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Monday, February 15, 2010

Re: [chottala.com] Democratic state by definition cannot be anything but secular - Farhad Mazhar



You seem to be confused and mixed up [your business as usual].
The issue is "secular state". Farhad Mazhar has very correctly asserted
that "Democratic state by definition cannot be anything but secular"

All nations have built democracy through historical processes..
Our Nation is no exception ...........
 
When Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg speech
(November 19, 1863) on democracy: " that government of the people,
by the people, for the people ..."
 
The word  "people" did not include, blacks, red Indians and women and
even non-owner of property ....
 
Your fraustration about FatwaBazi is understandable ...FatwaBazi is
part of Theocracy, not of a Secular Democratic State.
Yes, "Australia New Zealand Canada USA UK is pure lawful democratic country"
and above all, these are Secular Democratic countries
where state and religion are seperated with complete freedom to practice
religion .... any religion. [Although these are Christian majority countries)
There is no second class citizen(s) based on one faith and religion
in these countries.
 
BTW, if you keep your comments within the subject under discussion,
you will be appreciated more .... Again, your proposition ""Secular is the condition of some leader's opinion"  is wrong and your current post is out of context while
discussing Farhad Mazhar's article on Secular State and Democracy ..
[Hope, you read the article, not just the title of the article]
 
On 2/15/10, dina khan <dina30_khan@yahoo.com> wrote:
Australia New Zealand Canada USA UK is pure lawful democratic country.  Government is for the people of the people by the people not for the leader of any party like Bangladesh
People are free mind thought can do their religion activities according to their faith. No minister could give any fatoa like Bangladesh Minister.
Ministers & political leaders of those countries follow the rules of law & maintain the lawful system of democracy. Not they use false speaking word as like the Bangladesh Ministers use to speaking.
The leaders & politicians of Bangladesh should need to learn knowing what the politic is rules of democracy system of democracy & the duty of people's representative. They should not do practice false speaking ill propaganda for misguiding the people & to make them foolish which make the democracy & system of democracy quality less & meaning less..
--- On Sun, 14/2/10, Syed Aslam <Syed.Aslam3@gmail.com> wrote:
 
From: Syed Aslam <Syed.Aslam3@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [chottala.com] Democratic state by definition cannot be anything but secular - Farhad Mazhar
To: chottala@yahoogroups.com
Received: Sunday, 14 February, 2010, 4:36 AM

 
Where did you find that "Secular is the condition of some leader's opinion". ? Your propostion is totally 
wrong.  Secularism has nothing to do with the leader..... It is socio-political doctrine that the state does
not promote any particular religion, rather freedom to practice all religions according the individual's choice.
 
Secularism is opposite of communalism and theocracy..
A democratic state is the state of all of it's citizens .....no discrimination based on ethnicity
or religion. There is no second class citizen based on religion or ethnicity.
In a real Democratic Country, the state and religion is seperated .... and all of it's citizens
are free to practice their religion.
 
The state "shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people
peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.  ..."  reflects
the essence of democracy... ..
 
Believe it or not, people from all over the world are  moving  to secular countries like
New  Zealand, Australia and USA etc, livinbg their theocratic homelands behind. In these
countries the citizens are free to practice their own religion without any intervension from the
state.
 
By all accounts New Zealand is a secular country !!!!! [New Zealand Far Too Secular]
 
0  0  Auckland, AU, NZ
8  5  North Shore, AU, NZ
9  5  Takapuna, AU, NZ
12 7  Manukau City, AU, NZ
14 8  Papatoetoe, AU, NZ
15 9  Howick, AU, NZ
18 11 Albany, AU, NZ
20 12 Waitakere, AU, NZ
30 18 Manurewa, AU, NZ

 
Note:Secular state - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A secular state is a concept of secularism, whereby a state or country purports to be .... Australia ·
Federated States of Micronesia · New Zealand ...
en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Secular_state -
On 2/12/10, dina khan <dina30_khan@ yahoo.com> wrote:

Democracy & secularism can not coexist

Because

Democracy is the process of mass people's opinions &

Secular is the condition of some leader's opinion which is not democracy system.

