The terror risk
WHETHER it is actual terrorist activities disrupting socio-economic activities or the potential of it threatening the social fabric, there is both positive and ominous news for the Bangladesh polity. The Institute for Economics and Peace, a Sydney based non-profit research organisation, has published a report that says that though not in conflict Bangladesh is at risk of higher levels of terrorism. The report has calculated various political, social, and violence factors to determine the risk.
The report further says that Bangladesh is among the 13 countries vulnerable to high terror risk and third South Asian country in such position besides Sri Lanka and Myanmar. The good news is that Bangladesh is one of those countries where no death from terrorism took place in 2013. According to the report, three statistically significant factors found to be associated with terrorism are State-sponsored violence, group grievances and high levels of criminality.
Those wishing to take a deeper look into the terrorism malady would find that weak State capacity, social injustice, illegitimate and corrupt governments, powerful external actors upholding corrupt regimes, extremist ideologies and discrimination based on ethnic or religious origin, and failure of the State to integrate dissident groups of emerging social classes are also factors responsible for promoting terrorist activities.
Since terrorism does not arise on its own, there is quite clearly a need to identify the factors associated with it and policies required to be implemented to improve the underlying environment that nurtures terrorism. There is a considered suggestion that significant actions that can be taken are reduction in State sponsored violence such as extra-judicial killings, redressal of group grievances and hostilities, and improvement of effective community-supported policing. There should be emphasis on long-term priorities for ending gross physical rights abuses by the State and for the rule of law.
It is interesting to note that although religious ideology as a motivation for terrorism is not a global phenomenon, there is reason to believe that religion as a driven ideological force for terrorism has increased in 21st century. Therefore, movements in Muslim majority countries that encourage the use of terrorism need to be counteracted with moderate theologies within Islam that advocate non-violent methods of addressing legitimate political grievances.
Coming to Bangladesh scenario specifically, it needs to be noted that the extremist activities are always invariably secretive and protected and flourish under the guise of various charity organisations and trusts. A distinguishing characteristic of the so-called religiously motivated activities is that they are not driven by any domestic agenda or grievances but a broader supra-national agenda or ideology. The initial recruits for extremist cause may have been petty criminals and students from the religious schools, but as time passes a significant proportion of the new recruits are better educated with some holding professional degrees in medicine, engineering and computer science. The number of criminals joining extremist outfits, however, remains a constant feature of recruitment.
Informed sources opine that the philanthropic exterior of suspected extremist groups has, over the years, quietly facilitated in usurping considerable space from the State. This has reportedly created significant political and social capital for the extremist ideology and may be helpful in manipulating political gains.
The power and influence of the extremists were dangerously reflected in the recent political violence. Those wishing to take a deeper look into the matter may find it interesting that in times of political crisis the leadership of extremist groups has ventured to create a parallel narrative of hope and strength for expanding their political capital. There is, therefore, cause for concern because if mainstream political process slips into deeper levels of despondency, extremists may dominate the political stage. The question is, should we be concerned about the growing political and social influence of extremist groups that could transform the polity into radicalism?
While delving into the above query, we may perhaps cite the example of Pakistan where problems of nation-building persisted as the society experienced long periods of unrepresentative rule. The ruling set-up there found Islamic ideology as the way out of the perceived challenges to its legitimacy. In Pakistan, popular sources of legitimacy based on a mass mandate started to lose their relevance and, almost as a corollary, divine sources of legitimacy were articulated and cultivated by the ruling elite.
In Pakistan, the power of the Islamic idiom undercut the intellectual idiom of the society in general. Thus, debates about democracy, economy, education, culture, women's issues, human rights issues as well as the functioning of bureaucracy, judiciary and army drew heavily on the divine sources of morality, authenticity and accountability.
Sub-continental experience indicates that the more the ruling establishment provided space for politics of Islam due to its own strategic compulsions in both foreign policy and domestic contexts, the more the disparate Islamic elements sought to shape the country's ideological discourse according to their own priorities and preferences. Religious groups have sought to define the State through street agitation, lobbying, networking and vote politics.
We have to understand that if we have a relatively mature institutional base then the extremist movement would neither be represented in the mainstream politics nor would it be able to carry out terrorist activities in various localities. We would not be subjected to hate politics along sectarian lines with its attendant human cost.
The military elite of Pakistan sought to activate the divine sources of legitimacy during the Afghanistan war in partnership with the American military might and financial muscle. In the process, the extremist and the obscurantist elements got strengthened beyond all proportion. Sadly, the agenda for democracy lost its momentum in Pakistan. We in Bangladesh surely do not want to jeopardise our democratic pluralist existence by not recognising the potential and actual threats from the so-called religious extremists.
The writer is a columnist of The Daily Star.
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