The US State Department has published the 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom, which highlights several hindrances and discriminations in practicing religion in Bangladesh but conveniently overlooks the severe fundamentalist threat posed by groups such as Jamaat-e-Islami who call for establishing an Islamic Republic run on Sharia Law.
The Jamaat is the sword arm of the Islamist opposition affiliated with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) which seeks to bring down the incumbent government through violent agitation.
In the absence of a powerful democratic and secular alternative to the ruling Awami League, regime change in Bangladesh would mean the assumption of power by the BNP- Jamaat combine. The US seems perfectly comfortable with such a prospect. Again no surprises, given the US's historical tendency to use hardcore religious fundamentalists to topple nationalist governments who don't kowtow to American diktat.
From bringing down Mossadegh in Iran in the 1950s to backing the Afghan jihad that overturned the social gains of the Saur Revolution, the US has a long record of promoting Islamist (and other forms of religious) fundamentalists.
Could Bangladesh be their newest target? We can only speculate.
The report has understandably been described as one-sided and an attempt to prop up advocates of Sharia Law in Bangladesh, because it leaves out two core threats faced by minorities -- persistent efforts by radical Islamist forces aligned behind the main opposition to pursue the goal of an Islamic Republic governed by Sharia laws and the frequent violence targeting minorities like the pogroms against the Ahmaddiyas.
The US and its agencies willfully disregarded Jamaat’s role in horrific war crimes during the Liberation War and blocked UN recognition of the 1971 genocide perpetrated by the Pakistan Army and their cohorts, mainly the Jamaat-e-Islami which stood for a united Pakistan.
No wonder the US embassy persistently pressures Bangladesh to allow Jamaat-e-Islami to hold public rallies, overlooking the fact that it is from these rallies that calls for an Islamic republic are given and direct provocation for violence against minorities are made.
The exclusion of the threat posed to the founding principles of Bangladesh by Jamaat-e-Islami is guided by an agenda and not by principles. The Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council (BHBCUC) says their concerns about BNP-Jamaat is not reflected in the US report which belies the tall claims of neutrality made by Washington.
The Unity Council observed that this latest claim in the religious rights report is clearly not entirely earnest, a glaring breach of US's stated objective to stand for human rights and uphold democracy. The report refers to some of our demands raised to the government but the erasure of our concerns against these radical groups and also against the BNP leadership’s claim to decide the fate of the country on the streets before polls reflects a complete biased approach from the US, as observed by Ranjon Karmaker, a rights activist and a presidium member of BHBCUC.
Entitled “International Religious Freedom Report 2023,” the report claims to expose the challenges of religious freedom in countries and was described by US's Dhaka embassy in a Facebook post as “gold standard.”
These biased reports exemplify the partisan approach by US envoys to help the Jamaat-BNP combine, which is a common belief held by minority leaders in Bangladesh. According to the report’s overview and acknowledgement chapter, the “local US embassies prepare the initial drafts of country chapters” based on information from different groups.
Basherkella, a Jamaat endorsed handle, bestowed US Ambassador Peter Haas with the title of “Best friend of Bangladesh” but the same handle ran the “boycott Ahmadiyya” hate campaign and condemned police action against those attacking the community back in March 2023. While Jamaat issued a press release asking the government to declare the Ahmadiyya community as non-Muslims, Mirza Fakhrul slammed the government for allowing the community to hold the rally, calling the event controversial.
The US in the past has conveniently overlooked the BNP-Jamaat’s denial of the worst anti-minority pogroms which took place between 2001 and 2006, which saw around 28,000 incidents of attacks including killings, assault, rape, and looting.
On October 28, according to The Daily Star, Jamaat leaders publicly announced the imposition of Sharia Law and the abolishment of man-made laws as part of the outfit’s vision for the country. In the background, BNP’s acting chief Tarique Rahman, from London, had reportedly reached out to Jamaat leaders in his party’s bid to “grab power through the streets, not through ballots.”
In the months leading up to polls, the Tarique-led BNP and Jamaat echoed a similar tune in demand of thwarting the polls and observed blockades which have been marred with violence including arson attacks on voters.
Exactly what religion do they subscribe to?
Sukharanjan Dasgupta is a Kolkata-based commentator, a former BBC stringer, and author of Midnight Massacre.
