When intolerance marches to religious extremism

 

Muslims protest against a possible move to change status of State Religion Islam in the Constitution at Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh. (Photo: AFP)

On July 1 Bangladesh marked the 4th anniversary of a black day, but it passed silently as the nation continues to shiver under the spell of the Covid-19 pandemic.

On the fateful evening of 2016, five local extremists, linked with global terror outfit Islamic State (IS), barged into a café in capital Dhaka and opened fire, killing 20 guests, mostly foreigners.

The worst terror attack in Bangladesh's history was the culmination of a deadly campaign by homegrown Islamic extremists since 2013. The campaign left some 50 people dead, including atheist bloggers, liberal writers, publishers and academics, LGBT activists, religious minorities, and foreigners. Dozens of atheist bloggers and writers fled to Europe and America following death threats.

It was a lethal blow to Bangladesh's long-held image as a liberal Muslim country, and its economic and political fallout threatened the political future of ruling Awami League.

The government response was heavy-handed. Some 50 leaders and operatives of extremist outfits were eliminated in a series of police raids, and dozens were arrested and put on trial in the following months. Amid this massive crackdown, extremist outfits almost broke down.

On the other hand, political and non-political Islamists were fought on two fronts.

First, the leadership of Jamaat-e-Islami, the country's largest Islamist party and long-time opponent of Awami League, were put on trial, leading to executions and jailing by War Crimes Tribunals, for their crimes against during 1971 war of independence from Pakistan. The party is gasping for survival because of its weak organization, infighting, and lack of influential leaders.

Awami League was also successful in neutralizing some top radical Islamic groups like Hefazat-e-Islam (Protectors of Islam) allegedly by buying out their leaders.

In 2013, Hefazat organized a rally of half of million Muslims in Dhaka to demand a strict blasphemy law and execution of atheist bloggers for defaming Islam. The rally turned violent as protesters attacked vehicles, shops and clashed with police, leaving dozens dead and scores injured.

Four years since the café attack, has Bangladesh overcome religious extremism? Not really.

Three recent incidents show that extremism is alive and active in the naiton's social psyche, and the efforts to uproot it by brute force and political tact have failed.

The dreadful influence of religious fundamentalism

More than 100,000 followers defy a ban on public gatherings to attend the funeral of Islamic preacher Maulana Zubayer Ahmad Ansari in his home village in Bangladesh on April 18. (Photo Supplied)

"Speak no ill of the dead" is an old saying, so it is inappropriate to ask Maulana Zubayer Ahmad Ansari, a prominent Islamic preacher and politician in Bangladesh, why he had to die in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ansari, 56, was a firebrand preacher and leader of Khelafat Majlish, an Islamic political party, who had a large in his home district of Brahmanbaria and in other parts of the country.

More than 100,000 of his diehard followers defied a ban on public gatherings amid an ongoing nationwide shutdown to attend his funeral at his home village on April 18. It made national and international headlines and triggered fear about speedy community transmission of the coronavirus.

Social media sites were flooded with criticism and memes, and many grabbed the chance to hit out at the people of Brahmanbaria, a district known for religious fundamentalism and whose villagers are infamous for deadly violence over trivial matters such as quarreling about food quality at wedding ceremonies, cutting branches and so on.

The government was upset and vented anger by transferring some local officials, although they said they didn't permit the gathering but were helpless to stop it.

In fact, no local administration can stop such large crowds from honoring Islamic leaders, whether dead or alive.

Why do people take such risks to honor Islamic preachers and leaders? And why does the government remain toothless in stopping such gatherings?

A local journalist asked an Ansari follower what made him defy restrictions on movement. The man said he knew about the risks but he was "carried away by emotions."

Corona Diary 01: The virus exposes our own evils

A road full of people at Kawran Bazar, the largest kitchen market in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka on March 22. (Photo by Rock R. Rozario)

On March 26 evening, I went outside at my neighborhood in central Dhaka to get some money from an ATM booth, and to buy some essential grocery items and vegetables. It is because unlike most people I didn't resort to panic-buying due to novel coronavirus outbreak and didn't hoard too much daily essentials for a month or so, which not only triggered a price hike but also caused misery for poor and low income people. I took my wife with me because it could be difficult to carry all the goods alone. We covered our faces with masks and walked in safe distance from people on the roads for protection.

