September  2004 
Year 11    No.101

Cover Story


Rising fanaticism

WLUML/AWID/WHRNet Country Focal Point Report

Bangladesh July 2004

Ø Some time in late June, a national level women’s wrestling competition was cancelled after authorities received threats from an extremist group denouncing the sport as inappropriate for Muslim women. There had been no problem with the local level competitions and the participants insisted they were dressed modestly for the event. Women’s swimming competitions have continued without any protests.

(The Daily Star, Dhaka, July 7, 2004).

Ø On May 11, someone attempted to poison the 600 sacred turtles attached to an important Sufi shrine in the port city of Chittagong. The turtles were removed to a different location while the pond water was purified. In July the turtles were returned to their abode safely. Some people claim disputes over shrine finances between rival caretakers led to the attempted poisoning.

(The Daily Star, July 10, 2004).

Ø Several Dhaka University teachers have received death threats in the recent past. On June 28, two organisations, the Nastik Murtad (Atheist Apostate) Resistance Committee and the Muslim Millat Shariah Council, in a faxed message sent to different newspaper offices in Dhaka threatened with death three DU professors: Humayun Azad of the Bangla Dept., Muntasir Mamun of the History Dept. and MM Akash from the Economics Dept. The groups threatened to kill the three if they did not "purify" themselves by September. Others who have already received death threats include Maran Chand of the Dept. of Fine Arts, Mamun Ahmed of Biology and Runa Laila of Women’s Studies.

Notably, Humayun Azad, a senior professor in the Bangla department was attacked by unknown miscreants in February. He barely escaped with his life, had to be hospitalised for a long time (including a period in a Bangkok hospital at government cost), and has yet to fully recover. Prof. Azad had been receiving death threats since November of the preceding year, following the publication of a novel that he wrote as a critique of the increasing Islamisation/Pakistanisation of Bangladesh. The book did not make much of a ripple in literary circles, despite being serialised in a Bengali daily. However, some Islamist groups claimed the book was anti-Islamic and a member of the ruling coalition demanded the government ban the book, a request that was ignored.

(The Daily Star, July 12, 2004).

Ø Ten prominent politicians, intellectuals and journalists received death threats distributed in a circular from an Islamist group, Mujahideen al Islam, accusing them of acting against Islam. In the circular, the group allegedly labelled the ten prime enemies of Islam and blamed them for preventing the ‘reconstitution’ of Pakistan. Two days earlier, 22 journalists (16 in Sylhet district, where earlier the Bangladeshi-born British high commissioner had been injured in a bomb attack, allegedly to protest Britain’s involvement in the Iraq occupation) were sent similar threats.


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