Why Conservative Muslims in Bangladesh believe Ahmadiyya are heretic?

SALEEM SAMAD

The recent spate of racial attacks on Ahmadiyya Muslims during their annual congregation at a sprawling complex in northern Bangladesh on a pretext that they are not ‘Muslims’ and demanded that the sect should be declared ‘non-Muslims’.

The perpetrators were radicalised Sunni Muslims, says political historian researcher and writer Mohiuddin Ahmad.

The Sunnis are majoritarian in Bangladesh, nearly 91 per cent. They have been indoctrinated by conservative Wahabi and Salafimanhaz at tens of thousands of Islamic theological seminaries (madrasas) dotted all over Bangladesh and authorities could not tame them to adopt secularism, the writer/researcher explained.

Ahmadiyya, a Muslim sect is a member of a minority religious community and are spread all over Bangladesh since 1913.

The Ahmadiyya are indeed conservative Sunni Muslims and are tolerant of other faiths, practitioners and beliefs. They regularly hold inter-faith dialogues with other religious leaders in their mosques, which prompted the radicalised Muslims to reject the place of worship as a mosque for Muslim prayers.

Last week, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at, Bangladesh, at a press conference in Dhaka expressed their satisfaction over the investigation of the civil and police administrations over the racial riots, and said their actions were deemed appropriate.

The sect’s disciples demands that the secular fabric for centuries and equal status of all religions, ethnic community and other minorities should be respected as guaranteed in the constitution. Roughly 100,000 Ahmadis live in Bangladesh today.

Ahmed Tabshir Chowdhury, spokesperson of the Ahmadiyya’s in Bangladesh told journalists that the civil administration and police swift action have saved hundreds of lives and properties in Panchagarh district, where the annual ‘Salana Jalsha’ was scheduled to be held.

The three-day annual congregation was abruptly cancelled when Islamists clashed with police after the Friday Jumma prayer on March 3. Hundreds of Islamists armed with sticks, metal bars and some with containers of flammable substances [police claimed it was gun-powder] in a bid to occupy the site of the congregation.

Earlier, the Ahmadiyya management had to postpone or cancel their annual congregation several times in the faceoff with angry Islamists over 32 years.

In an hour, the violence turned into the worst sectarian riot in living memory, which killed two persons, one was an Ahmadiyya. Nearly 85 persons were seriously wounded by the rioters. The protesters torched 185 homes, and 30 business establishments were looted.

Hefazat-e-Islam, an ardent advocate of strict Sharia swiftly said the “non-Muslim” [Ahmadiyya] should not have been given permission to hold the ‘Jalsha’ and instead blamed the “Qadiyani” [slang for Ahmadiyya] for the unrest.

The allocation of BDT one crore (IRS 7.6 million or USD 95,000) for rebuilding the damaged dwellings and shops by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina sends a strong message to the perpetrators and others.

The district administration and police swiftly arrested more than a hundred rioters after identifying them from CCTV footage and other video footage. Others are on the run.

The onslaught of the Islamists in the last three decades on the Ahmadiyya properties and desecration of mosques in Brahmanbaria, Dhaka, Gazipur, Jashore, Khulna, Kushtia, Natore, Rajshahi, Satkhira, Sherpur and elsewhere, according to news published in media.

Since its establishment in Bangladesh at the beginning of the last century, the members of the Ahmadiyya Community have faced persecution from conservative Muslims. The perpetrators never faced the music of justice under previous governments.

The Islamist and radicalised Sunni Muslims demanded of the government to delist Ahmadiyya from Islam. The call was purportedly raised by Jamaat-e-Islami founder Abul Ala Maududi in 1953, leading to bloody atrocities which killed more than 2,000 Ahmadis in Lahore, Pakistan.

The [Ahmadiyya] fate was further sealed by Pakistan’s military dictator General Zia-ul-Haq, when he issued the anti-Ahmadiyya law on 26 April 1984, which prohibits Ahmadis from preaching or professing their beliefs.

Not to anybody’s surprise, Pakistan’s abandoned orphans [the Mullahs] born in Bangladesh are demanding similar repressive laws to ban and punish the ‘heretic’ Ahmadiyyas.

Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami during Khaleda Zia’s regime in the mid-90s proposed a blasphemy law to punish the Ahmadiyya and secularists. Incidentally, the proposed bill was a photocopy of the blasphemy law of Pakistan.