The roads and the streets were empty and deserted, an unusual scene in this busy and crowded city, which is only seen twice a year during Eid festivals. All restaurants, eateries and fast food centers were shut, so were most shops except some groceries and vegetable stands. We somehow managed to buy what we needed for our family to survive in coming days. Staying home continuously is often boring, but this is what we all must do in this crucial time. 

During our time outside, we saw a number of Muslim men wearing skullcaps returning from mosques after evening prayer. It seemed they were still convinced nothing would happen to them for defying government order to stay home for safety and most of them didn't wear masks. They are probably on the same page with hundreds of people I saw in Kawran Bazar, Dhaka's largest kitchen market, last Sunday, buying as much as daily essentials frantically but without any protection. And of course, they have the same mindset of people who resorted to a mad-rush from Dhaka to rural areas on March 24, immediately after Bangladesh government declared 10-day general holiday to allow people to stay home to stop spreading of the killer virus. If not all, most of them thought it was a time for vacation.

We also met and walked with a Muslim man wearing a face mask and returning home with groceries. He was upset and angry like us with the response of many people to pandemic coronavirus outbreak. "How strange it is some people think this is a Chinese problem as Chinese people eat all the nasty things. Nothing will happen to Muslims as they eat halal (pure) things only," this middle-aged man said. "Saudi Arabia and Iran are suffering badly due to the virus. Are these not Muslim countries?. He went on to say,"So many people take bribes and earn black money, which they don't find haram (forbidden). They think going to the mosque and praying inside would cleanse their sins. This is ridiculous. Let them mingle together and go to heaven!"

We couldn't agree more what this man said as the world is at an unprecedented war against this deadly virus that has already killed more than 24,000 people and infected more than half a million in up to 200 countries globally. Our government and doctors, nurses and medical staff are battling hard against the tide with little resources against the virus. The world is shivering in fear and grief as even most developed nations keep counting many precious human lives lost in recent weeks. How come people in this country can be so crazy!

However, we were not surprised about the public response in the time of Corona as we have grown up seeing how much double-standards many people can maintain and how ignorant but opportunistic many people can be in this country. Not all are the same, but I think this pandemic virus is once again exposing our own evils. Whether we lose or win this difficult war will depend much on how much we can overcome these evils.

#StayHome #ItCouldSaveLives 

Muslims gather for peace, tolerance and solidarity in Bangladesh

Tens of thousands of Muslims throng the grounds of Bishwa Ijtema at Tongi, Gazipur district, near Dhaka, to join Friday prayers on Jan. 17. (Photo: Stephan Uttom/UCA News)

Muhammad Alimuddin and his friends took a 12-hour bus journey and traveled more than 400 kilometers from Tetulia in Panchagarh district to Tongi in Gazipur district.

They braved the chilly winter weather with one purpose — to join tens of thousands of fellow devotees at Bishwa Ijtema (World Gathering) on the banks of the River Turag, about 22km from Dhaka.

This annual congregation is the second largest Islamic gathering in the world after the hajj in Mecca.

A dispassionate farewell to a solemn year in Bangladesh

Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her party, the Awami League, have become intolerant of criticism since winning their third straight election in 2018. (Photo by Prakash Singh/AFP)

Every time users log into Facebook they are prompted to post “what’s on your mind” or “what have you been up to.”

Christmas is only a few days away and the year is diminishing fast so it is a good time to reflect on what Bangladesh, and the Church in particular, have encountered in 2019 and what 2020 might have in store.

No light in the darkness for Aung San Suu Kyi

Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi attends the inaugural summit between South Korea and five Southeast Asian nations along the Mekong River, at Nurimaru APEC House in Busan, South Korea, 27 November 2019. (Photo by EPA/YONHAP SOUTH KOREA OUT/MaxPPP)

Myanmar and its civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi are in hot water again over the country's mistreatment of minorities, specifically the persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state.