Actual fact is that  

Democracy is the lawful system for the people of the people by people

Whereas

Secular is the fascist dictator system leaded by the leader for the leader of the leader ------

Not for or by or of mass people opinion...


--- On Sat, 13/2/10, Syed Aslam <Syed.Aslam3@ gmail.com> wrote:
From: Syed Aslam <Syed.Aslam3@ gmail.com>
Subject: [
chottala.com] Democratic state by definition cannot be anything but secular - Farhad Mazhar
To: "notun Bangladesh" <notun_bangladesh@ yahoogroups. com>, "Sonar Bangladesh" <SonarBangladesh@ yahoogroups. com>, history_islam@ yahoogroups. com, chottala@yahoogroup s.com

Received: Saturday, 13 February, 2010, 12:11 AM

 
Democratic state by definition cannot be anything but secular  -  Farhad Mazhar, a leading intellectual, tells New Age
Friday 17 July 09
You were culturally active before and during the country's war of national independence, which was a culmination of a series of social, political and cultural movements against the Pakistani military rulers of the day. What were your political motivations behind your active role in the war of national independence?
   My activism primarily was poetic. This was the time when we were imagining ourselves as a new political community representing urban middle class. We thought imagining ourselves as a homogenous population was possible because by then agrarian Bangladesh was undergoing transformation. Zamindari system has been abolished and the possibility of an agrarian capitalist transformation in a progressive sense was becoming imminent.
   Since the colonial period, peasant movement was primarily focused on land reform measures to change land ownership and production relationships in land. Despite the fact that zaminders were also members, a major step in the direction of land reforms dates back to the formation of Bengal Land Reforms Commission in 1940, Francis Floud as the chairman. We must remember the contribution of AK Fazlul Huq and his Krishak Praja Party. The fascinating part of the history was that Floud recommended abolition of zamindaris, which meant abolition of all rent-receiving interests above the tiller of the soil. All subinfeudation of land holdings was abandoned. The commission wanted abolishment of all interests existing between state power i.e., the government and the peasant behind the plough, the actual cultivators. Before the draft legislation to abolish zamindari could be passed, we were in 1947, Bengal was partitioned.
   The point I am raising is, that in 1947 imagination of the peasantry at large against the zaminders and mahajons, who were mostly Hindu, played the major role in forming the ideology of Pakistan. However, it started to change immediately after 1947 with rise of the new technology of communication, i.e., print technology, creating possibility of a 'pramit' bangla and a literature that could appear as homogenous in contrast to diverse idiolects. The so-called banglabhasha of print-language created a homogeneity through a unified field of exchange and communication and created possibility of a new national consciousness. This time imagining the new political community came from urban middle-classes in contrast to the peasantry of '40s or the peasant movement led by Sher-e-Bangla AK Fazlul Huq. Given the colonial education received by the urban educated middle-class, and their familiarity with colonial history rather than their own past and own people, the nationalism of 1971 was shaped by linguistic model. Nevertheless we retained the contradiction between our peasant mind and colonised urban mentality lacking any sense of history.
   This background is important to understand the role many of us played in 1971. I particularly would like to mention about Ahmed Safa, Humayun Kabir and most of the members of Lekhak Sangram Shibir. Lekhak Sangram Shibir was led by Safa; the radical poet Humayun and I played organising role. Safa, on one hand, was critical of peasant mind or peasant imagination, very obvious in his monumental essay 'bangali musalmaner mon', on the other, he was akin to and great fan of European enlightenment. He is interesting because in him we can identify the dilemma of that period. The same dilemma is quite obvious in my first book of poem titled 'Khokon ebong tar protipurush'. This was the struggle of the poet who is encaged in urban middle-class imaginations, created by the poetics of print-technology, i.e. adhunik bangla kabita, but who could easily anticipate the arrival of a new bloody era of battle field not merely outside, but inside as well. A historical battle between two types of political community — the community of the masses and the community of the urban middle class. Unfortunately, until today we failed to settle this dilemma, contradiction and antagonism – no matter how you phrase it.