The radicalised Islamic groups including the Islami Andolon Bangladesh, Majlis-e-Tahaffuz-e-Khatme Nabuwwat, and of course Hefazat-e-Islam believe the Ahmadiyya are heretic and demands that the sect should be banned and declared ‘non-Muslim’ like Pakistan in September 1974.

According to a thought-provoking article in the Dhaka Tribune, the Constitution of Bangladesh, which recognises Islam as the state religion, the state shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.

Moreover, Article 41 states that (a) every citizen has the right to profess, practise or propagate any religion; (b) every religious community or denomination has the right to establish, maintain and manage its religious institutions.

Hypothetically speaking, Ahmad explained that declaring Ahmadiyya a heretic will cost Bangladesh dearly. The principles of the state constitution need to be overhauled and delete the clauses where secularism has been guaranteed.

More than a year ago, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at a press conference in defence of religious freedom and tolerance said if Muslims believe in the ‘Last Day of Judgment’ laid in the Holy Quran, then a Muslim cannot point fingers toward someone to judge who is a good Muslim or a bad Muslim.

Quran, the holy book of the Muslims says a day will come when the whole universe will be destroyed and time will end. The dead will be resurrected for judgment by the All Mighty. This day is the Day of Judgment where people will be rewarded by the Supreme Creator, according to their beliefs and deeds.

The video clip of her statement was broadcast from all TV channels in Bangladesh and is available on YouTube, where she rebukes the Islamist and radicalised Muslims, who have sworn to eliminate a certain community or religious practitioners (she did not name any religious group), should be banished from Islam.

The brutal birth of Bangladesh in 1971 which shattered the controversial ‘two-nation theory’ paved the way to establish a nation based on democracy, secularism, pluralism, equality and social justice. That legacy needs to be preserved and persevered in the future as well.

First published in the India Initiative, New Delhi, India on 29 March 2023 

Saleem Samad is an award-winning independent journalist based in Bangladesh

China has to ensure return of Rohingya to Myanmar

SALEEM SAMAD

The lights are dim at the end of the tunnel in case of repatriation of Rohingya refugees living in squalid camps in the coastal district of Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh.

The country hosts nearly 1.2 million Muslim Rohingya people who have fled ethno religious strife in neighbouring Myanmar during a military genocidal campaign, which killed at least 9,000 people in 2017.

The Tatmadaw (Myanmar military) backed campaign that the United Nations labelled a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing” saw hundreds of thousands of Rohingya driven across the border into Bangladesh in September 2017.

More than a million refugees are crammed in tens of thousands of make-shift huts made of bamboo, thin plastic sheets and corrugated tin roofs and the living conditions in the nauseating camps are dangerous. Often, fires blaze through the camps leaving thousands without shelter.

Last week, a 17-member delegation from Myanmar’s immigration and population ministries crossed into Bangladesh in mid-March and interviewed 480 Rohingya in Cox’s Bazar as part of a plan for possible repatriation to their country.

The Myanmar delegation, led by Aung Myo, the social welfare minister for Rakhine State, was selecting members for a pilot ‘family-based repatriation’ project.

The Myanmar delegation’s visit to the camps is believed to be brokered by China and facilitated by the UNHCR.

The Refugee Relief And Repatriation Commissioner (RRRC) in Cox’s Bazar, Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, said the Myanmar junta officials cleared 711 Rohingyas out of 1,140 recommended by Bangladesh. The newborn and newly married couples have been excluded from verification.

When journalists asked when the repatriation is expected to start, Rahman said that the “Myanmar delegation did not have the power to commit to a possible repatriation date.”

Before the visit of the delegation, the Myanmar junta for the first time since the 2017 crackdown, allowed diplomats from Bangladesh, India, China, and five other countries to tour the restive Rakhine State.

It was only then, the officials expressed the military junta’s plan to begin Rohingya repatriation under the pilot project.

Earlier, Bangladesh formally sought cooperation from China to repatriate Rohingya refugees to Myanmar during a visit by Foreign Minister Wang Yi and also China’s State Councillor promised to resolve a political solution to the Rohingya crisis.

China had used its influence in Myanmar to broker a November 2017 agreement to repatriate Rohingyas.

China’s ambassador to Bangladesh Yao Wen hoped that the first batch of displaced Rohingya would be repatriated to Myanmar soon while China continued its role as mediator, the official news agency Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha reported.