In recent weeks, three international lawsuits have been filed against Myanmar over brutal atrocities in 2016 and 2017.

On Nov. 11, The Gambia filed a 46-page application at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accusing Myanmar of violating the 1948 Genocide Convention by committing crimes against humanity against Rohingya.

Three days later, Suu Kyi was named among several state officials in a lawsuit in Argentina by Rohingya and South American human rights organizations for serious crimes including genocide against the minority community.

The same day, judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) authorized a full investigation into allegations of persecution and crimes against humanity that forced more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh from Rakhine.

Repatriation of the Rohingya: Real deal or mind game?

Rohingya Muslims enter Shahporir Dwip Island in Bangladesh after crossing the Naf River on Sept. 13, 2017 to escape a military crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine State. The Rohingya issue remains a thorny political and diplomatic problem between the neighboring countries. (Photo by Stephan Uttom/ucanews.com)    

The failed attempt to send 150 refugees out of over one million currently residing in overcrowded camps in Cox's Bazar back to Rakhine State in Myanmar was the first concrete step for their repatriation.

The problem is that none of those in the first batch of 2,260 refugees due to be sent home were willing to go. Most of them responded by fleeing their temporary shelters and going into hiding. Others held daylong protests opposing the repatriation move.

Dhaka has been working enthusiastically to return the Rohingya to Myanmar but the deal has been delayed several times after a repatriation deal was signed in January of this year.

The first deal, inked without any third party involvement, sparked an international outcry.

Bangladesh, one of the world's most densely populated and impoverished nations, was forced to sign the deal as it creaks under the weight of domestic pressures including a shortage of resources. Finding more resources to feed some one million refugees has invited a backlash from many Bangladeshis.

Yet the deal failed to defuse the mounting international criticism of Myanmar's handling of the crisis. It did not include third party oversight and, importantly, lacked any input from those at the center of the crisis — the Rohingya.

That being said, none of the deals signed so far have taken into account the key concerns and demands of the Rohingya, including calls for justice over the atrocities they have suffered, the return of their property, reparations for the damage done, and the right to citizenship in Myanmar.

No relief for minorities in Bangladesh as crisis looms

In some senses the term "minority" is disparaging as it denotes the weakness or powerlessness of a group. It also indicates that a group is inferior to another party and instills in that group a perpetual inferiority complex while implying it can expect to be further neglected and marginalized.

Yet being in a minority for many people and groups is an everyday reality, be it in a religious, ethnic, socio-economic or political sense.

Bangladesh has two major groups of minorities — religious and ethnic — who are visibly more weak and powerless, inferior and disenfranchised than the economically, politically and numerically dominant Muslim majority. 

Rohingya repatriation plan not sustainable

Plan to send refugees back to Myanmar lacks foresight as they are still unwelcome in Rakhine State (Photo: Stephan Uttom/ucanews.com)

The world's most unloved people, the most persecuted, the godforsaken — call the Rohingya Muslims by whatever name you prefer.

Those born in Rakhine State in Buddhist-majority Myanmar are unwanted in their place of birth and equally unwelcome in Muslim-majority Bangladesh.

They seem like left-out pages of history, as they cannot call the place they were born "home" in any true sense of the word despite their historical presence there being enshrined in the 2,000-year-old Arakan kingdom (located where Rakhine now lies) as early as the 8th century. 

Persecution, neglect and silence deepen Rohingya crisis

A Rohingya mother with her children at Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh on Dec. 7, 2017.
(Photo: Stephan Uttom/ucanews.com)

Ethnic cleansing of Rohingya in Myanmar has strong parallels with the genocide of ethnic Tutsis in Rwanda, one of the worst atrocities of modern times.

From April-July 1994, Hutu militias backed by the Hutu-majority government and military, massacred up to one million minority Tutsis.

The genocide was the culmination of long-time ethnic conflict in Rwanda, a small equatorial republic straddling central and eastern Africa. 

What can Pope Francis and Bangladesh achieve from upcoming trip?

