Bangladesh’s Accommodation of Extremism Spells Danger for the Region
With a series of attacks and no crackdown on extremism, Bangladesh retreats from its secular, democratic beginnings
The Islamic State extremists have claimed responsibility for a series of attacks in Bangladesh on journalists, educators, atheists and religious minorities. Unfortunately, “the present regime, in denial about religious extremism, finds this trend to be politically expedient,” writes Sumit Ganguly, a professor at Indiana University and also a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia. “The ostensible need for sweeping powers to curb such religious violence enables the regime to further aggrandize its political power.” Bangladesh, an independent state since 1971, is retreating from its early secular and democratic beginnings. The government cannot equivocate on extremism or deem political opponents and minorities as expendable. Ganguly warns that extremism allowed to flourish in the country of 156 million will eventually turn on those in power and spread to India and beyond.
Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed addresses the 70th session of the U.N. General Assembly, at U.N. Headquarters, in New York City, on Sept. 30, 2015. AP Photo/Richard Drew
BLOOMINGTON—A specter is haunting Bangladesh—the specter of unbridled, violent religious extremism with attacks on intellectuals, journalists, bloggers, and religious minorities.
The Islamic State and other forms of fundamentalism are on the rise in the country of 156 million. Unfortunately, neither of the two major political parties, the professedly secular Awami League (AL) and the more religiously inclined, right-of-center Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), has demonstrated any interest in containing these developments.
