Since few days many international newspapers and agencies are publishing the news that Bangladesh Supreme Court is currently hearing arguments in favor of removing Islam as the official religion of the country. Interesting that, though, newspapers, newscasts and bulletins of Bangladesh have not even mentioned the news.
According to these international sources, recent attacks on religious minorities could cause Bangladesh to drop Islam as the nation’s official religion, report Sputnik, Times Of India, Independent, The Express Tribune, and other. In their accounts, the country’s Supreme Court is currently hearing arguments in favor of removing Islam as the official religion of Bangladesh.
Various religious minority groups in the country have recently faced violent attacks that are believed to have been carried out by Islamic extremists, namely “Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh” and “Ansarullah Bangla Team”. These extremist groups are believed to be home-grown and the country’s government would prefer to view this problem as purely internal, but there is a possibility that the notorious Daesh terrorist group could have already infiltrated Bangladesh in order to conduct recruitment activities.
Bangladesh declared Islam its official religion not too long ago, in 1988, and this step is still being argued by religious minority leaders as illegal. However, 90% (85% external source) of population is officially considered to be Muslim today, with only 8% (13% external source) Hindu and as few as 2% consist of various religious minorities, including Christians and Buddhists. Thus, the possible spread of support for the move to drop Islam, still remains unknown and, above all, little feasible.
Since August 2015, secular Bangladeshi bloggers have become a target for attacks for ‘blasphemy’, causing “Gonojagoron Mancha” (people’s resurgence platform) activists to gather mass protests. Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) has claimed the responsibility for the attacks, which was argued by Ansarullah Bangla Team.
Furthermore, in the past months, a Hindu priest was hacked to death at an attack at a temple in Bangladesh’s Panchgarh district in which two Hindu followers were also injured. On the whole, Islamist groups “Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh” and “Ansarullah Bangla Team” are believed to have carried out at least seven attacks on foreigners (we remember, as example, the killing of the Italian Cesare Tavella and the Japanese muslim-converted Kunio Hoshi) and other minority people, including muslim Shia, Sufi and Ahmadi.
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