By Monica Islam:
On 6th of February last year, a young interfaith leader said “Muslim extremists have shut down the country today”, pointing out the nationwide blockade, which was observed that day, by a religious group called Hefazat-e-Islam. The group pressed the government to accept their 13-point list of demands, which included punishing atheists and bloggers, and preventing the erection of sculptures at various places across the country. This is the same group which opposed the National Women Development Policy (NWDP), once in 2008 and again in 2011.
[caption id="attachment_52155" align="aligncenter" width="315"] Image source: youtube.com[/caption]
I was offended by his statement. While I agreed that the threat of militancy loomed over Bangladesh, I could not come to terms with the idea that the country was under the grip of extremists. Do we see suicide bombs blowing up on the streets of Bangladesh? Do we hear of majority of women in Bangladesh being forced to wear tent-like attires? Even during the aforementioned blockade, there was no overwhelming public support for the group or its ideology, and that day life proceeded normally with no reports of violence.
But I was clearly missing the bigger picture.
Bombs may not be blowing up, but bloggers and writers are being hacked to death—sometimes under broad daylight, since 2013, and that’s the same thing: extremism, but in a different package. Machete wielding youths leap on their prey and inflict gashes indiscriminately, one after another, as if they not only want to ensure death to the victims, but they also want to vent their hatred on this person they consider an “enemy of Allah”, a term frequently used by militants to refer to atheists and free-thinking bloggers.
The latest blogger—fourth in this year—to fall prey to religious extremism is Niloy Chatterjee. According to a local TV channel report, he was also a meritorious student preparing for civil service examinations, and a researcher at a local NGO. This time, the cold-blooded murderers posed as potential tenants and stormed into Niloy’s house, wounding him with a cleaver, while shouting “Allahu Akbar”. 14 gashes have been found on his upper torso.
The attacks followed a pattern. The targets had a similar profile: they were active in scientific and rationalist circles; they promoted humanism; and they expressed their views, naively trusting that they were under the protection of law.
At a programme organized yesterday by the Women and Children Affairs ministry to mark the 85th birth anniversary of Begum Fazilatunnesa Mujib, wife of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, our Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina warned that she will not allow anyone to exploit religion for political gains and that she will check the incidents of religious extremism “with an iron hand”.
With these statements, she is not only making empty promises, but is also insinuating that the opposition (which has a religious alliance) is somehow to be blamed for the present government’s (and our collective) failure in protecting people’s rights to freedom of expression.
This incident confirms not only the general lawlessness prevailing in the country, but also the reluctance and insensitivity of the law enforcement agencies as they fail to take death threats and citizen complaints seriously. Months before this gruesome murder, when Niloy and his friends complained to the police about receiving death threats, their complaints were not recorded and they were instead advised to leave the country. Only yesterday, the eminent sculptor Ferdousi Priyabhashini and her son received death threats over the phone. The police needs to take these threats seriously as these are occurring too frequently now and these can be valuable leads to extremist hideouts and plans.
Whenever cartoonists made satirical images of the present government or whenever an ordinary citizen made a scathing remark about the Prime Minister on social networking sites, the “wrongdoers” were identified, arrested, and imprisoned within a span of days and weeks.
Why the delay now? Why are the Twitter accounts used by Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), the extremist outfit openly claiming responsibility for the murders, still active? [envoke_twitter_link]Why do we know so little about ABT[/envoke_twitter_link] and why are its members roaming scot-free? Why do fundamentalist groups, such as Hefazat-e-Islam, have the power and the platform to organize nationwide blockades and block policies without any repercussions? Why do extremists have the right and the freedom to express their opinions violently, while writers and painters become the “enemy of Allah” for doing the same peacefully?
Right now, only the human rights activists, bloggers, humanists, and foreign development organizations, such as Amnesty International, are condemning the murders. Advertisers, artists, musicians, cultural activists, and professionals of any field, where creativity is even minutely used, need to protest these murders and to own this fight against religious extremism.
Broadly speaking, it is not just free thinking (or “secular blogging”) that is under the threat of religious extremism today in Bangladesh; creativity is also on the line, and that should disturb many of us.
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