IRT: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mukto-mona/message/22480

Dear All,

The opinions expressed in Ms. Eliza Griswold's article 'The Next
Islamist Revolution?' (New York Times Magazine (January 23, 2005))
raises some intriguing points about the perceived religious
intolerance growing within Bangladesh. The country that is described
in that piece is not a country that I recognize nor one that fits
accurately, in any way, my own perceptions or understanding of the
religious and social dynamics working in the country.

I have lived in Bangladesh for almost 8 years and cannot subscribe to
any of the allegations made in the piece. For each of the incidents or
events related, there are more plausible and factually grounded
explanations that have not apparently been researched or investigated
by Ms. Griswold. The phenomenon described as Bangla Bhai is a case in
point. It is stated that the agenda of the group led by Bangla Bhai is
to foment an Islamist revolution in several provinces of the country.
In this regard, the efforts of Bangla Bhai have been uniquely
unsuccessful. That he has some support from the populace in the region
is down to his reprisals against what Ms. Griswold rightly calls the
'leftist marauders known as the Purbo Banglar Communist Party.' There
is no indication at all that the people of the region have any
sympathy with Bangla Bhai's pan-Islamist revolutionary agenda. He
certainly possesses a populist appeal principally because he is
considered by many as the lesser of two evils. The armed cadres of the
Purbo Banglar Communist Party have been terrorizing villagers in a
wide swath of Bangladesh, reaching from the North West right down to
the South West of the country, ever since independence and only now
are they relenting in the face of violent opposition instigated by
Bangla Bhai and government law enforcers. This is more an issue of
constitutionality and the rule of law than one of religious
fanaticism.

The wearing of burkas (Islamic dress) by women is a common sight in
rural Bangladesh and I am a little surprised that Ms. Griswold would
consider this worthy of comment or as a sign of Bangla Bhai's
influence in the region. Ms. Griswold, then proceeds to make numerous
further errors concerning the culture, politics and history of
Bangladesh. She correctly states that Bangladesh fought a war of
independence in 1971 against Pakistan but then she announces the now
discredited figure of three million dead in the nine months of war. If
she had taken the time to read even Jhumpa Lahiri's Pulitzer Prize
winning book 'interpreter of maladies' (2000) she could have guessed
the figure to be nearer three hundred thousand dead. This is still no
small figure, but the purpose behind this exaggeration would appear to
confirm Ms. Griswold's assessment that, 'Thuggery has been a
consistent feature of political life since then and is increasingly so
today.'

This remark appears intended to create a moral equivalence between the
Pakistan army of 1971 and the four party alliance that governs
Bangladesh today. Ms. Griswold should have been informed (or done the
necessary research) that the greatest period of thuggery after
independence occurred during the Sheikh Mujibur Rahman government of
1971-1975 and the Sheikh Hasina government of 1996-2001. Neither of
these regimes were known to espouse an Islamist agenda but were
considered no less ruthless, brutal, intolerant and exploitative
(probably more so) than any of the other governments that have ruled
Bangladesh during the last 34 years since independence. In fact, these
two so-called 'secular' periods (an inference adopted and encouraged
by Ms. Griswold) in Bangladesh history were renowned for their
oppressive and restrictive attitude towards political dissent and
opposition.

From this analysis it would be impossible to draw the blatantly
contradictory conclusion that Ms. Griswold has so effortlessly done,

"Under the current government, which has been in power since 2001 and
includes two avowedly Islamist parties, journalists are frequently
imprisoned. Last year, three were killed while reporting on corruption
and the rise of militant Islam. Moreover, 80 percent of Bangladeshis
live in villages that can be hard to reach and are under the tight
control of local politicians. Foreign journalists in Bangladesh are
followed by intelligence agents; people that reporters interview are
questioned afterward. Nonetheless, it is possible to travel through
Bangladesh and observe the increased political and religious
repression in everyday life, and to verify the simple remark by one
journalist there: ''We are losing our freedom.''"

It seems with all the restrictions that are placed on foreign
journalists (related in the above quotation) it in no way hampered Ms.
Griswold in compiling a report so full of errors and flaws culminating
in absurd and contradictory conclusions. I need not remind
journalists in Bangladesh that press freedom was completely done away
with during the 'secular' regime of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and that
journalists were routinely murdered and maimed during the term of
Sheikh Hasina's government. For these reason, we cannot make such
simplistic assessments that (1) Bangladesh has a government composed
of religious parties; (2) That this has resulted in an increase in
religious fanaticism in the population; (3) This in turn has helped
the creation and growth of terrorist organizations in the country; (4)
That due to the above three factors the government has taken on a
systematic policy of eliminating minorities and placing restrictions
on press freedom; (5) That the above factors will encourage
international terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaeda to set up base
in Bangladesh. This appears to be the tendentious logic of Ms.
Griswold and the experts from the United States Institute of Peace and
Human Rights Watch (neither of which is above controversy) that she
calls in aid of her theory.

