Bangladesh stands at complex crossroads with politicisation of religion

Dhaka, Jan 29 (SocialNews.XYZ) As campaigning for Bangladesh’s February 12 election got underway, certain political parties are openly claiming that voting against them would be equivalent to voting against Islam — a common pattern used to brand opponents as “anti-religion,” when political legitimacy is questioned, a report said on Thursday.

It added that across Bangladesh, music education is being banned on religious grounds, while shrines are attacked, theatre faces threats, and textbooks are arbitrarily altered.

Writing for Bangladesh's leading Bengali daily, Prothom Alo, Hasan Ferdous, an author and columnist, said that religion has long been used to justify repressive actions, including the 1971 genocide against Bangladeshi Bengalis by Pakistani forces.

“In today’s Bangladesh, the use of religion for political gain is intensifying. Several parties even have religious terms in their names, leaving no doubt about who they are. When politicians use religion as a shield, minority communities are the first to suffer if they gain state power. Think of the situation of the Ahmadis in Pakistan, or the recurrent threats of attacks on Shia mosques. In Bangladesh, incidents of targetting minorities over what someone posted or commented on Facebook — regardless of truth — are increasingly common,” he detailed.

The report stressed that recently, a political party in Bangladesh suggested reducing women’s work hours to five hours a day — “a long-term strategy" to remove women from economic competition and confine them to the home.

Emphasising that Bangladesh currently stands at a complex crossroads, it further said, “To resist the politicisation of religion, protests must be loud and unified. Politicians of all stripes—right, left, and centre — have relied on religion to justify their power grabs. There is only one way to counter this: vocally oppose these groups so that their misuse of religion in politics is drowned out.”

Earlier on Wednesday, a report in Prothom Alo cited that although Bangladesh's radical Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami signals when convenient that it will not implement Shariah if it comes to power, its leaders, including candidates for the February 12 general elections openly advocate establishing Shariah law on television talk shows.

Similarly, it said, at the grassroots level, mid, lower-tier leaders and workers promote voting for the Jamaat electoral symbol 'daripalla' (balance scale) symbol as a religious duty, while some even present it as a “ticket to paradise”.

This highlighted a clear contradiction: while Jamaat signals it will not implement Shariah, the Shariah narrative continues to be actively promoted on the ground.

Source: IANS