PM takes strong stance against religious fanaticism

We applaud the prime minister's strong warning against religious fanatics in her Victory Day speech, in which she said the government would not allow anyone to create divisions and anarchy in the country over religion. She reiterated the convictions of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his commitment to communal harmony and a progressive and secular country that is free of hunger and poverty, reminding us all that we cannot allow certain quarters to use religion as a tool of politics.

This statement is all the more welcome because of its timing—it was less than three weeks ago that Hefazat chief Babunagari threatened to tear down sculptures all across the country and organised protests demanding that the government scrap plans for installing a sculpture of Bangabandhu in the capital. Since Babunagari's threats were made, an under-construction sculpture of Bangabandhu in Kushtia town was defaced, a bust of Liberation War martyr Madhusudan De at the University of Dhaka was damaged, and three idols were vandalised at a temple in Pabna. Under these circumstances, it is worrying that the home minister took such a conciliatory tone in subsequent talks with the leaders of these religious groups and that several top ministers of the government went out of their way to draw distinctions between sculptures and idols. If we are asking religious groups to not take offence at sculptures because they are not idols, does this not imply that there is something offensive about idols, which are important religious symbols to other faith communities, and also implicitly condone their destruction?

As the prime minister said so succinctly in her speech, everyone has the right to perform their own religious rituals, and if we allow the non-communal spirit of the Liberation War to fade away, we will be forgetting the debt of blood of the millions of martyrs. There would be no greater dishonour to our country, our martyrs and freedom fighters, and to the father of our nation. Bangladesh has come a long way in achieving its dream of becoming a self-reliant, prosperous and progressive nation. We hope everyone in government and every citizen of this country will play their part in taking this dream even further.