Preparing for the globalised world
THE mixture of religion and politics has always been a dangerous potion. Perhaps the architects of the American independence had realised this centuries back when the First Amendment to the US Constitution was brought in to deny state patronage to any particular religion or religious group.
The nay-sayers' argument that if secularism was introduced as a fundamental tenet in our constitution then the country would become atheist is an indirect advocacy of those Islamists who believe in one-way practice of democracy to gain power and establish a theocratic state.
Secularism, writes Professor Richard Madsen, is a political arrangement that makes the state neutral with regard to religious belief, and the government's legitimacy does not depend on religion or the blessings of any particular religious community, and culturally it may indicate "a move from a society where belief in God is unchallenged and indeed is unproblematic, to one in which it is understood to be one option among others, and frequently not the easiest to embrace." Professor Craig Calhoun sees in secularism a contrast between immanence and transcendence immanence located in our senses of reality and good within the world around us while transcendence gives us a sense of something beyond.
The danger of religion in politics is most evident in Pakistan. Seymour Hirsch's article in The New Yorker (In an unstable Pakistan can nuclear warheads be kept safe? -- 16.11.09) has extensively explored President Obama's concern over the fragility of the Pakistan civilian government and the US's concern of transfer of some nuclear assets, not to the Taliban but to extremists in the Pakistan military establishment, through a coup d'etat.
Despite denial by the Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mullen, of secret negotiations that would allow specially trained American units to provide added security for the Pakistani arsenal in case of a crisis, Seymour Hirsch writes that Hizbul Tahrir, a Sunni extremist organisation determined to establish the Caliphate, has made inroads into the Pakistan army.
In reply to the Pakistani argument that the officers are not only professionals but are also trained in England, it has been argued that indoctrination of Islamist ideology takes place, according to an official of the Obama administration, "in services every Friday for army officers, and at corps and unit meetings where they are addressed by senior commanders and clerics."
As it is, the Muslim diaspora in the West are constantly engaged in drawing up their identity as full fledged citizens of the host country. A poll taken in the US had revealed that the majority of Americans would prefer not to have a Muslim as next door neighbour. The recent Fort Hood massacre has the US Army Chief of Staff General George Casey worried about the possibility of Muslim troopers experiencing a backlash for the gruesome act of Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who killed 12 fellow army colleagues.
While at the micro level every terrorist act should be dealt with firmly one has to ponder whether hard power alone will suffice in reining-in the contagion of Islamist terrorism in the world. Should not the arbiters of global destiny try to correct, for example, the wrong being done to the Palestinians for decades due to evangelical belief that the second coming of Jesus cannot be fulfilled unless the whole of Palestine is owned by the Jews, in blatant contravention of the promises made, among others by Winston Churchill, that nothing would be done that would be detrimental to the interest of the Arabs living in the area for centuries?
Thomas Friedman's opinion that terrorists spring from societies that have faced humiliation and deprivation at the hands of others, and a way out could be to make the world flatter than it is by making politico-economic opportunities available to those who have been denied for so long, merits serious consideration.
A preliminary probe in Bangladesh about the assassination attempt on a lawmaker has revealed the alleged involvement of some disgruntled elements in the army in order to destabilise the present government, disrupt the final judicial stage in the case of the assassination of Bangabandhu and his family members, and the alleged involvement of two ministers of the BNP-Jamaat regime along with elements of banned Islamist outfits having links with the terrorist organisations of regional countries in the August assassination attempt on Sheikh Hasina make it imperative that an integrated regional approach be taken to fight al-Qaeda terrorism.
Unfortunately, some of our politicians, who fail to graduate from being politicians to the level of statesman and look beyond the next election to the future of the next generation, give in to the blackmail that secular education, that by definition encompasses ethics and moral education as well, would make Bangladeshis agnostics and atheists.
It is amazing that the global power structure that is changing hands from the occident to the orient, embedded with intense competition like Alice in Wonderland who has to run all the time to remain in the same place, is being ignored in favour of amalgamation of the church and the state in the same cauldron.
If Bangladesh is to realise the vision of a digital nation then the politicians have to stand firm and prepare the coming generation to compete in the globalised world by imparting education of international standard. One hopes it will be so.
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