On 17 March 2023, Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen also urged the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member states to take collective responsibility to ensure a safe and dignified return of the most persecuted Rohingyas to their homeland, Myanmar.

Indeed, OIC backed Gambia to file a genocide case with the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Only Turkey has a visible presence at the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar.

India also launched “Operation Insaniyat” to provide relief assistance in response to the humanitarian crisis faced by a large influx of Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh from Myanmar.

Bangladesh and Myanmar began the negotiation for repatriation, but since 2018 none has returned so far and recent verification of a few hundred potential returnees for a pilot repatriation project remains unclear when they would be going home.

Despite attempts to send them back, the refugees refused, fearing insecurity in Myanmar, which was exacerbated by the military takeover last year.

Amid the situation, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in a statement on March 19 said they are observing developments of the Myanmar delegation’s visit to Bangladesh to verify a selected number of refugees on a bilateral pilot project on their possible returns.

The UN Refugee organisation reiterated that conditions in Myanmar’s Rakhine State are currently “not conducive to the sustainable return of Rohingya refugees”.

Bangladesh has consistently reaffirmed its commitment to “voluntary and sustainable repatriation” since the onset of the current crisis which echoes UNCHR policy that every refugee has a right to return to their home country based, make an informed choice and no refugee should be forced to repatriate.

China always wanted to impress upon their “feel good” diplomacy, but despite best intentions, it seems the repatriation has entered into a fresh deadlock as both Bangladesh and UNCHR, responsible for the safe return of the displaced Rohingyas are concerned about their safety and security in the Rakhine State.

The Rohingya issue must be addressed by China, a country [Myanmar] over which it has significant influence. Only China can make conclusive negotiations on the safe return of the Rohingyas, writes security analyst Samina Akhter in Modern Diplomacy.

Bangladesh and China have close political and military relations in addition to the fact that China is Bangladesh’s top trading and development partner.

Last week, Bangladesh has inaugurated a naval base in Cox’s Bazar with two conventional diesel-electric powered refurbished Chinese submarines bought for $205 million in 2016 to enhance Bangladesh’s naval capacity, after the demarcation of its maritime boundary with India and Myanmar.

It is equally true, that Myanmar’s military junta, which took power in a coup two years ago, has demonstrated no intention to take back any refugees.

Most importantly, the Rohingya refugee groups based in Bangladesh said for sustainable and dignified repatriation will only be possible when the Myanmar regime recognises the Rohingya as an ethnic community; provide legal citizenship which was stripped in 1982; school education; healthcare services; freedom of movement and livelihood.

Rohingya’s human rights groups believe the face-saving exercise to repatriate refugees happened after the Chinese exerted pressure on the Myanmar military junta to demonstrate a “feel good policy” otherwise face the compliance declared by the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The genocide case is resuming at ICJ on 24 April.

“Taking back a few refugees, even if it is less than one percent of the population, shall allow Myanmar to come up with a counterargument under the very false pretence they are sincere about the return of refugees,” the Arakan Rohingya National Alliance (ARNA) said in a statement.

First published in the India Initiative, New Delhi, India on 25 March 2023

Saleem Samad is an award-winning independent journalist based in Bangladesh

Why India and Bangladesh need to resolve the Teesta water-sharing issue ahead of elections

Teesta river originates from the foothills of Himalayas and enters Bangladesh

SALEEM SAMAD

Both Bangladesh and India are embarrassed over the immense delay towards a sustainable solution to sharing of the transboundary Teesta river, which remains a bone of contention between the two closest neighbours.

This week Bangladesh has raised fresh concern with New Delhi, after an Indian newspaper The Telegraph reported that West Bengal State Government has plans for three hydropower projects in Darjeeling hills in the foothills of the Himalayas, risking further discomfiture for Dhaka, which has been waiting for more than a decade to sign a treaty for sharing Teesta’s waters.

The news prompted Bangladesh to send a ‘note verbale’ (diplomatic note) to the Indian Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi’s South Block, seeking information about West Bengal’s plan to withdraw water from the upper riparian international river for irrigation and hydropower projects, confirmed Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen.

On the other hand, the State Minister for Water Resources Zaheed Farooque said the Joint River Commission (JRC) is also contemplating sending a letter to India seeking details about the West Bengal government’s plan for the construction of hydropower plants on the same river in Darjeeling.