   So, culturally speaking, I do not agree with the way you have posed the question. 1971 was not the culmination of a series of social, political and cultural movements against the Pakistani military rulers of the day. This was how it appeared and became the dominant narrative of that faction of elite Bengali middle-class lacking understanding of history and the dynamics of the class and cultural struggles. History to them is only the '9-month-of-war' . It is rather culmination of the unfinished tasks of peasant revolutionary movements – failure of the anti-feudal democratic forces both in India and Pakistan and our failure to constitute ourselves as homogeneous political community. Again, from cultural point of view, it was inevitable, because the so-called Bengali imaginations of literate population created by print-technology are perversely posed against the culture of the masses, their daily individual and collective struggle. Bengali nationalists imagined that they can constitute a political community based only on language and culture. But when after 1971, peasantry started to reassert the role of Islam and the values and cultures they cherish, we ended up splitting into two political camps. Now it has erupted as war between secularists and the Islamists – threatening the very existence of Bangladesh.
   All along these years, my primary motivation as a cultural activist, was to resolve this historical contradiction and explore ways to constitute us as a political community that could integrate mass imagination into the imagination of the urban middle-class that played positive role in 1971, or vice versa, making Bangladesh a viable state. We must develop cultural capacity to fight against the present era of imperialism, particularly the so-called war against terrorism that targets mainly Muslim population. We must learn ways to become a part of global community and reject all forms of identity politics — language, culture or religion, except what Gayatri Spivak calls 'strategic essentialism' — an identity that is strategically necessary to confront predatory cultures and imperialism, without reducing it as our sole essence, our eternal identity. Except this strategic essentialism, I oppose all forms of identity politics. I am not a Bengali nationalist or a Bangladeshi and thanks Allah, I am not an Islamist either. We may blame each other and cut each others' throat. But we must contemplate on what went wrong in our history, what were historical accidents that cannot be understood in linear simple terms, what are the socio-economic and political dynamics of our historical formation that is full of contradictions and problems.
   I was striving to become the voice of the time, struggling hard to aesthetically capture the emerging subjectivity that was forming during the early periods of liberation movement, before '71. It was not an easy task. My political motivation was also guided by the keen interest in demonstrating the political possibility of poetry, but not to reduce poetry to achieve the goal of politics. Honestly speaking, I am not an intellectual or cultural activist. My hesitation comes from the dominant notion of such terms. They conveniently cloak petty-bourgeois egoism as if we can indeed contribute to resolve the challenges of our time by merely being 'intellectual' or 'cultural' activists in urban elite setting. I would rather invite all to the festivity of being together, to be inclusive as much as possible without denying the spaces we need to explore ourselves on our own. We cannot solve the problems of the real people by constructing imaginary 'people' and their imaginary 'problems' in drawing rooms, that only fits our own intellectual and cultural prejudices. This is what I have learnt from Mao Ze Dong – the cultural of massline – the line that empowers the oppressed. Yes I have always followed the massline.
   We are afraid (and perhaps intellectually incapable) to question our prejudices; for example, our notion of 'nationalism', our totally unhistorical and often Eurocentric (if not racist) conception of 'secularism' as if all societies must be casted by the model of the Europe, or America. Our persistent effort to contrast 'secularism' against 'Islam' or Islamism is simply amazing. Our Idea of Islam – that never goes beyond theology and clerical explanation devoid of philosophy or even the very primary nuances of the Sufis is bizarre. There are many types of secularisms as there are many kinds of Islams; however, we do not even recognise the need to understand different trends and politics, we rather love to throw and divide all in two baskets. We are not even aware that in the name of 'secularism' in the era of 'war against terrorism' we often unknowingly implement the 'Project of New American' century. We are not mature enough to draw our difference from the predatory and violent politics of George Bush, the junior because we insist, like any cleric, to understand Islam as theology or political project to establish the rule of the Muslims. We cannot read Islam as philosophy and culture.
   For historical reasons, urban middle-classes are largely communal because of the legacy they carry from colonialism and their inability to reckon with anything which is 'strange' to them, even the indigenous tradition is nothing more than 'native' culture in colonial sense; in their discourse they are discussed as 'lokayata' or 'oitijjaya' — culture of the local people in contrast to 'global' —- lacking any universal or global significance. We have deep prejudice against theology, religion or any unfolding of the spirit that confronts the project of 'modernity', i.e., colonialism and imperialism. These are all manifestation of the historical failure that I spoke before.
   