Pope Francis’s apostolic journey to Bangladesh (Nov. 30-Dec. 2) is highly expected to be welcoming, joyful and peaceful, unlike his somewhat prickly trip to ethnically and religiously divided Myanmar days before.

Francis will be the third pontiff to visit the Muslim-majority nation. 

Bangladesh impunity gives minorities little chance of justice

A man walks past the burned-out home of a Hindu family in this file photo (Photo by Antuni David)

It hurts every time I hear about violence against minorities, be it last week’s attack on Hindus by Muslims in the Comilla district, or persecution of Muslims by radical Buddhists in Myanmar.

Perpetrators no doubt have their own compelling reasons to pound on small and powerless groups of people – land disputes, religious bigotry, political conspiracy, ethnic conflicts or blasphemy – but nothing can justify violence as a tool for settling problems. The issue is doubly shameful for a multi-religious nation like Bangladesh with a long history of secular culture.

In most parts of Bangladesh, Muslims, Hindus, Christians and Buddhists mix easily. While Muslims account for 90 percent of the population, most follow a moderate form of Islam that allows all religions to come together to celebrate religious and national festivals. A sense of interfaith harmony is woven into the social fabric.

But, this is not the whole picture. For decades, many Hindus have struggled for survival amid attacks and pogroms by Islamic fundamentalist groups, political parties and governments. Police and the judiciary have often responded with apathy, thereby emboldening the perpetrators.

The severity of the situation can be seen in the statistics. Major attacks on Hindus, who from partition in 1947 onwards were depicted as enemies of the state, peaked in the 1971 liberation war, when some 70 percent of the three million people killed were Hindu. Numbers reduced dramatically: in 1947, Hindus accounted for 30 percent of the country’s 42 million people, but today they account for only 9 percent of an estimated 160 million.

Their broad support for the Awami League government has only added to perceptions among Islamists that they were enemies of the dominant religion. In 2001, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its Islamist ally, the Jamaat-e-Islami Party took over from the Awami League and launched a series of offensives against Hindus. Pledges by the Awami League, on its return to power in 2009, to bring the perpetrators of the killings to justice have never been fulfilled.

The shrinking of Bangladesh’s Hindu population has much to do with the exodus of entire communities. “Minorities never want to leave the country, but they have been forced to leave,” said Rana Dasgupta, a Hindu lawyer and secretary of the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council.

They are not the only minority to suffer, however. Christian churches were vandalized in 1998, and in 2001 an Islamic militant group bombed a Catholic church in the Gopalgonj district during Sunday mass, killing 10. The mastermind of the attack was detained and interrogated but not prosecuted.

Buddhists too have been hit by attacks. In September 2012, a Muslim mob angered by an apparently blasphemous Facebook image allegedly posted by a Buddhist man destroyed about 100 Buddhist homes and 30 temples in the Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar districts. Police detained 250 people but again no prosecutions were made.

Violence against Bangladesh minorities continues unabated, largely because of a culture of impunity against attackers and the failure of legal mechanisms to deliver justice to victims. Tribal groups have been forced to leave the country en masse as the perennial victims of land grabs and violence, with no recourse to compensation. Elements of the government apathetic towards minority rights give their tacit support, and this seeps into the courtroom, where justice is rarely delivered.

Minority leaders are growing more vocal about rights, and campaign for special provisions to protect their communities. They have called on the government to formulate a law to protect minorities from future violence, to create 60 reserved seats in parliament and to transfer cases of violence against minorities to a fast-track court that can resolve them quickly.

It’s time to take these into consideration. The rights of minorities need protecting, and the culture of impunity that allows their tormenters to walk free must end. Failure to do so would be a national disgrace – after all, a nation’s excellence depends on how well it treats its most vulnerable members.

For original opinion piece click Bangladesh impunity gives minorities little chance of justice  

Bangladesh Church must speak out on long running anti-Christian campaign

The Catholic church in Bandarban, southeastern Chittagong Hill Tracts is at the center of an anti-Christian campaign (Photo: Chittagong Catholic Diocese website)

Silence is often prudent but at other times it’s plain foolish, as is the case with the Catholic Church and Christians in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), where their deathly silence in response to a long-running anti-Christian campaign is working against them.