Teesta, once a mighty river flowing from Himalaya glaciers that crisscrosses some 115 kilometres inside Bangladesh, now runs like a stream in Bangladesh in the lean period and overflows during the monsoon which causes frequent floods in the region.

What worries Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government, is that India has not officially communicated regarding a fresh plan to divert waters from upstream, as it shares at least 54 transboundary rivers as a lower riparian country with India.

Bangladesh Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Seheli Sabrin said the Teesta river issue may also be raised at the UN-2023 Water Conference, to be held at the UN headquarters in New York on March 22-24.

The daily published from Kolkata on March 13, also writes that the transfer of 1,000 acres of land to the irrigation ministry of West Bengal to excavate two new canals for withdrawing water from Teesta and Jaldhaka for irrigation to serve around one lakh farmers in Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar.

Two of the three planned Darjeeling projects are likely to significantly reduce the flow of water in the Teesta that is available for irrigation, particularly during the December-April lean period when the demand for irrigation water goes up in Bangladesh, the spokesperson added.

Water resources expert Prof Ainun Nishat said that the matter of diverting water from Teesta has to be handled politically. It cannot be resolved on technical grounds in absence of an appropriate legal instrument, he told an influential daily News Age published from Dhaka.

India-Bangladesh talks on sharing waters of common rivers have stalled  for over 13 years, holding back the signing of interim agreements on the Teesta and Feni rivers and making negotiations on the six others uncertain.

The much-awaited 38th ministerial-level meeting of the Indo-Bangladesh Joint Rivers Commission concluded in New Delhi in August 2022 without any progress on Teesta water-sharing, which is crucial for Sheikh Hasina’s political well-being.

The junior minister for water resources remarked that the Indo-Bangladesh JRC meeting in Dhaka for resolving the much-awaited Teesta water-sharing meeting in March or April has not received any confirmation from Delhi.

The meeting is important before the visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India in September.

There is an environmental angle as well as there are fears that northern Bangladesh will be drier after the withdrawal of water upstream, leading to a severe impact on the region’s nature and environment, which are already under tremendous stress from the impacts of changing climate.

In September 2011, an agreement was almost reached and India was willing to share 37.5 per cent of Teesta waters while retaining 42.5 per cent during the dry season between December and March.

The agreement was scuttled by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee who refused to accompany Manmohan Singh, the then Prime Minister of India to Dhaka.

The West Bengal leader’s stubborn refusal on a plea that the deal between India and Bangladesh, will jeopardise the much-needed water for farmers in the Indian state of West Bengal. A political resolution to water-sharing has entered into a deadlock.

It is therefore obvious that Teesta will remain the elephant in the room when leaders of India and Bangladesh talk on water sharing.

Hasina will be facing national elections expected early next year and there will be tremendous pressure on her to get the Teesta deal through. The opposition and critics will use the failure to achieve the deal as a political weapon against her.

Bangladesh is one of India’s closest friends in South Asia and Hasina is anxious to get the river deal done.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been unable to deliver the Teesta deal, despite his tremendous popularity at home. In fact, he persuaded Banerjee to give a green signal to the deal, apprehending her dwindling popularity in West Bengal’s north.

Despite the odds, Modi is serious to get the treaty inked before Hasina’s elections are just around the corner.

First published in India Narrative, New Delhi, India on 22 March 2023

Saleem Samad, is an award-winning independent journalist based in Bangladesh

India-Bangladesh Pipeline for Enhancing Energy Security

SALEEM SAMAD

At a crucial juncture of an energy crisis, the much-awaited oil pipeline has been formally inaugurated jointly through video conferencing by Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on Saturday.

At the inaugural ceremony, Sheikh Hasina and Narendra Modi both said that the Bangladesh-India Friendship Pipeline will “enhance cooperation in energy security” between the two countries.

The Indian Prime Minister said, “I am confident that this pipeline will further speed up the development of Bangladesh and be an excellent example of the increasing connectivity between….both the countries.”

Terming the India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline as ground-breaking in Bangladesh’s energy history, Sheikh Hasina said, “When many countries….are on the verge of [a] fuel crisis due to the Russia-Ukraine war at that time this pipeline will play a vital role in ensuring fuel security of our people.”

The first cross-border international oil pipeline is yet another landmark in the development partnership with neighbouring India.

According to officials of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), India would export high-speed diesel (HSD) through the 131.57 km India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline (IBFPL) project, built at a cost of around IRS 3.77 billion drawn from the Indian line of credit (LoC). Indian loan includes IRS 2.85 billion to construct a pipeline inside Bangladesh territory.

