THE SUNDAY TIMES MAY 1, 2005

Bangladesh 'the bridge between religions'

The country's Foreign Minister M. Morshed Khan dismisses reports that his country can become a hotbed for Islamic terrorism.
Asad Latif reports.

When Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia visited Singapore recently, she spoke of her country as a bridge between the emerging markets of South Asia and Asean.

There is, however, another sense in which Bangladeshi leaders see their nation as a bridge: It is a bridge not only between regions but also religions.To them, Bangladesh is a natural meeting ground between religiously-diverse South-east Asia and the Muslim countries of the Middle East.

Demographically, Bangladesh is overwhelmingly Muslim-majority. Islam is the religion of more than 88 per cent of its population, with Hindus forming about 10 per cent and Buddhists, Christians and animists forming the rest.

But, as Bangladesh Foreign Minister M. Morshed Khan says in an interview, the practice of Islam in his country is based on centuries of interaction with Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms, Mughal rule and then British colonial rule.

Tolerance has emerged victorious from this history, and this tradition of tolerance can build bridges in an angry world, said Mr. Khan, who accompanied Begum Zia on her trip.

He is happy, therefore, that Bangladesh is part of the Asia Middle East Dialogue (Amed), a Singapore initiative launched last year to forge closer relations between the two regions.

Bangladesh is, in fact, a member of the steering committee of Amed, whose inaugural meeting Singapore will host next month. It will bring together officials, academics and other opinion-makers from about 50 countries.

Mr. Khan views the Asia-Middle East Dialogue as an initiative to counter "doctors of division", like American academic Samuel Huntington, who predicted a clash of religious civilisations.

"Muslim and non-Muslim countries working together for a dialogue of civilisations tell the doctors of division that they are wrong and that we are right," Mr. Khan says. "Humanity comes before religion, nationality, caste, colour or creed."

That is well and good, but what about concerns that Bangladesh itself could become the next theatre of terror?

That was the thrust of an article in The New York Times magazine this January. In it, writer Eliza Griswold said the global war on terror seeks to make the rise of Taleban-like-regimes impossible, "but in Bangladesh, the trend could be going the other way".

The article focused on the activities of Bangla Bhai (Bangladeshi Brother), the leader of an armed group which is trying to enforce its version of syariah law and Talebanise a part of the country.

Other articles, too, in the Western and Asian media have warned of Bangladeshi militants becoming links in an international chain of terror.

Are militants quietly turning Bangladesh into the site of the next Islamist revolution? Mr. Khan, 64, who has been elected a member of the Bangladesh Parliament four times since 1986, dismisses the militant treat.

"Bangla Bhai is a local gangster, and his activities are limited to a particular district in the north," he argues. "Had an international organisation been at work, it would have tried to spread its activities all over Bangladesh."

"This is not international terror," he says again to emphasise his point. Indeed, he notes that Bangladesh is a Muslim country whose nationals have never been caught in any crackdown on international terror.

As for extremism within the country, he argues that it is not as if Dhaka is turning a blind eye. It has arrested hundreds of suspected militants - with many being released after they have been interrogated. But there is no evidence of links between Bangladeshi Muslim groups and international terrorists, he says.

His country is going all out to fight poverty as "the war on terror must address its root causes". Bangladesh, as Begum Zia said during her visit here, has the third-largest number of poor people after China and India: 63 million poor, with a third caught in hardcore or extreme poverty.

Dhaka, Mr. Khan adds, is fighting poverty with an array of programmes, such as micro-credit schemes that help rural women to be self-sufficient, and an aggressive literacy programme that targets women in particular.

Women's empowerment, the Bangladesh government believes, is a fundamental requirement for a moderate, progressive Muslim society. For all its problems, Bangladeshi leaders say, their country has come a long way since its bloody independence from Pakistan in 1971.

It had 75 million people in the early 1970s and suffered substantial food shortages. Now, though, it is close to self-sufficiency although it has 141 million people. Mr. Khan sighs even as he reels off such statistics.

He has nothing against his country being scrutinised by foreign commentators. But he would love it if, instead of looking for a fictitious Islamic revolution, analysts would pay some attention to Bangladesh's quiet economic and social achievements - what the World Bank has called a "silent revolution".

Yes, that revolution is certainly under way, Mr. Khan says.

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