Bangladesh Secularists Continue to be Targeted by Islamists

On Wednesday, April 6, 2016, a Bangladeshi, secular blogger, Mohammed Nazim Uddin was murdered by Islamists for blog posts critical of militant Islam. Uddin was surrounded and hacked to death by men armed with machetes.

Bangladesh has been a dangerous place for those who speak out against Islamists. Since 2013, Islamists have repeatedly targeted secular bloggers, and several of these bloggers have applied for asylum in Western nations.

Bangladeshi bloggers to be killed by Islamists include:

• Ahmed Rajib Haider hacked to death by men wielding machetes in February of 2013. Haider was a prominent anti-Islamist blogger in Bangladesh who often blogged under the name Thaba Baba.
• Washiqur Rahman was also killed by men with machetes in March of 2015. Rahman, similar to Haider, wrote under the false name of Kucchit Hasher Channa, which means Ugly Ducking. He was known to have criticized what he described as irrational religious beliefs.
• Avijit Roy was killed in February of 2015 for championing atheism and tolerance for homosexuality.
• Islamists murdered Ananta Bijoy Das, a science and secularism blogger, in March of 2015.

Many of these bloggers were members of the Shahbag Movement. The movement is centered around the city of Shahbag, seeking to punish Islamist leaders convicted of war crimes during the bloody 1971 war for independence from Pakistan. The movement became more publicized after their protest against Abdul Quader Mollah, assistant secretary-general of Bangladesh’s Jamaat-e-Islami party. Between 100,000-500,000 gathered in the street calling for Mollah be put to death for the acts of violence he committed in the 1971 war of independence.

There has been a historical tension between Islamic politics and secularism in Bangladesh. Islam has been Bangladesh’s state religion since 1988, when former dictator H.M. Ershad made the change in order to win over popular support. The same year a petition was filed opposing the declaration, but never ruled upon.

In 2011, the current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina began a push to reintroduce secularism in political affairs.  Bangladesh’s three-judge High Court panel recently ruled to formally reject the long dormant petition, a largely symbolic move supported by Bangladesh’s Islamist factions.

Bangladesh is the third largest Muslim country in the world, and is well accustomed to the presence of jihadist organizations. However, the nation has begun to see a rise in the presence of larger, better-known jihadist organizations like the Islamic State (IS) and Al Qaeda (AQ).

Last September, IS made its presence in Bangladesh known when it killed Italian aid worker Cesare Tavella. IS followed up this attack by killing Italian missionary Piero Parolari last November. In 2014, AQ officially stated they had established a new branch called Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS). AQIS has claimed responsibility for the killing of several bloggers within Bangladesh since its inception.

Late last year Singapore police arrested 27 Bangladesh jihadists who reportedly followed the teachings of former AQ member, Anwar al-Awlaki. The men mentioned they were encouraged to return to Bangladesh and wage a war against the government. The government’s increased push for a more secular government could lead others to turn jihadists.

While some jihadis look to quell opposition to Islam through force, other groups take a more political approach. Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), established in 1941, seeks to create an Islamic State governed by Sharia law. The group was formally banned by the Bangladesh government in 1971, but was re-activated after a coup in 1975. Since then the group has been able to acquire influence in parliament, and is known to aid terrorist activity.

As the struggle between secularists and Islamists in Bangladesh continues, the small South Asian country risks becoming a hot spot for jihadist organizations. An ex-Bangladesh army intelligence specialist warns that IS has its eye on Bangladesh, as about 30 Bangladeshis have gone to fight in Syria or Iraq.