   Why have we not yet been able to institutionalise representative democracy in the true sense of the term? How much responsibility would you attribute to the political class for this failure? And what is about the role of intelligentsia?
   While I understand 'democracy' as the possibility of constituting ourselves as homogeneous member of a political community, defined by democratic constitution based on the rights of persons with responsibility, I see no value to talk about 'representative democracy'. I honestly do not know what representative democracy 'in the true sense of the term' means. Electing representatives to the parliament of a state constituted by undemocratic constitution cannot be democratic; for example. We have elected a parliament recently, but constituted the dictatorial power of a single person, Sheikh Hasina, because of the existing constitution.
   Besides, there are many philosophical problems in the notion of 'representative democracy' – I do not want to get into it. However, I cannot but feel tempted to quote Fakir Lalon Shah in order to think more creatively. I would like to quote from a beautiful song: eke bohe ononta dhara, tumi ami nam bewara, bhober pore. We can interpretatively translate few lines as the following:
   'In One flows the Many and the eternal stream of multiplicity. What does it matter whether it manifests through your Name or Mine? The task is to become that Individual who contains the Multiplicity and has internalized the art of becoming the manifestation of the Many.'
   The challenge Lalon talks about is becoming One in Many. It's not a problem of representation, but developing the capacity to become the will of the Many people in One: One becoming Many. I find this song a fascinating critique of representative democracy. What does it matter if I vote a person to represent my will formally? Is it not more interesting to see who in our time embodies the will of all in his/her activities? Does it matter if the collectivity is asserted by your name or mine?
   
   Many people argue that it is the weak political institutions and lack of democratic practices in and among the political parties that has always paved the way for military intervention, direct or indirect, in the country's political process time and again. What should the political parties/parliament do to ensure civilian control over military establishment at the moment, and stop recurrence of any extra-constitutiona l take over of power by the military in future?

   I think we must understand the intellectual and political capacity of the dominant middle-class, or 'bourgeois' as we can call them politically. Although commercial capital relations have become the dominant mode of economy, we are a society where capitalist relation of production is still stagnant. The highest economic idea of poverty reduction that this class could produce is providing credit to the poor. What else can you expect from this class? Given the military rule of the last two years — we are now collapsing as an economy. So, it is not a problem of institution building but the failure to create economic (material) condition to build democratic institution. I am afraid we are heading for far worse period than we experienced earlier. I anticipate fascistic and anarchic tendencies and rampant human rights violations. We definitely have bad times ahead.
   Secondly, whether you admit it or not — the power of the political parties are derived from the army they maintain. Army rule only reveals the dictatorial and coercive power of the ruling class. In a way it is better for the masses, since they can see and experience the naked power of the ruling elite and realise the futility of the present politics. We need radical democratic change — I guess all the experiments with liberal democracy have terribly failed. We must rethink the future tasks and paths for democratic transition.
   As you have noticed, I have tried to respond to the questions from cultural perspectives. I think the problem should be located in the historical development of the Bengali middle-class and their cultural mind. So far we have seen that they are capable of breeding anarchy or fascism — and not democracy.
   
   A promise of the independence movement was abolition of economic disparities among citizens. But the promise still remains unmet. What, in your view, are the weaknesses of the economic policies pursued by the subsequent governments of Bangladesh that have failed our people to get their economic aspirations met?
   If you are referring to the so-called idea of 'socialism' during the '70s, we should be careful. These ideas, in most cases, were actually socialism of the 'feudal' or petty-bourgeois classes and therefore ended up being bureaucratic capitalism in economics and one-party fascism in politics. Culturally, it produced rampant racism. I will argue that such 'socialism' was one of the main reasons that we failed to install 'democracy'.
   