The Bangladesh-India Friendship Pipeline will put in place a sustainable, reliable, cost-effective and environment-friendly mode of transporting HSD from India to Bangladesh, an official of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs observed.

The project will enable high-speed diesel to be exported from India’s Siliguri Marketing Terminal in West Bengal State to Bangladesh’s Parbatipur in Dinajpur.

High-speed diesel will be flowing from the Numaligarh Refinery Limited distribution terminal for testing of the pipeline from Mar 8, according to ABM Azad, chairman of BPC, the state fuel importer and distributor.

The pipeline stretches 125 km inside Bangladesh territory and 5 km inside India. The two prime ministers joined the ground-breaking ceremony for the IBFPL in September 2018 through video conferencing.

The construction of the pipeline project began in March 2020 and had a deadline for completion by June 2022. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the trial and test of the oil supply through the pipeline were delayed.

The HSD transmission will augment fossil energy-starved northern Bangladesh.  The pipeline will ensure uninterrupted, fast and affordable means to 16 districts in the region, which needs nearly one million tonnes of fuel annually.

Bangladesh used to import diesel from India through railway carriages, which was time-consuming and hassle to unload, store and distribution manually. The pipeline will significantly reduce its transport costs for Bangladesh, officials said.

According to the Dhaka-Delhi 15-year agreement, India will export 200,000 tonnes of oil annually in the first three years, 300,000 tonnes per annum in the next three years, 500,000 tonnes annually in the next four years and 1 million tonnes annually in the first phase. The second term would be extended based on the consensus of the countries.

Last year, Bangladesh imported six million tonnes of petrol, octane, and diesel. Diesel alone accounted for 75% of fuel oils – 80% of which is met through direct imports, according to a report published last year.

Bangladesh pays $11 in premium per barrel of fuel purchased from the international market, while the premium will be $5.5 per barrel in the pipeline project. “It means we will be able to save around $6 per barrel in premium,” the BPC official said.

In the wake of a fuel crisis, the friendship oil pipeline project is expected to boost long-term business growth and bilateral ties between the two countries, an energy expert said.

First Published in the India Narrative @india_narrative on 19 March 2023

Saleem Samad is a Dhaka based journalist, who writes for India Narrative , specialising in international Affairs

Why Taliban's Are Afraid Of Purple?

SALEEM SAMAD

The radicalised Taliban after recapturing Afghanistan in August 2021, the regime has promulgated a series of misogynist decrees which targeted women only.

Women are barred from higher education, jobs and business. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan issued nearly 20 decrees against women during the last one and a half years inviting global outcry. The

International Women’s Day on 8 March is observed worldwide, but Afghanistan is the world’s most repressive country for women and girls, deprived of their basic rights, said the United Nations.

Despite the dark clouds over Afghanistan, there is two good news on an international day.

First, Afghan broadcaster Tolo News aired an all-female panel in its studio with an audience of women to mark International Women’s Day, a rare broadcast since the Taliban took over the vibrant country, reports BBC.

Second, despite the strict enforcement of protests, the women held a protest in Kabul on International Women’s Day, calling for women’s access to education and work. The protestors called for the removal of blanket restrictions on women in Afghanistan.

Since 1908 International Women’s Day’s thematic colour purple stands for dignity and justice, green for hope, and white for purity. Purple is the colour of women’s empowerment and gender equality, which the Taliban hates to listen to.

Tolo News to mark the auspicious day held a discussion session. The panel of three women and one female moderator with surgical masks covering their faces discussed the topic of the position of women in Islam. Taliban is not prepared to hear a sermon on Islam from a woman.

International media rights defender Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is aghast that the Taliban has continued to erase women journalists from the media landscape in Afghanistan.

In less than two years. Half of the 526 media outlets that existed until the summer of 2021 have had to close and, of the 2,300 women journalists since the Taliban takeover in August 2021, fewer than 200 are still working. Almost all of the women journalists (90%) have had to leave their jobs and some have fled the country, although exactly how many have managed to flee is not known.

Those still working must accept conditions that are becoming more and more draconian if not impossible. The Taliban Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Repression of Vice has also imposed a strict dress code. When women journalists are on camera, they must be covered from head to toe and only their eyes may be seen.

The female protestors issued a statement saying the current challenges against women should not be forgotten.