In March and April, local newspapers and online media ran a cooked-up story against priests and religious brothers from the Queen of Fatima Catholic Church in Bandarban, the largest and one of the oldest Catholic churches in the CHT.

The report alleged that the priests and religious were sexually abusing tribal girls residing in a Church-run hostel.

To escape the abuses, some 71 girls fled the hostel one night, prompting Church leaders to pay off local officials to cover everything up, it claimed.

The girls actually fled in protest against the woman in charge of the hostel, a tribal woman who the girls say treated them badly. They absconded after several pleas to have the woman replaced fell on deaf ears. The girls later returned after the woman was dismissed.

The concocted abuse story came from local journalists looking to extort money from Church officials and was encouraged by local Muslim leaders who have a history of anti-Christian sentiment.

This is not an isolated case, but part of a game that’s been played against the Church and Christians for nearly a decade. During this time, several Islamist and mainstream newspapers have run fabricated reports accusing Christian missioners of converting thousands of tribals with the lure of money and plotting to turn the CHT into an independent Christian country like Timor-Leste.

The reports also alleged that several Western countries were funding Christian NGO activities to change the religious demography of the CHT to fulfill this agenda.

Church leaders and development activists have told me privately that government intelligence agents have paid them visits asking them how many Christians were in the area and how Christian NGOs were being funded.

Last year, the Hefazat-e-Islam militant group staged two rallies in Dhaka to make 13 demands. Most Christians failed to notice that one of them was a crackdown on “unlawful activities by Christian missioners and NGOs in the CHT”.

Throughout this time, Church leaders have remained silent. They have neither spoken to the authorities nor refuted the baseless claims in the mainstream press. They also didn’t opt for official complaints and protests, not even with regard to the Hefazat-e-Islam rallies.

The CHT, which borders India and Myanmar, is the only mountainous region of Bangladesh. This strategically important area is home to more than 12 indigenous tribes, mostly Buddhist, who have lived there for centuries and been socially and economically neglected for decades.

These peace loving people have seen the systematic destruction of their culture and livelihood since the 1970s when the government started changing the local demography by resettling landless Bengali Muslims who started grabbing tribal lands. The result has been ongoing sectarian conflict in these hills.

Tribals resisted the influx and, with latent support from India, formed a militia group to fight the settlers.

In response, the government turned the area into a military zone. For more than two decades, a bloody bush war between the army and militants claimed hundreds of lives until it ended with the CHT Peace Accord in 1997, which is still to be implemented. To this day, the region is heavily militarized with some 500 army camps.

Christian missioners arrived in the 1950s, and today Christians account for less than three percent of the region’s 1.6 million people.

The Muslim population, however, has increased from less than three percent in 1947 to more than 48 percent today. Tribals are still larger in number, but they are marginal in city centers and most businesses are controlled by Bengalis.

With such a small Christian presence, claims that missioners and NGO’s are trying to create another Timor-Leste are nothing more than ill intentioned fairy tales and simply not possible .

Yet, the rumors are rife and are being fed by local Bengali Muslim groups, who are aggressively anti-tribal.

They are the force behind the occupation of tribal lands by Muslim settlers. They are also backed by civil and military officials, and Islamic fundamentalist groups like Hefazat. All are trying to discredit the Church to divert national and international attention away from the grim political and rights situation for tribals in the CHT.

The war is over, but sectarian clashes between tribals and Muslims and rival tribal groups are still common.

According to a local rights group, Muslims killed 11 tribal men, raped 15 tribal women and burned down more than 100 tribal homes last year. Rights activists also accuse the government and army of keeping unrest alive to legitimize the militarization of the area.

International rights groups including Amnesty International have reported gross human rights violations by Muslim settlers and soldiers on tribal people. These include murder, torture, arson and rape.

Environmental groups allege the region is facing an environmental disaster because of deforestation and tobacco cultivation by the settlers.