The point that seems to have escaped Ms. Griswold is that using the
same logic the assessment fits much better the situation of the United
States, Israel and the previous BJP government of India (maybe even
the Brahmin dominated present one) but this fact has never featured in
the New York Times Magazine. It does not, however, reflect in any
sensible way the circumstances of Bangladesh. The BNP government has
an overall majority of MP's in Parliament even without the aid of the
two religious parties. Overall, the representation of religious
parties in parliament is insignificant. There is no empirical evidence
that there has been a substantial shift in the religious sentiment of
Bangladesh to a more aggressive and assertive Islamic world view.
Bangladesh has always had to live with terrorist groups of varying
political shades ranging from the extreme left and most recently to
the extreme right. In none of these cases have these groups come close
to acquiring state power (except possibly Col. Taher) and are unlikely
to gain much sympathy from the people in the future. At most, we can
say that the government of the day has dealt incompetently with many
of the political conflicts within society but we have no proof that
they have engineered such conflicts for political gain. In fact, we
must assume that due to the adverse international media attention the
government would avoid such adventurism.

We can therefore confidently dismiss Ms. Griswold's theory of
impending Islamic revolution in Bangladesh. But we still have to find
a culprit for the August 21 bomb attack on an Awami League rally and
for the physical assault on Professor Shamsur Rahman which seems to be
Ms. Griswold's last line of refuge. I have already provided my
opinions on the AL bomb attack in my article, 'Politics over dead
bodies – A result of India's fear of a Brihot Bangladesh' and as for
Professor Shamsur Rahman my article 'Freethinkers regularly silenced
in Bangladesh' is equally relevant and I think provides a conclusive
answer to that mystery. In both cases, I directly accuse India of
involvement in these incidents and my opinions have not changed.
Predictably, Ms. Griswold raises the Ahmadiyya issue which was at one
time a cause for concern and much public disorder but which has
recently subsided. I presume that it will again become a hotly
contested issue simply because India wishes to undermine the present
administration before the next elections in early 2007. For readers
interested in the Ahmadiyya controversy please read my article 'The
Ahmadiyya's – Muslim, Heretic or Paid Agents' and the follow up
articles.

The simple reason why I find all this talk of Islamic revolution in
Bangladesh so bizarre and profoundly uninteresting is due to the
scholarly findings of Richard M. Eaton in his book 'The rise of Islam
and the Bengal Frontier 1204-1760' (winner of the Albert Hourani Book
Prize). He relates very precisely how Islam came to Bengal and the
cultural changes or assimilations that occurred over the centuries and
which still persist today and in the end prevents or restrains
religious zealotry and bigotry,

"In the 'success stories' of world religions, and the story of Islam
in Bengal is surely among these, the norms of religion and the
realities of local social systems ultimately accommodate one another.
Although theorists, theologians, or reformers may resist this point,
it seems nonetheless to be intuitively grasped by common folk …

"What made Islam in Bengal not only historically successful but a
continuing vital social reality has been its capacity to adapt to the
land and the culture of its people, and while transforming both."

I think a simpler way of saying this would be to trust the common
sense of ordinary people. They are unlikely to follow blindly the
ideological preaching of half-educated mullahs that ignores
generations of moderate Sufi teachings that originally brought Islam
to Bengal on a mass scale. Ms. Griswold relies too much on newspaper
reports of, The Daily Star, Prothom Alo and Janakantha which have
created legends and myths around what appear fire spewing religious
fanatics ravaging the Bangladeshi countryside. I am sure it makes for
good copy but bears little resemblance to realities in Bangladesh and
the less said about the 'experts' the better.

The remainder of Ms. Griswold article is a regurgitation of news
reports emanating from the local newspapers in Bangladesh and some
international news networks that have been refuted on so many
occasions that it does not bear my time to rehearse the oft repeated
press releases and essays on the subject. Ms. Griswold admits that
many of the incidents are based merely on anecdotal evidence and I
dare say her theories are founded on conjecture and hearsay. If this
is the quality of investigative journalism in the West then we indeed
have something to worry about – but it isn't religious fanaticism –
but more a question of objectivism and the professionalism of western
journalists.


--
M.B.I. Munshi
Bar-at-Law & Advocate (Supreme Court)
'Rakta Komol'
House No. F-86,
Road No. 5,
Chairman Bari, Banani,
Dhaka - 1213, Bangladesh
mimunshi@...
MBIMunshi@...

Faculty of Laws
Dhaka Centre for Law and Economics
House 50 (New), 750 (Old) Satmasjid Road
Dhanmondi R/A, Dhaka - 1209
Bangladesh
dclebd@...

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