UK Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Hugo Swire has opined that the seeds of extremism should not take root in Bangladesh.
In a blog titled “Freedom of speech is a right to be defended” posted on Friday, the UK minister also made a call to commend, and protect the “rich tradition of freedom and religious tolerance” in the country.
He wrote the blog following the brutal killing of Bangladeshi blogger Niladri Chatterjee, also known as Niloy Neel.
Terming the murder “extremism above all,” he wrote: “It shows both extreme cowardice and extreme ignorance. Cowardice because five men with machetes put a single unarmed man to death. And ignorance because if you have good enough arguments, you really don’t need to resort to murder.
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“Freedom of speech is only a threat to false and misleading ideas. And in that sense, the four bloggers – Niloy Neel, Avijit Roy, Oyasiqur Rahman and Antana Bijoy Das – are already vindicated in what they stood for.”
He also welcomed the arrest of two suspected killers of Niloy.
Also Read: Fourth blogger killed since FebruaryReferring to the long standing relationship between the two countries, Hugo said: “We have an important shared history – we were the first European country to recognise Bangladesh’s independence and the first country to receive its first Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman – and there are still very close links between our peoples today. “
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“It’s very much in Britain’s interests that the rotten seeds of this type of extremism are not allowed to take root in Bangladesh,” added the blog.
He also opined that these pernicious issues are dealt with urgently. “That the perpetrators of these horrific crimes are brought to justice and that the flawed and cowardly ideas behind them are exposed for what they are.”
Noting that there are now Members with Bangladeshi heritage in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, Hugo stated: “Half a million people of Bangladeshi origin live in the UK and have enriched our society in many ways.
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“We have shared interests for example in defeating poverty, in tackling climate change and in boosting trade. So that is why a stable and democratic Bangladesh is an important international partner for the UK.”
Hugo, who was meant to start his own blog, wrote that the incident of Niloy murder made him determined that he should not put it off any longer.
“Freedom of speech is a right to be defended.”