Foreigners are generally not allowed in the CHT; but if they are it is usually under close surveillance. It is not because armed tribal groups might kidnap them for ransom, but mostly to stop them seeing what really goes on there.

Like in other parts of the country, Catholics and Protestants have set up dozens of schools, vocational centers, health clinics, and conducted development activities in the CHT to help tribals, non-tribals, Christians and non-Christians alike.

In most other places, Christians are held in high esteem by Muslims for their contributions in the education, health and development sectors, but in the CHT they are being vilified.

One reason is the activities of Christian missioners who have made tribal people more aware of their rights and more vocal.

The Bandarban Church incident is the most recent example of this vilification and could have been a lot worse if local Muslims had believed the stories that were told.

A 1998 mob attack by Muslims on several churches and Christian institutions in the Luxmibazar district of Dhaka during a land dispute between a Catholic school and a local mosque should serve as a gentle reminder as to how vulnerable Christians are.

Church leaders should realize that Christian haters consider their silence as weakness. They should learn from the recent attempt to stoke anti-Christian feelings in the CHT and act strongly and accordingly.

If they don’t take this seriously, they can be assured that the worst is yet to come.

END 

Read original opinion piece here Bangladesh Church must speak out on long running anti-Christian campaign

A battle for the soul of Bangladesh

Religion and nationalism are locked in a bloody battle for primacy in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is going through turbulent times.

It can partly be blamed on the ongoing political struggle between the main political rivals, the ruling Awami League and the opposition alliance led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). As national elections loom, this impasse has sparked a series of bloody street clashes.

But as well as the usual party political friction, there is also a war of ideology sweeping through the nation between radical Islamists and secularists. It’s a question of primacy: which should come first, religion or nation?

Last weekend, radicals from the Hifazat-e-Islam group marched en masse through Dhaka to parade their staunchly Islamic 13-point agenda.

It includes the death penalty for bloggers who defame Islam and the Prophet Mohammed. They also want an anti-blasphemy law, a mandatory Islamic education system, exclusion of members of the Ahmadi sect from the Muslim faith, abolition of a pro-women development policy and the restoration of a pledge to Allah in the constitution.

It’s a manifesto that would make the country a fully fledged Islamic state, perhaps even a Taliban state.

On Monday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said 'no' to their demand for a blasphemy law. This, unsurprisingly, led to another round of violent clashes and wildcat strikes.

The sworn opponents of the Islamic radicals comprise activists, progressives and secular groups. This loosely connected coalition, which has attracted attention from the international press and garnered massive public support, is no less trenchant in its views or pugnacious in its demands.

It called loudly for the death penalty for those found guilty in the recent war crimes tribunals, most of whom are leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest Islamic political party, It also wants confiscation of Jamaat-owned institutions and a ban on Jamaat and religion-based politics.

Its advocates will tell you the nation has suffered repression and victimization in the name of religion for far too long, from the orthodox Hindu Sena era a millennium ago to the effective rule of pro-Islamist West Pakistan in the mid-20^th century.

They will also tell you that Jamaat and its forebears historically supported attacks on Bengali culture and nationalism in the name of Islam; that they sided with the Pakistan army during the 1971 war of independence; and that they have consistently persecuted religious minorities and even moderate Muslims.

Yet although these radical Islamists only represent around 5 percent of the population, their medieval ideologies continue to torment Bangladesh.

And even though the majority of people dislike the country’s dysfunctional political culture, it seems we just can’t get rid of it.

Which brings us back to the endless wrangles between the major political parties – the Awami League, the BNP and the others. For the sake of winning a vote, they will claim to be both nationalist and/or religious – whichever they think people want to hear at the time – although of course they are neither. They are just opportunist politicians who trade on nationalism and religion for personal gain.

Tragically, the history of Bangladesh is littered with monumental blunders; the British partition of India and Pakistan on religious grounds was possibly the biggest of them all. It’s a pity those reactionary forces that still hold us to ransom don’t seem to have learned a thing from those blunders.

