‘Secularism does not oppose religion’

Due to the application of narrow narratives of secularism, religious extremism is spreading across Muslim countries including Bangladesh, speakers at a discussion said yesterday.

They also said that secularism is failing as it is often imposed on people without considering their social and cultural context, and the approach needs to be modified.

Gyantapas Abdur Razzaq Foundation organised the discussion titled “Modernism and secularism in the post-9/11 world” at lecture theatre on Dhaka University (DU) campus.

Prof Lailufar Yasmin of international relations department of DU presented her unpublished research at the programme, in which she showed that religion has once again become the dominant force in Turkey due to secularism portraying religious faith as a “problem”.

She said, “The idea that religion is a problem was institutionalised in the state system where educated urban people had very little connection with the rural masses… and this was intensified in the post 9/11 world.”

“The flawed narratives of secularism have emerged due to the so-called conflict between modernism and religion. But secularism never opposes religion, rather it should accommodate multiple religions,” Prof Lailufar said.

In the Bangladeshi context, according to Prof Lailufar, secularism has no reach even five miles away from Dhaka or other big cities where rural people’s lives are heavily influenced by religion.

Prof Fakrul Alam, pro-vice chancellor of East West University presided over the programme where researchers and students from DU and other institutions also participated.

“It is true that Islam has been targeted after the 9/11 incident; [hence] Islamophobia has also increased,” Prof Fakrul Alam said.

On the research findings, he said, “The paper represented the binary aspect of religion versus secularism. But secularism should be discussed in light of multiple aspects [culture, society, economic state etc].”

“We had adopted secularism in our constitution in 1972 and there was no conflict with religion,” he added.

 “It was once believed that secularism will solve all problems. But [now it has been proven] that is not easy. So all thinking should be multidimensional,” said Prof Fakrul Alam.