 |
 |
 |
||
|
||||
|
|
Instead of demonizing secularists, leftists should join them to check pernicious Islamism from taking over the world! A
gentle suggestion to Ms. Setara Hashem The
progressive people of Bangladesh had a great vision to establish their
country, which they did in 1971. The proposed nation was supposed to be based
on the separation of religion and state. This was called
"secularism" in the context of Bangladesh. The
concept of secularism was accepted by a great majority of the educated
Bangalees of Bangladesh. It's sadly true that the
overwhelming majority of the people of Bangladesh are too poor to think about
many different conflicting isms and more importantly what secularism could do
for a nation such as ours. That's why even a
progressivism-based system doesn't originate in a bottom-up process there.
In Bangladesh, the system still develops in a top-down process.
This won't change until the masses become educated and achieve
awareness at least to a certain level. Maybe the top-down
process is still true in many developed countries all over the globe. In a
top-down process, the spirit of secularism was gradually growing in the
aftermath of the war of independence in 1971 under the leadership of
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. He wasn't a freethinker
or in an absolute sense, he wasn't a strict secularist. However,
in a relative sense, he was a great secularist of all times of Bangladesh for
he tried his best to bring the country into the path of a progressive system
based on separation of religion and government. If he were
am ardent secularist, he wouldn't have participated in prayer in the
parliament building. Also, his government wouldn't have
provided funds to Islamic Foundation or Durga Puja Committee. Despite all the
shortcomings that Bangabandhu had, I still admire him for starting the process
of separation of religion from politics. The parliament
under his leadership banned all the parties based on religion. The
Madrassah-educated Mullahs didn't accept wholeheartedly the banning of the
fundamentalist parties based on secularism in Bangladesh. Most
of the Mullah started preaching against secularism in mosques and other
religious gatherings. In fact, the frequency of Waj
Mehfils (religious gatherings for brainwashing) increased throughout
Bangladesh during 1972-'75. The Madrassah-educated
Islamists started a wave of campaign against secularism and secular principle.
They interpreted secularism as an ism devoid of religion. I
myself had attended and listened to the fiery speeches of Imams in mosques and
Waj Mehfils against Bangabandhu and his ideals of secularism.
The Mullahs didn't stop criticizing only the secularists. According
to them, the concept of secularism was brought to the surface by the
left-leaning socialists. The socialist's did not understand
at the time nor do they understand npw the mindset of the Islam-educated
Islamists. The Mullahs, however, understood the thought
process of socialists quite clearly according to the spirit of their
scriptures. The Mullahs used to call the socialists as
�Kaffirs� to show their contempt for communists and socialists
Beginning
from the 1970s, the Madrassah-educated Islamists of Bangladesh destroyed the
spirit of secularism quite successfully. They did all the
necessary works based on which the military dictator Ziaur Rahman deleted
secularism from the constitution of Bangladesh. Throughout
Bangladesh, the Mullahs supported the vile dictator Ziaur Rahman for bringing
Islamic fundamentalist parties and mixing Islam and politics in Bangladesh.
Gen. Zia and his supporters legitimized the entry of Islamists into
Bangladesh politics by calling it multi-part democracy. And
democracy it was! General Zia did everything to squash
democracy in Bangladesh. No wonder that when he was
brutally murdered in Chittagong in May 1981, another military General was
waiting in the wing to take nation to path of Islamism only to safeguard his
position as a despotic ruler. Muslims hardly believe in
democracy; they rather would see a vicegerent whom they will call Allah�s
appointed ruler. Based on
the aforementioned brief analysis, we can criticize Islam-educated Mullahs for
their opposition against secularism. But, again the
question arises about their education in Madrassahs. Don't
they learn the teachings of Islam during their long educational carriers in
Madrassahs? We would have criticized a few of the Mullahs (not Islam) if there
were a handful of them against secularism, democracy, capitalism, socialism,
etc. To the contrary, we see a great majority of the
Mullahs against any of the man-made isms. Almost all of the
Islam-educated Islamists want Allah-made system where Sha�ria laws based on
scripture will dominate the lives of all including Muslims, Hindus,
Christians, Buddhists, et al. In fact, they don't endorse
any ism whether capitalism or socialism that is man-made. They
want Islamism. Period. That's why we call them Islamists.
All Muslims aren't Islamists. The Sha�ria-lovers
fundamentalists/extremists are the Islamists. It would
be a futile attempt to criticize only the Mullahs. Rather,
we should focus on Islamic teachings that make the Mullahs work against any
ism of this world. A capitalist or a socialist won't be
able to bring capitalism or socialism in a country where the Islamists are
preaching on the basis of Islamic teachings. With the
progress of time, it's now a sort of established notion that secular democracy
is the basis of progress where different forces can advance the agenda of
capitalism or socialism or mixed system of economy. But,
under the threat of the Islamists, no system can be advanced safely.