The Third Eye is the pseudonym of a commentator based in Dhaka

Click to view original post- A battle for the soul of Bangladesh 

Few Christians but big contribution

 

Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran presents keynote speech during the conference (photo: Chandan Robert Rebeiro)

Visiting Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue (PCID), said yesterday that even though Christians are tiny in number nationally, their tremendous contribution in the country is much appreciated. 

“No need for an inferiority complex because you are small in number, you’ve won respect from your country,” the Vatican envoy said. The French-born Cardinal, on the fourth day of his first official tour in Bangladesh, was addressing bishops, Episcopal commission secretaries, major religious superiors and Episcopal Commission for Christian Unity and Interreligious Dialogue (EC-CUIRD) members in the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Bangladesh center. 

Earlier on April 26 the International Conference on Interreligious Dialogue and Harmony Cardinal Tauran said that Bangladesh must be considered as a model for interreligious harmony. The Cardinal strongly reminded his audience that purpose of interreligious dialogue is not conversion but an ‘encounter of freedom’ between God and man. 

“No matter how poor you are, you are enriching your country. Don’t be afraid to live for Christ, who has risen from death for us,” the prelate told the gathering. During his short visit the Cardinal received a hearty welcome from Church leaders and laypeople. He also visited EC-CUIRD office in the building. 

Bangladesh praised as interfaith leader

Cardinal Jean Luis Tauran visits Bangladesh (Photo: Chandan Robert Rebeiro)

Bangladesh is a model of interreligious harmony, visiting Pontifical Commission for Interreligious Dialogue (PCID) president Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran said during an official tour of the country. 

“I’ve said a number of times during my stay here that Bangladesh is considered as an example, a model for interreligious dialogue and harmony. It can be placed at the services of world today,” said Cardinal Tauran, 68 who today completes a three-day tour of Bangladesh - his first to the country. Among other engagements, the French cardinal, a former Vatican foreign minister, addressed a crowd at a Conference on Interreligious Dialogue and Harmony in Dhaka yesterday. 

“Bangladesh has shown how it is possible for people in a multi-religious society live in peace and harmony. I think it was possible because from the beginning Bangladeshi society was all inclusive and tolerant to other faiths,” asserted the prelate in his keynote speech. More than 500 religious leaders, dignitaries and representatives from various religions and Christian denominations including Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Joseph Marino, Bangladesh state minister for religious affairs Shajahan Mian, Catholic state minister for cultural affairs Promod Mankin and all the Catholic bishop of the country attended the half day program. 

The event organized by Catholic bishops’ Episcopal Commission for Christian Unity and Interreligious Dialogue (EC-CUIRD) included readings from Holy Scriptures Qur’an, Gita, Tripitaka and Bible, speeches from the guests and religious representatives, devotional songs and unveiling of a special souvenir titled ‘Harmony bring peace’. Cardinal Tauran said discussions between faiths was more important than ever today when there is "a tendency to see religion as a problem." "When religious leaders speak together the society as a whole benefits." 

Apostolic Nuncio Joseph Marino said that Bangladesh has worked in line with Holy Father Benedict XVI’s message in London in Sept. 2010, “Dialogue is a truce side by side, face to face.” 

David Das, a Protestant pastor and secretary of ecumenical national Council of Churches in Bangladesh said that the "time has come to utilize the fruits of harmony with better and broader cooperation.” 

Bangladesh state minister for religious affairs Shajahan Mian said the visit of Cardinal Tauran would reinvigorate inter-faith dialogue and harmony. “This conference will build a strong and sustainable network between all faiths in Bangladesh,” he told the gathering. 

EC-CUIRD chairman Bishop Bejoy D’Cruze of Khulna said that it’s high time to ‘master evil by good’. “Through dialogue we can witness our faith and values. We know a little about God and by knowing about God from other faiths we can rediscover our God better.” 

Cardinal Tauran this morning  will attend a meeting with all Catholic bishops, episcopal commission members and religious superiors. He will offer a grand con-celebrated mass this evening followed by a reception. 

END

Original Article:

Bangladesh praised as interfaith leader