Rise of militancy: Bangladesh under attack

Bangladesh is under attack. The country today has been transformed into an inauspicious outpost of Islamic militancy and terrorism. It should not be presumed that this has happened overnight. Rather, the militants have been nurtured by the indulgence of the state, and now they have assumed such a proportion that they have challenged the constitution, judiciary, administration, and entire democratic system.

We are outraged, and worried about the future of this country. We are being dragged towards an inauspicious future by the bomb attacks starting from the Udichi conference in Jessore, Pahela Baishakh celebration of Shayanot at the Ramna Botomul in Dhaka and recently the successive suicide bomb attacks in Gazipur and Chittagong.

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We believe the prime cause of the rise of militancy is the unequal distribution of wealth that has generated poverty in the country. During the 34 years of post-independence, we have not noticed any political goodwill to remove the discrepancy between the rich and the poor. Most of the people of the country are forced to live a poverty-ridden and undignified life. Exploiting poverty, the greed-driven seekers of power are able to easily deviate the madrassah students, leading them to heinous militancy. Combining religious fervour with poverty, they are forming suicidal militant squads. Detached from modern, contemporary, and income-generating education, the madrassah students are mostly unfit for today's job market. Deprived children of poor families are, in fact, victims of the current education system. Their scanty employment opportunities cause frustration, and the interest-driven political groups manipulate their frustration.

Progressive and democratic institutions of state-structure have been wrecked. Non-communal, progressive, and democratic characteristics of the political culture have gradually been sullied because of the military rule, introduction of state-religion, and the manipulation of religious sentiments. No political party wants to leave the opportunity yo use religion as a weapon to grab power. In this milieu, religio-politics has gradually been organised and vehement militancy has gained grounds.

The militancy of Bangladesh got energised from the rise of militancy across the world. The international network and the financers of the militants of Bangladesh are now an open secret. Per annum net-profit of religio-politics of Bangladesh is BDT 1200 crore. The government has no control over the Islami NGOs. They are misappropriating money in the name of bank, insurance, and hospital, utilising the religious sentiments of the people and also strengthening their fund. Moreover, Islamist terrorism has been encouraged . Militancy was inspired with slogans like: "We will be Talibans, Bangla will be Afgan" and further nurtured by the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. Religious education has made its headway in geometrical progression during the last 34 years. The number of villages in Bangladesh is 84,000 and the number of madrassahs is 74,000.

In the last decade, the students in the primary schools have doubled; however, in madrassahs, the number has multiplied by 13 times. In the secondary level in the government educational institutions per capita state-run expenditure is Tk 3,000 while in government madrassahs it is Tk 5,000. There are 20,000 Qoimi madrassahs with 5,000,000 students. But the government has no control over the syllabus, curriculum, or financial transactions. Not even a single line has been written about the structure of the system of education of Qoimi madrassahs in the Education Commission Report, 2005. We have observed the detrimental attempts of the politicians to win the election by exploiting the religious sentiments of the people, and that's why they have established madrassahs.

Bangladesh might be endangered if militancy grows with the pace as it has been growing very recently. No enlightened human can tolerate it. The following are some recommendations that we would like to put forward:

1. Stringent judicial system should be adopted soonest; the possible guiding force of the militants should be found out. Their international connection and source of funding should be blocked. Identifying militant effort as National Emergency Issue, a national dialogue should be initiated soonest with the participation of all political parties and civil society.
2. All madrassahs should be incorporated in the mainstream education by carrying out reforms in all kinds of madrassahs so that they can compete in the mainstream job market. Steps should be taken for the overall educational reform aiming at the development of science against superstition and religious fanaticism.
3. Judicial steps should be taken to separate religion from politics.
4. Effective measures should be adopted to prevent corruption.
5. Socio-economic facilities and equal distribution of wealth should be ensured and widening rich-poor gap should be reduced.
6. Healthy competition and accountability should be established everywhere within the state. Above all, the growth of democratic, non-communal, and humanistic values should be nurtured.

This is a write-up of Torun Nagorik Uddug (Young Citizen Forum).