“It is March 8 but women in Afghanistan have no right to celebrate this day. We are the women who are imprisoned in the country. The restrictions are worsened day-by-day,” said Jolia Parsa, a member of Junbish Itlaf Khodjosh Zanan.

The protesters appealed to the international community to pay attention to the situation of women in Afghanistan.

“Today, the gates of gyms, schools, universities and parks have been closed for women,” said a member of Junbish Itlaf Khodjosh Zanan.

The UN Secretary-General António Guterres laments that women and girls “are erased from public life” in Afghanistan.

On the other hand, hopes are dashed as universities reopen after a winter vacation, but it’s another painful reminder to young women of how their world is shrinking.

Due to growing restrictions as well as the country’s severe economic crisis, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) said female employment had fallen 25 per cent last year since mid-2021. It added that more women were turning to self-employed work such as tailoring at home.

The United Nations Mission to Afghanistan called on the Taliban to reverse restrictions on the rights of girls and women, calling them “distressing.”

The Taliban have said the authorities have set up a committee to examine perceived issues to work towards re-opening girls’ schools. But there is no light at the end of the tunnel.

The Islamic Emirate has repeatedly said that they are committed to the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan and that their rights are preserved within strict Islamic Sharia laws.

First published in The News Times, Dhaka, Bangladesh on 9 March 2023

Saleem Samad, is an award-winning independent journalist, media rights defender, recipient of Ashoka Fellowship and Hellman-Hammett Award. He could be reached at <saleemsamad@hotmail.com>; Twitter @saleemsamad

Ahmadiyya Muslims, Religious Freedom and Bangladesh Constitution

SALEEM SAMAD

When the Muslims in Bangladesh attack the Adivasis or ethnic communities, we remain silent. When the Muslims attack the Hindus, Christians and Buddhists, we remain silent. When they attack the Ahmadiyya Muslims, we again remain silent.

If you ask any persons from among the majoritarian Sunni Muslims, they spontaneously argue that Ahmadiyyas are not Muslims. If you ask again whether the person is a good or bad Muslim? There is silence for a few seconds and after a heave of sigh, that person would say, how do I know, only Allah determines.

The Holy Quran says a day will come when the whole universe will be destroyed and time will end. The dead will be resurrected for judgment by the All Mighty. This day is the Day of Judgment where people will be rewarded by the Supreme Creator according to their beliefs and deeds.

More than a year ago, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at a press conference in defence of religious freedom and tolerance said if Muslims believe in the Last Day of Judgment then a Muslim shouldn’t point their finger towards someone who is a good Muslim or a bad Muslim.

The video clip of the statement was broadcast from all TV channels in Bangladesh and is available on YouTube, where she rebukes the Islamist and radicalised Muslims, who have sworn to eliminate a certain community or religious practitioners (not naming any Muslim sect), should be banished from Islam.

The radicalised Muslims and Islamists have attacked, vandalised and desecrated hundreds of places of worship, shops and homes of Hindus, Christians, Buddhists and of course the Adivasis soon after the birth of Bangladesh.

Adivasi leaders often lament the grabbing of lands and forcible occupation of their properties by influential local persons who are affiliated with the ruling parties – whichever party remains in power.

None of the perpetrators listened to the music of justice. They enjoyed impunity and they remain free from justice, which is frustrating for human rights organisations.

Ahmadiyya, a Muslim sect is members of a minority community and are spread all over Bangladesh since the beginning of the twentieth century. 

The Ahmadiyya are conservative Sunni Muslims and are tolerant of other faiths and practitioners. They regularly hold inter-faith dialogues in their mosques, which prompted the radicalised Muslims to reject that their place of worship is a mosque.

The Islamist and conservative Sunni Muslims demand that the government should banish Ahmadiyya from Islam. The call was purportedly raised by Jamaat-e-Islami founder Abul Ala Maududi in 1953, leading to the bloody atrocities which killed more than 2,000 Ahmadis in Lahore, Pakistan.

Jamaat-e-Islami during Khaleda Zia’s regime in the mid-90s proposed a blasphemy law to punish the Ahmadiyya and secularists. Incidentally, the proposed bill was a photocopy of the blasphemy law of Pakistan.

The [Ahmadiyya] fate was further sealed by Pakistan’s military dictator General Zia-ul-Haq, when he issued the anti-Ahmadiyya law on 26 April 1984, which prohibited Ahmadis from preaching or professing their beliefs.

