Shahriar Kabir, the General Secretary of South Asian People's Union against Fundamentalism and Communalism in his presentation Recent Persecution of Minorities in Bangladesh explained that the current communal situation in Bangladesh was not created in a day; it was created through the Islamisation of the constitution, alarming rise and expansion of religion based political parties, use of religion in politics and giving a negative view of religions other than Islam by the government of the four party alliance comprising of Jamat-e-Islami and Islami Oikyo Jote. He explained that the persecution of the minority religious and ethnic communities in Bangladesh under government patronization since the four party alliance assumed power had now taken a multidimensional character. Mr. Kabir cited that the nature of the rampant minority repression was rooted as much in economic reasons as political vengeance. In order to con vert Bangladesh into a monolithic Islamic country, the government was encouraging all kinds of repression of the minorities so that the minority communities are forced to leave their homeland, he said. He cited a recently published white paper on minority persecution in Bangladesh that documents more than 3000 selected reports and observations of different rights organizations. He said that the steps necessary to stop minority repression could be immediate and long-term. Highlighting the long-term program he said that strong mass awareness, a secular constitution, a modernized, scientific and to-the-people madrassah system, special opportunities and facilities in education and in the professional arena for minorities was important.
Peter Jacob in his presentation Religious Minorities: Post Partition Struggle looked at the external and internal processes of discovering a new identity after independence and the issue of faith and nationalism. He covered the awareness of rights and Christian contributions in the 70s; the decade of reflection and action in the 80s, the years of initiatives in the 90s and finally the post 9/11 attacks and its responses. He discussed the restoration of joint electorates and the years ahead, as well as the overall prospects of a social change and religious minorities; rights vs. privileges and the relationship with civil society.
Ansar Ahmed Ullah from the Twinning and International Partnership working in Bangladesh in his presentation Religious and Ethnic Minorities within a State: Lessons learnt from Bangladesh and the UK discussed the way inappropriate governmental and institutional policies lacking cultural awareness had led, and would continue to lead to discontent and violation of minority rights. He looked at how the Pakistan's state policy alienated its own citizens, the Bengalis, within the Pakistani framework during 1947 and 1971. He also discussed how Bangladesh even with its foundation based on secular democracy failed to accommodate its own minorities by reverting back to majority rule and disregarding minority rights.
He cited Mujib, Zia and Ershad's rule in Bangladesh which alienated its own citizens in the Hill Tracts area of Chittagong by first refusing to accept their distinct ethnicity and then by settling landless Bengalis in the Hill Tracts area. The refusal to accept and accommodate their demands to maintain cultural, religious and linguistic identity and a resultant sense of alienation and frustration led the hill people to form their own political organization and eventually a separatist armed wing. He stressed the danger in failing one's ethnic and religious minority communities as this would manifest in conflicts between groups from different backgrounds widening linguistic, social and economic divisions and increase ethnic and religious alienation that will only lead to violent protests.
Regarding the UK experience he made a few recommendations. First, the government has to recognize the diversity of religion by being aware of the multi-religious community of Pakistan, there must be state policies that encourage and reflect the country's religious diversity and a legal framework within a state to protect its minority citizens from discrimination and physical violence and the will to implement them.
Harris Khalique from SPO, Pakistan, chaired the session. Arshad Bhatti of Civil Junction, Pakistan, as the discussant of the session explained that the constitution of the “other” being evolved by various states was fear-based and systematically all other identities were being deliberately “minoritized.” For example through curriculum, history was being distorted, based on biased reinterpretation of religion. He called for increased economic opportunities for minorities, including affirmative action and recognition of multiple identities, not just at the level of the civil society, but also at the level of the state and constitution.
In the discussion session, the audience discussed how language was exploited by the state to usurp and control its citizens, regardless of country. The case of Pakistan was cited as an example where Urdu was the state language and none of the regional languages were taught in the provinces. So in Sindh, Sindhis could perhaps have Sindhi in their curriculum, but not Punjabi and Balochi and vice versa.
Reported by Sarah Siddiq
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