Lessons from Bangladesh’s religious violence

 

I am pained whenever people fight and kill each other, and I am pained now by what is happening in Bangladesh.

Violence in the name of religion has taken the lives of at least six people and made hundreds homeless in Bangladesh.

The former Bangladesh cricket team captain Mashrafe Mortaza put it well in a Facebook post soon after the attacks began: “Saw two defeats last night. One was Bangladesh cricket team’s (where Bangladesh lost to Scotland in an ICC T20 World Cup match), and that hurt. The other was a defeat for the whole of Bangladesh, which tore my heart to pieces.”

Mashrafe, now a Member of Parliament, also posted a picture of a burning village, according to reports in the Bangladesh dailies.

There are important lessons in this tragedy for multireligious, multiracial Malaysia.

First, a summary of what happened. On Oct 13, while Bangladesh’s minority Hindus were celebrating the Durga Puja festival (better known as Navaratri in Malaysia), a Muslim spotted a copy of the Quran on the knee of a seated Hanuman statue at one of the mandaps (temporary platforms) where the festival was being conducted. He called the police.

Another Muslim, according to the Dhaka Tribune, streamed the whole thing live on Facebook and the video went viral.

Soon, groups of Muslims began attacking Hindus and Hindu temples, including that of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Iskon). Among the dead was the priest at Iskon’s temple. The violence continued until Oct 23.

At least 150 temples across the country were vandalised or torched, according to the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council, a platform for minorities.

Houses of Hindus were also set ablaze. In one village alone in the northern Rangpur district, 66 houses were razed.

Police arrested a man after video footage from security cameras in the area showed him placing a copy of the Quran at the mandap.

The Dhaka Tribune quoted senior police officer M Tanvir Ahmed as saying: “During preliminary interrogation, Iqbal Hossain confessed to placing the Quran on the lap of Hanuman, a central character in the Epic of Ramayana, before stealing the club from the idol’s hand on Oct 13. According to Iqbal, he hurled the stolen Hanuman club into a nearby pond later that night.”

More than 500 people have been arrested throughout the country in connection with the violence.

Bangladesh Iskcon general secretary Charu Chanda Das told the Dhaka Tribune that attacks on Hindu establishments was not something new in Bangladesh, adding that the latest attacks could have been prevented had the perpetrators of previous attacks been brought to justice.

The newspaper quoted prominent rights group Ain o Salish Kendra as saying that a total of 3,679 attacks against the Hindu community took place between January 2013 and September this year. In addition, 1,678 cases of vandalism and arson attacks on Hindu temples, idols and places of worship were recorded in the same period.

The Daily Star listed some earlier instances of attacks against the Hindu minority. In 2016, for instance, more than 100 homes and 17 temples were damaged in Nasirnagar following a Facebook post purporting to insult Islam from an account that was later found to have been hacked.

The newspaper said at least 80 houses and eight temples were destroyed in Sunamganj in March this year, following a Facebook post criticising a leader of the Hefazat-e-Islam, an Islamic advocacy group.

UN resident coordinator in Bangladesh Mia Seppo said on Oct 18 that the attacks on Hindus “fuelled by hate speech” on social media were against the values of Bangladesh’s constitution and needed to be stopped.

“We call upon the government to ensure the protection of minorities and an impartial probe. We call upon all to join hands to strengthen inclusive tolerance,” she tweeted.

Human Rights Watch said: “Hindus, who make up about 10% of Bangladesh’s Muslim-majority population, have repeatedly come under attack.” In calling on the Bangladesh authorities to protect Hindus, it urged police to act “with caution and restraint”.

Some Bangladesh Muslims joined the Hindus in condemning the killings, desecration of temples and burning of houses. Moderate Muslim voices cried out in sympathy for the victims.

Malaysia is certainly different from Bangladesh, but what can Malaysians learn from this?

We need to pause and reflect whenever we hear that someone or other has insulted our religion or race.

It could very well have been done by someone of the same faith or some group or individual out to cause mischief, as happened in Bangladesh.

We must not jump to conclusions.

If at all a situation similar to that in Bangladesh – the discovery of a copy of the Quran in a Hindu place of worship – happens, we should leave it to the police to investigate and take action.

That is why we employ a police force. Let the police bring the culprit or culprits to book.

The man who shared the video clip – who, by the way, has been remanded by Bangladesh police – should not have been so trigger happy. This applies to all of us in Malaysia: Let’s not be in a haste to share such video clips. We could end up causing death and destruction, as happened in Bangladesh.

The most important word for us to remember when it comes to such news is: verify, verify, verify.

Because the violence in Bangladesh went on for several days, the Bangladesh authorities have been accused of dragging their feet. The Daily Star, for instance, quoted Dhaka University professor Asif Nazrul as saying communal attacks would not have taken place over so many days unless the “government shelters” the attackers.

Our police and leaders should take the Bangladesh calamity as a reminder to act fast irrespective of the culprits’ religion, race or political affiliation to prevent any conflagration. I suggest police set up an emergency response team just for such incidents and include a telephone number for members of the public to call to verify religion and race-related incidents.

I say this because we not only have overly sensitive people in our midst, we also have those who utter words without considering their impact on a multireligious, multicultural population. As we know, mischief makers exist in every community.

Minorities are often on the receiving end of bullying or violence in many countries and our authorities should ensure it doesn’t happen here. If the current administration is sincere about its Malaysian Family slogan, it has to ensure minorities are not made to feel unequal and that they are protected.

Columnist Mahmudur Rahman wrote in yesterday’s Daily Star: “Religious leaders have the most significant role in demystifying aspects of their preachings and to build trust. If faith is true, a Quran in a temple, a Gita in a mosque, a Bible in a monastery, or a Tripitaka in a church should be welcomed rather than light the spark of dissent. All of these scriptures seek the truth of creation; they don’t subscribe to differentiation.”

He added: “Above all sanity rather than radicalism must prevail. Mankind is the greatest creation of He who is given different names in different faiths. Humanity must win over prejudiced and jaundiced views.”

He is right about religious leaders having an important role in preventing clashes or misunderstandings. He is right about the need for sanity to prevail.

As I said earlier, I am pained when I see people killing people. And till today I cannot understand how a man can bring himself to kill a fellow human being or burn his house or vandalise his house of worship in the name of religion. Regardless of our religion, race, grouping or interest, our blood is red.

Let us all look upon each other as humans, and treat each other as humans. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.