The fact that the Jamaat-e-Islami is siding with the perpetrators regarding the attack on the Ahmadiyya community in Panchagarh is enough of an endorsement of where the attackers fall in between what is right and wrong.
The banned group's statement, published on their website, where they claim that the “Ahmadiyya community is committing reckless activities against Islam” and demands that the government “resolve the Ahmadiyya crisis permanently” shows just how emboldened fringe voices can become unless they are kept in check.
Indeed, the unconstitutionality of Jamaat's demands alone means that such demands belong squarely in the ash heap of history. Despite being protected as a religious minority by the constitution, it has not stopped the Ahmadis from being targetted by hardline Islamists -- since 1963, over a dozen Ahmadis have been killed while countless have been assaulted and their mosques targetted throughout the nation.
While we firmly believe that the government would not pay any heed to extremist voices, given the organized nature of the attack last week the authorities need to mobilize against any and all voices instigating violence against minorities, religious or otherwise.
Bangladesh was founded upon the principles of community and a large part of that can be ascribed to the secularism enshrined by the constitution. But even that point is moot as, despite what the hardliners claim, the Ahmadis are still Muslim -- the Ahmadis are a minority Muslim community who have been living in various parts of Bangladesh as early as the beginning of the 20th century.
The government has a fundamental responsibility to protect each and every one of its citizens, and given the repeated violence observed by minority groups such as the Ahmadis virtually every year, the government needs to guarantee security for them without delay.
And while doing so, the administration needs to make it loud and clear that it would not bow down to the demands of those who's vision of Bangladesh stands in direct opposition to the principles it was founded upon.