Not to anybody's surprise, Pakistan’s abandoned orphans [the Mullahs] born in Bangladesh are demanding similar repressive laws to ban and punish the ‘heretic’ Ahmadiyyas.

The radicalised Islamic groups including the Islami Andolon Bangladesh, Majlis-e-Tahaffuz-e-Khatme Nabuwwat, and of course Hefazat-e-Islam believe the Ahmadiyya are heretic and demands that the sect should be banned and declared ‘non-Muslim’ like Pakistan in September 1974.

A few years ago, the Islamist protesters in Panchagarh invited Hefazat-e-Islam leader Allama Shah Ahmad Shafi on a chartered helicopter from his base in Hathazari, Chattagram and warned the government, the civil and police administrations not to cooperate with the Ahmadiyya Muslim in holing the ‘Salana Jalsha’ (annual congregation) at their Ahmadnagar complex.

During the last three decades, the Islamists attacked and vandalised the members of Ahmadiyya properties and mosques in Brahmanbaria, Dhaka, Gazipur, Jashore, Khulna, Kushtia, Natore, Rajshahi, Satkhira, Sherpur and elsewhere, according to news published in media.

Ahmadiyya management had to postpone and cancel their annual congregation several times due to opposition of the minority Islamists in the last 32 years, minus the mainstream majoritarian Muslims who believe in Sufism and are tolerant.

The recurrence of the cancellation of Jalsha, no doubt were instigated by the Islamist groups and not surprising the district and police administration bowed down to the vile threats of the Islamist.

The recent flare-up of the racial riot in Panchagarh after Friday's Jumma prayer (3 March) became violent after police attempted to disperse the militant protesters, which turned berserk.

Local journalists said after eight hours the paramilitary Borders Guards Bangladesh (BGB) and elite police force RAB were deployed. The delay caused to deaths of 2 persons including an Ahmadi.

More than 100 homes of the Ahmadiyya community were torched, vandalised and looted, claimed Ahmed Tabshir Chowdhury, an Ahmadiyya leader who was at the complex during the riot.

Hefazat-e-Islam promptly said the non-Muslim [meaning Ahmadiyya] should not have been given permission to hold the Jalsha and instead blamed the Qadiyani [slang for Ahmadiyya] for the unrest.

The following day agitation was further fuelled by rumours by a group of young people, local journalists claim that they are from a madrassa.

The Ahmadiyya families in Panchagarh have fled their homes for safety and are living in fear.

According to a thought-provoking article published in the Dhaka Tribune writes, the Constitution of Bangladesh, which recognises Islam as the state religion, also ensures the rights of all other religions, irrespective of race, caste, sex or place of birth.

According to Article 28 (1) of the Constitution, the State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.

Moreover, Article 41 states that (a) every citizen has the right to profess, practise or propagate any religion; (b) every religious community or denomination has the right to establish, maintain and manage its religious institutions.

As per Article 44 (1), a citizen can move to the High Court if his/her religious freedom is violated.

Despite bifurcating after a brutal war of independence in 1971 to establish a nation based on democracy, secularism, pluralism, equality and social justice, the ghost of the Islamic state of Pakistan seems to have rested on the shoulders of Bangladesh Mullahs.

Sunni Muslims commonly know that Ahmadiyya does not believe in the last Prophet of Islam. Secondly, the Quran of Ahmadiyya has been distorted. Thirdly, their prayers are not following Muslim practitioners. Finally, the interpretation of Islam follows the propaganda of the Jews and Christians.

The Ahmadiyyas are funded by Zionists and instigated against the Muslims and their Headquarters is located in Israel. The list of conspiracy theories lengthens.

The Ahmadiyya Muslim’s headquarters in London has the largest collection of translated copies of the Quran in more than 70 languages, also in Hebrew and Chinese [both Mandarin and Cantonese].

Despite the negative campaign and conspiracy theories agog in social media, the Ahmadiyyas are growing, spreading and shining all over the world. An estimated 10 million Ahmadis are living around the world, in more than 200 countries.

In Cuba, where religious practices were a social taboo, the Ahmadiyyas have their footprint and boast the establishment of their first mosque in Havana – in near future in China and North Korea.

