True colours

In a speech to parliament earlier this week, the PM herself made it clear that religious extremism was not a serious agenda item for the administration. Referring to the crack-down on the JMJB and the JMB that was initiated on February 23, the PM clarified: "These were not problems of extremism and fundamentalism, rather we believe they were law and order problems."

This is an interesting philosophical distinction, but one that strains credulity. The PM is suggesting that the religious nature of the banned organisations is merely incidental to their unlawful activities, when the fact of the matter is that the two are inextricably linked.

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The banned groups are committed to imposing their brand of Islamic rule on the country, and their activities were all undertaken in furtherance of this goal. Some of the arrested militants have admitted to being part of a thousands-strong militia that aims to bring about an Islamic revolution in the country and a number of them have been charged with sedition.

The PM's distinction is itself contradicted by the note from the home ministry issued alongside the order banning the JMJB and JMB on February 23, that as well implicating the groups in murder, bomb attacks, and other terrorist acts, also accused them of "trying to create social unrest by misleading a group of youths and abusing their religious sentiments."

Indeed, the PM's current stance is contradicted by her own words immediately following the initial crack-down, when she instructed home ministry, police, and intelligence agency officials to take strong action against those who had been creating anarchy in the name of religion.

The administration's about-face on the matter is interesting and indicates further deterioration of relations between Bangladesh and the international community.

Many were sceptical of the government's sudden enthusiasm for pursuing the extremists and scoffed that the crack-down (which they put in inverted commas) was a transparent ruse to placate the donor community ahead of the closed-door meeting held by them in Washington.

Critics pointed out the happy coincidence of the fact that the ban was promulgated on the same day the meeting in Washington began and that the top leadership of the banned groups remained at large. They insisted that as soon as the donors' attention strayed then it would be back to business as usual and that the drive against the extremists would run out of steam.

This certainly makes sense. As late as January 26, the government was still denying the very existence of the banned groups. Perhaps the imminence of the Washington meeting indicated to them the need for some damage control.

However, as subsequent speeches from the PM and the finance minister have made clear, the government has decided to come out swinging against its critics in the international community. It has now apparently retreated from its position that it was cracking down on religious militancy and reiterated its previous position that there is no problem of religious militancy per se in the country.

One cannot accuse the government of duplicity on this count as the PM's speech was admirably straightforward on the matter. But let there be no mistake. No one should think that the recent crack-down on the JMJB and the JMB represent any kind of a move by the government to rein in the extremists.

That the government crack-down on religious extremists was not serious was made abundantly clear last Friday which was the acid test for the government and its credibility on this issue.

The JMJB and the JMB are not the only religious extremists in the country. The anti-Ahmadiyya movement has also been very active these past few years, demanding that the Ahmadiyyas be declared non-Muslims, seizing or ransacking their mosques, beating and intimidating members of the community, and threatening even more violence if they do not get their way.

The government's actions and inaction with respect to the anti-Ahmadiyya extremists have been shameful. On January 8, 2004, the government, with apparent disregard for the guarantee of religious freedom enshrined in the constitution, banned Ahmadiyya books and publications.

The official justification for the ban was the risible notion that the publications hurt the sentiments of the majority community, the unofficial justification was that the ban would defuse the issue and help to keep the peace.

Unsurprisingly, it didn't work. In fact, the situation became even more dire for the Ahmadiyya community following this apparent government endorsement of the movement to marginalise them.

The imprimatur of official sanction for their movement emboldened and encouraged the extremists who stepped up their campaign of oppression, and on more than one occasion attempted to storm the community's mosques in order to seize and confiscate documents that the government had declared illegal.

Last week, the extremists held rallies and processions all across the northern part of the country, spewing hatred, threatening violence, and whipping up support for their declared plan to storm the Ahmadiyya mosque in Bogra on Friday.

So what did the government do barely two weeks after it had pledged to root out extremism in the country? The answer is it did absolutely nothing to protect the Ahmadiyyas and their constitutional rights.

Thousands of extremists rallied outside the Ahmadiyya mosque in Bogra on Friday and threatened to storm the mosque if they were not permitted to hang a humiliating and offensive sign on the wall of the mosque reading: "Bogra Kadiani Place of Worship: Do Not Mistake for a Muslim Mosque."

The local authorities reportedly told the Ahmadiyya community that it would not be able to guarantee their safety if they did not accede to the hanging of the sign, and that if they refused that the police would be withdrawn and would take no further responsibility for what happened. The sign was then hung on the wall of the mosque by the police. Nor is this the first time that this has happened.

The government has the power to stop this kind of thing. The massive police actions taken against members of the opposition leaves no doubt that the government is fully capable of tackling things if it chooses to do so.

I am by no means endorsing police brutality, but it cannot have escaped people's notice that while the full fury of the law enforcement authorities is routinely unleashed on peaceful opposition party demonstrators, the government claims it is powerless to resist violent demonstrations when the demonstrators happen to be religious extremists.

The difference between how the government deals with opposition demonstrations and those of religious extremists who threaten to turn Dhaka "into a bleeding battleground" if their demands are not met is telling.

The government's inaction in the face of regular street disturbances, violent crimes, and threats by the extremists indicates the lengths it is prepared to go in order to keep its coalition partners happy. Many leaders of both the Jamaat and the IOJ are on record demanding that the Ahmadiyyas be declared non-Muslims. The very least the BNP can do to placate them is to turn a blind eye to the continuing persecution of the Ahmadiyyas.

In opposition to this there is the constitution, respect for human rights, and common decency. Unfortunately, the odds are not too promising. If the government has to decide between doing what is right and doing what its coalition partners want, then I am afraid it is no contest.

In fact, if the government were truly serious about stamping out extremism, it would ban the militant anti-Ahmadiyya groups as well.

These groups have committed and continue to commit violent crimes. They threaten and continue to threaten massive violence if their demands are not met. They openly declare that they have no respect for either the constitution or the law. But instead of taking action against these groups, the government continues to collude with them in their oppression of the Ahmadiyyas.

Let no one be fooled into thinking that the government is serious about tackling the extremists. It remains either unwilling or unable to check extremism in the country.

Zafar Sobhan is Assistant Editor of The Daily Star.