonstrable street power of Hefazat-e-Islam. Conceivably the
current regime is trying to tame extremist groups by offering ideological
concessions while “winning over hearts and minds.” However, concessions to even
symbolic demands have over the years only encouraged groups like Hefazat that
are vying to play a greater role in the policy space. The 2018 general election
in Bangladesh was smeared with allegations of irregularities, with the main
opposition BNP practically disappearing from the political landscape
afterwards. Without the presence of a powerful opposition – fundamentally and
systematically weakened after the 2014 general elections – there remains a
substantial power vacuum with no liberal contenders in sight. The BNP’s hope
for a political homecoming are unclear, as the party’s head Khaleda Zia remains
in jail on corruption charges while her son lives in exile in London. The
country is silently going through an unfathomable political crisis that has
been overshadowed by the narrative of its economic miracle.
For the
West, Bangladesh has become everyone’s economic darling with its per capita GDP
recently surpassing that of neighbouring India. No doubt, political stability
has facilitated Bangladesh’s consistent GDP growth of 6 percent for almost a
decade. However, unequal wealth distribution, public grievances over alleged
irregularities, and the overall law and order situation continues to fuel
discontent. Hefazat has maintained its status as a non-political advocacy group
while moderate Islamist parties have remained largely alienated from the
political landscape.
The
appeasement policies of the Awami League government have set a precedent for
other political parties to undermine secular values for electoral benefit.
Historically, such approach has proved to be unsustainable in Pakistan, Syria,
and Iraq, to name a few examples. The ensuing power vacuum is bound to be
filled by hardline Islamist groups that are ideologically driven by the goal to
replace secular democracy with theocracy. As HIB continues to gain a foothold,
it is also paving the way for other Islamist groups to achieve political
success. For the Awami League – a traditionally liberal, centre-left party –
priorities need to change for the sake of Bangladesh’s secular principles, the
very ideology the party was meant to protect.
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Manas Nag is currently working for a global security assistance provider
company based in Singapore as a security specialist, Asia Pacific (APAC). He
holds a Master of Science degree in International Political Economy from the S.
Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore.
Original
Headline: Bangladesh’s Dangerous Islamist Appeasement – And What It Portends
Source: The Diplomat
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/radical-islamism-jihad/islamist-appeasement-–-islamist-parties/d/123873
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