First published in The News Times, Dhaka, Bangladesh on 5 March 2023

Saleem Samad, is an award-winning independent journalist, media rights defender, recipient of Ashoka Fellowship and Hellman-Hammett Award. He could be reached at <saleemsamad@hotmail.com>; Twitter @saleemsamad

Hawara Rampage Has A Hallmark Of Sabra And Shatila Massacres

SALEEM SAMAD

The night of the riots in Hawara by Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank last week has a trail of destruction sown by Israelis in the village by masked men to avenge the murder of the Jewish brothers by unidentified radicalised Palestinians – who are on the run after the elite Israel police are on a countrywide manhunt.

Hundreds of Jewish settlers descended on the northern West Bank town, killing 37-year-old Sameh Aqtash and wounding 98 other Palestinians after two Israeli brothers were gunned down by a Palestinian affiliated with the Nablus-based Lion’s Den militant group on 26 February.

The day after on 27 February, hundreds of settlers set fire to homes and cars and threw stones, it was obvious to anyone on the road leading into the West Bank Palestinian town that the rioters were still in control, the Haaretz newspaper describes the situation.

Scores of young Jewish vigilantes, many of them masked, gathered there in the morning checking vehicles in search of Palestinians. The Israeli soldiers kept a distance, but the vigilante was doing as they pleased, laments an Israeli newspaper.

The reports of a large Israeli army presence in the town existed only on paper. Many rebuked the armed forces for their incompetence.

Top Israel General Yehuda Fuchs, said the settler extremists are sowing terror. The vigilante settlers who rampaged through a Palestinian town in the West Bank had carried out a “pogrom” that caught the military off-guard, he remarked.

The general who is Head of the IDF (Israel Defence Force) Central Command and oversees the West Bank told Hebrew-language media that he was worried about clashes between soldiers and settlers and accused the Jewish extremists of “spreading terror.”

Meanwhile, the Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank didn’t dare wander around their village, which looked like a ghost town. The shops were shuttered, the streets strewn with rocks, and the smell of smoke was still in the air.

The army accused the rioters while civil society and human rights organisations blame intelligence failure.

On the other hand, Lt. Gen. Herzl Halevi, Israel’s army chief denounces the attack by hundreds of Jewish settlers and laments that the army should have prevented the rampage by Jewish settlers in Hawara.

Israel’s army chief remarked that Israelis should halt the “internecine struggle” that has plagued the country since Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government took over two months ago.

Many attribute the chaos in Hawara as a hallmark of the massacre nearly forty years ago at Sabra and Shatila Palestine refugee camps by Israeli-backed right-wing Phalange militia killed between 2,000 and 3,500 Palestinian refugees and Lebanese civilians between September 16 and 18, 1982.

However, the IDF commanders immediately scoffed off the allegation of Israel’s involvement in the bloody atrocities in the two refugee camps in Lebanon.

Shatila camp southwest of Lebanon’s capital city Beirut housed refugees who were victims of the 1948 Nakba, or “catastrophe” in Arabic, fleeing the violent ethnic cleansing of Palestine by Zionist militias as Israel was formed.

The Hawara riot has invited global condemnation of Israel’s handling of the situation. Hady Amr, the U.S. special representative for Palestinian affairs, visited the scene of occurrence and condemned “the unacceptable wide-scale, indiscriminate violence by settlers” and wants “to see full accountability and legal prosecution of those responsible for these heinous attacks and compensation for those who lost property or were otherwise affected,” echoing calls by State Department spokesperson Ned Price.

European Union calls for protection of civilians, de-escalation amid rising West Bank violence and urges all perpetrators must be brought to justice.

The European Union in a statement expressed its concern over recent deadly violence in the West Bank, calling for the protection of civilians and immediate de-escalator steps.

The EU statement also commended Jordan, Egypt, and the US for convening Sunday’s summit in Aqaba, Jordan which brought Israeli and Palestine Authority officials together in an attempt to tamp down on the violence ahead of the month of Ramadan.

The Israel media claims several ministers are demanding more aggressive actions, despite the looming holy Muslim month of Ramadan, which in recent years has become a time of heightened tensions and violence.

Tensions between Israel and the Palestinians have been high for the past year, with the IDF conducting near-nightly raids in the West Bank amid a series of deadly Palestinian terror attacks, writes Times of Israel.

First appeared in the The News Times, Dhaka, Bangladesh on 3 March 2023

Saleem Samad, is an award-winning independent journalist, media rights defender, recipient of Ashoka Fellowship and Hellman-Hammett Award. He could be reached at <saleemsamad@hotmail.com>; Twitter @saleemsamad