US Undersecretary of State Sarah Sewall yesterday said minority religious communities expressed their concern over ensuring equal protection under the law.
“So what we heard from today is that whichever minority religious community it is, they will like to get stronger effort from the part of the state and on the part of all citizens to ensure that there is equal enforcement of those protection under the law,” she said after a meeting with minority religious communities at Dhakeshwari Temple in the city.
She said: “We discussed the unequal enforcement of the laws and the need for very strong statement from the political leaders and community leaders about the equal rights of all and the need for stronger efforts on the part of state to ensure that there is in fact equal protection under the law for all and there is no culture of impunity for those who engaged in crime of communal violence.”
Sarah said the constitution protects the equality of all religions in Bangladesh.
In the morning she delivered a lecture at the Dhaka University where she talked about violent extremism.
She said violent extremism is new global challenge and terrorism knows no religion as well as no boundaries.
The violent extremists are now using hash tag and other social media to disseminate their hate ideology.
About Bangladesh, she said extremist group JMB terrorised people by attacking movie theatre, political programmes and New Year celebration while in a span of couple of months four bloggers were killed.
“These barbaric acts are not just attacks on Bangladeshi people but also your long tradition of openness, religious tolerance and moderation.”
She was of the view that force cannot alone protect all communities from poisonous ideology.
“We also have to prevent the next generation of threat from emerging and that requires bolder and broader approach than military tools.”
Alienation, injustice and intolerance are three factors which push people to violent extremism, she said.
The governments have to govern effectively, transparently and inclusively to combat extremism, she added.
If the governments do their jobs legitimately, violent extremists will have a difficult time, Sewall said.
She, however, said when a government uses fighting against extremism to undermine democracy and rule of law by targeting political opponents, by allowing excessive force or by destroying political space then all these actions can drive people towards extremism.
Sewall arrived in Dhaka Tuesday and scheduled to leave today.
