Fighting terrorism

WE in Bangladesh have observed two strands of reaction to the question of terrorism. There are those who have always cried wolf at any mention of terrorism, to a point where they have ended up exaggerating or over-estimating the influence of religious extremism in the country. That has often created a rather sickening doomsday scenario. And then there is the other, equally lamentable truth, which is that influential quarters in the government have always been in denial mode on the terrorism question. One has only to go back to the JMB issue to know how resolutely the government of the day denied its presence, with consequences that were to be horrific. The point here is that we as a nation cannot afford to fall into the pitfalls created by either of the two assumptions above. In other words, we cannot afford to panic and at the same time must not be tempted into adopting a laid-back position.
Rohan Gunaratna, the internationally reputed Sri Lankan researcher and analyst on terrorism, in his insightful assessment of Bangladesh situation maintains that local religious extremists in Bangladesh have no significant links with international terrorism. Furthermore, his assertion that culture and society in Bangladesh make it hard for terrorism to make much of an inroad in the popular consciousness can be taken as vindication of the secular legacy of our country.
The danger of militancy is, however, very real as the simultaneous non-lethal bombing of all but one district towns in Bangladesh by some organised extremists had indicated . We agree with Gunaratna that Bangladesh's extremists may be more fired by ideology than by any direct links with international networks. To be sure, the very moderate nature of society, where a practice of religion is concerned, has so far prevented us from falling into an extremist abyss, unlike the situation in some other countries. But unless our existing social, cultural and political structures are firmed up and then constantly refurbished, our ability to beat back the forces of terrorism may weaken. It is here that politicians, educationists and religious personalities must pursue, separately or in unison, programmes that will promote and strengthen such structures. Our ulema, respected as they have been for generations, must speak up in defence of the true spirit of Islam and thereby prevent the extremist militant fringe from commandeering the religion to serve its nefarious and violent purposes.
A society damages itself when its moderate majority remains silent in the face of an onslaught on decency by a tiny minority. It is time for that silent majority to assert itself. Finally, the nation's political parties must move away from a tendency to employ religion for narrow electoral gains if they mean to promote national welfare.