So, the influence of the teachings of Islam upon the Islamists should
be examined thoroughly. It's a
matter of regret that many progressive people of Bangladesh don't try to
recognize the threat of the hateful/political teachings of Islam propagated by
the fundamentalists. In Vinnomot, a cyber forum for
Bangalees in the Internet, I read a few of the articles where one Ms. Setara
Hashem criticized many Bangladesh-origin freethinkers, who correctly focused
on the threat caused by the sudden rise of Islamic fundamentalism.
In this respect, I appreciate Avijit Roy, Jahed Ahmed, Dr. Jaffor Ullah,
and others to make Ms. Setara Hashem understand the need for focusing on the
Islamists, who are endangering the progress of human civilization in countries
like Bangladesh. All of these writers originated from
Bangladesh. They've experienced how the Islamists
suppressed different progressive forces. The Islamists were
cunning enough to label many secular democrats as communists during the Cold
War era. The Islamists under different banner supported the
torture/killings of many progressive people in Bangladesh. Ms.
Setara Hashem doesn't seem to like focusing on the Islamists, who would most
likely to call her a murtaad or apostate and then mete out the justice
by annihilating her from this world for supporting man-made ism called
socialism. This hardly perturbs Ms. Hashem�s mind.
Oblivious to this threat she appears to be more interested about
criticizing America for their policy against Iraq and globalism. There are many born-citizen Americans, who will fearlessly criticize any wrongdoings of their government. But, there are a few Muslim-origin and Bangladesh-origin freethinkers who have overcome the fear of the Islamists to voice their concern against Islamic fanaticism. In doing this, they're investing the root causes that promote the spread of fanaticism. By attacking the fundamentalists, we will focus only on the effects but by attacking the teachings of the fundamentalists, we will focus on the causes. It's a blessing that the western powerful countries are learning from the mistakes of their past. Many of these countries supported the Islamists in the past for various reasons that I will not mention in this article. But now, there is a new realization about the global growth of Islamism based on the fundamental teachings of Islam. I would request Ms. Setara Hashem and others like her to use the present global focus against the Islamists to progress toward a secular democratic system where the people will decide whether they want a capitalist or a socialist or a mixed economic system. Let the people decide later about the economic system. But, let's focus on the threats imposed by growing Islamism and its adherent who want to destroy man-made progress of our civilization that took nearly 5,000 years. Those who are focusing on the root causes of the Islamic fundamentalists aren't Islam bashers, as Ms. Setara Hashem would like to call them. They're the people with foresight and vision full of courage. I admire them all. Because of their baggage of experience due to their origin in a Muslim-dominated country, they'll obviously focus on the teachings of Islam that is creating the fanatic Islamists and hindering the progress in many respects. It's also true that globally the Hindu fanatics or peace-loving Buddhists aren't dreaming to bring the whole world under their respective religion. On the other hand, it's the Islamists who believe in the spread of Sha�ria-based rule throughout the world. I wouldn't mind about their dream if they're non-violent or if I hadn't seen the torture of rickshaw-pullers for eating a bun in a hot humid weather during Ramadan in Bangladesh. The government implemented the rule (order issued to all government offices and broadcasted in all dailies) according to the teachings of Islam proposed by the Islam-educated Mullahs. This is one of the many examples I've cited. The Islamic rules attack individual's freedom and rights in all possible ways. For this, the focus on Islam by the freethinkers of Bangladesh deserves praise not criticism from a secular socialist (I suppose) like Ms. Setara Hashem. After all, I don't think she would like to be confined under a burqa or to be beaten by a fanatic/Mullah for walking alone without accompanied by a male relative in the streets of a city in Bangladesh. In summary, the progressive folks and modernists originating from Bangladesh should not make scathing comments against secularists those who are also from the same country. The secularists are trying their best to come up with ideas that is responsible for the growth of worldwide Islamism. Instead, all the progressive force of our motherland should join hands to figure out how quick we could halt the progress of Islamism. We just saw how a lone Islamist by the name Bangla Bhai had wreaked havoc in the western and southwestern part of Bangladesh. That should give Ms. Hashem a chill run through her spine. -------------------------- Dr. Shabbir Ahmed writes from Naples, Florida.Published at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mukto-mona/message/17449 |
|
|
 |
|
 |
||
|
||||