Battling for Secularism in Bangladesh

About 86 percent of Bangladesh’s population of over 150 million is Muslim. The state however, is firmly secular, unlike Pakistan from which it broke after a 1971 war assisted by India. But the debate over the secular character of state and society in Bangladesh continues to be a cause of strife. The constitution of Bangladesh, promulgated in 1972, declared Islam to be the state religion – a concession to tradition and demographics – but also declared that Bangladesh was a secular state, and that the state would treat all religions equally. Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity are the main minority religions of Bangladesh.

Bangladesh’s first post-independence leader, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who was close to both India and the Soviet Union, was secular in both policy and practice. During Bangladesh’s independence war against Pakistan, Pakistan’s main Islamist organization, Jamaat-e Islami (JI) supported the Pakistani military. This included its ethnic Bengali members in what became Bangladesh after the war. As a result, the organization was initially banned in post-war Bangladesh.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was assassinated in a military coup in 1975, and the ban on JI was lifted, leading to the formation of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e Islami. After a period of rampant instability, Ziaur Rahman came to power and ruled Bangladesh from 1977 until his assassination in 1981. His military rule was propped up by Islamist groups and the increasing Islamization of state institutions, accomplished by the fifth amendment to the constitution (overturned in 2010 by the Supreme Court of Bangladesh).

Bangladesh was more or less unstable throughout the 1980s and 90s. First this was due to continued military dictatorship. Starting in the 1990s, power began to alternate periodically between two democratic parties: the Bangladesh Awami League led by Sheikh Hasina, daughter of Mujibur Rahman, and the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) led by the widow of Ziaur Rahman, Khaleda Zia.

Things began to change in 2008, when the Awami Party won scheduled elections with a huge majority, helped by dissatisfaction against the somewhat more corrupt BNP. Upon taking office in early 2009, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina used her party’s large majority to finally overturn many of the policies of the BNP and Bangladesh’s former military regimes. Much of this involved turning back the Islamization of Bangladesh. While this led to the welcome re-secularization of the Bangladeshi state, it also led to an upsurge of political Islamism in reaction, some of it violent. Opponents have argued that Hasina’s targeting of Islamists was really a political move designed to limit the influence of the BNP, which had allied with JI, but there is a genuinely strong desire among the population to see the group held accountable for atrocities that it committed in 1971 when it supported the Pakistan army’s operations.

Secularism vs. Islamism

Strife between secularism and Islamism in Bangladesh began to proceed with gusto in 2010, when the Supreme Court struck down the fifth amendment to the constitution and restored the original secularism of the original 1972 document. Then in 2011, the Bangladesh Parliament passed the 15th amendment to the Constitution, which read in part: “The principle of secularism shall be realised by the elimination of...communalism in all its forms,...the granting by the State of political status in favour of any religion,...the abuse of religion for political purposes,...any discrimination against, or persecution of, persons practicing a particular religion.”

Islamist groups in Bangladesh were stridently opposed to these measures, including Jamaat-e-Islami. A year before the 15th amendment passed, Hezafat-e-Islam, a radical outfit that frequently staged protests against secularism, modern education, women’s rights, was founded. In the 2014 general election, however, returned the Awami League to power with another huge majority.

From 2013 onward, an increasing number of secular writers and bloggers have been murdered. Ahmed Rajib Haider, 35, was hacked to death in February 2013, signaling a troubling trend. In 2015, five writers were killed in Bangladesh either for advocating for secularism, declaring themselves to be atheist, or for supporting war-crimes trials against Islamists. Many of these murders were committed by Hezafat or other far-right Islamist militant groups such as Ansarullah Bangla Team, which in September 2015 published a hit-list of secular writers and expats it wanted to kill. 

By far the most controversial anti-Islamist measures have been the prison or death sentences handed down to leading Islamist figures by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) of Bangladesh. These figures were accused of atrocities – deemed credible by international observers – including rape, genocide, mass murder, and other crimes during the 1971 war for Bangladesh’s independence. This tribunal was authorized by Parliament in 2009 and began work in 2013. Within a year, it had pronounced sentences for leading figures of Jamaat-e-Islami and the BNP. Two opposition leaders were executed in November 2015: Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, a member of parliament from the BNP, and  Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, a top Jamaat leader. Motiur Rahman Nizami, the leader of Jamaat-e-Islami was sentenced to death in 2014, but the sentence was only confirmed in January 2016, leading to mass protests and strikes and vows of revenge by his party, which released a statement that alleged his innocence: "The allegations which have been brought against Moulana [Master] Nizami are completely false, bogus, concocted and politically motivated."

If Nizami’s sentence is carried out soon, it could touch off a potentially violent reaction from his supporters, though any unrest is likely to be temporary given the Awami League’s power and popularity. Tensions have been further flamed by Pakistan. A Pakistani diplomat was recently expelled from Bangladesh for ties to Islamist groups. In late December 2015, Pakistan withdrew Farina Arshad from its high commission in Dhaka after she was accused by Bangladeshi authorities of spying and financing an Islamist group known as Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh.

Ultimately, though, even if the Awami League’s campaign against Islamists is politically motivated, Bangladesh and its neighbors, such as India and Myanmar are all better off due to its crackdown on Islamists. This improves regional security, attracts investment, and keeps the country focused on development, rather than on the religious-political violence that Pakistan and much of the Middle East has to face. Bangladesh is relatively secular in both its political culture and social systems, and has a long tradition of Sufism (Islamic mysticism) and politically powerful female leaders. Therefore, moves to crack down on Islamists – already popular because of its association with handing out justice for war crimes – won’t destabilize Bangladesh in the long term. Protests and violence, though advocated by a sizable minority, do not have mass popular support throughout the country. Bangladesh has better things to worry about than the spread of secularism.