   Secularism was one of the fundamental principles of Bangladesh during its emergence as a nation state. But, the state has deviated from its original commitment, and finally a military ruler has made Islam the religion of the state. Now that an elected government is in power and that too with a three-fourths majority in parliament, can the country's secular democrats expect amendment to constitution to restore the secular principle of the state?
   I have only one humble observation with regards to this question. If we are indeed committed to have democracy why do we need to talk about 'secularism' separately? Democracy implies that the state will not be based on any theological principle but only on the democratic will of the people. Democratic state by definition cannot be anything but secular. Why do we need secularism over and above 'democracy'?
   First, it manifests our lack of understanding of both 'democracy' and 'secularism'. Secondly, the partisan political force that included secularism over and above democracy as state principle had very different intention than 'secularism' as we understand from the history of Europe. They actually posed linguistic cultural identity against Islam. They believe that Bengali nationalism is incompatible with Islam. Islam has been seen as antagonistic to linguistic nationalism. Islam as an integral component of Bengali culture has also been systematically denied. So here again we see the antagonism between urban middle-class and consciousness of the popular masses — the urban elite middle-class who under the cloak of 'secularism' intended to confront Islam is now facing militant Islam as an outcome of this lack of minimal conceptual understanding of democracy and secularism. Masses, of whom I was speaking earlier, accordingly interpreted secularism as a political project against Islam. They reacted against this project creating political space for Islamism.
   I am afraid we have lost cultural opportunity to resolve this grave problem.
 

 

 
 
 


 
 
 


 



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[chottala.com] Fw: My Comments (Taj Hashmi) onRaman's Article



TAJ HASHMI's COMMENTS onRaman's Article
2/14/2010 2:27:44 AM Taj Hashmi

I think this is a sketchy pedestrian piece by an ill-informed analyst who does not know how Islamized the polity of Bangladesh, including the so-called liberal democratic politicians, has turned into since the 1970s. He has possibly no clues as to why "secular-socialist" Awami League (AL) for more than two decades now has been promoting political Islam by proclaiming "Allah is all powerful" in its banner. He possibly does not know that in October 2006 top AL leaders, including its Secretary General Abdul Jalil, signed an MOU with obscurantist Islamist group like the Khilafat Majlis (one of its leaders issued the infamous "fatwa to kill" against Taslima Nasrin in 1994). The Awami-Khilafat MOU was a pre-Election understanding stipulating Awami League's commitment to introduce Shariah law in Bangladesh. This smacks of AL's opportunism or a clever bid to gain some support among Islamists in desperation to counterpoise the Jamaat-i-Islami, a coalition partner of AL's arch rival BNP.
 
The analysts is definitely unaware of the fact that the judiciary in Bangladesh, including the Supreme Court, has been compliant, corrupt and politicized, mostly reflecting the wish and viewpoint of the ruling party. Now the ruling party wants to destroy its arch rival the BNP-Jamaat coalition. Hence the tirade against Islamism and demand for the trial of the "war criminals". The "war criminals" or collaborators of the Pakistani occupation army in 1971, again mostly represent the Jamaat-i-Islami and other Islamist groups. We need to discuss the demand for the trial of the "war criminals" together with the issue of proscribing religion-based (mainly political Islam-oriented) political parties in Bangladesh.

Since a large number of Islam-oriented and "Islam-loving" East Pakistanis collaborated with the Pakistani occupation army during the Liberation War of 1971, soon after the emergence of Bangladesh the new Government put behind bars thousand of Pakistani collaborators. Formal charges of rape and killing brought against many and the rest were tried for active collaboration with the enemy. Due to the dearth of solid evidence only a few got extended jail terms; only one "Razakar" (a para-military soldier raised by the Pakistani occupation army) was sentenced to death for war crime. Within two years after the emergence of Bangladesh, Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman pardoned the rest of the collaborators by publicly declaring a general amnesty in 1973. Meanwhile, the Government had proscribed all religion-based political parties and adopted the four-pronged state ideology for the country: a)Nationalism; b)Democracy; c) Socialism and d) Secularism.

In view of this, the demand for proscribing Islam-oriented politics cannot be understood in isolation without linking it with the latest demand for the trial of the "war criminals". However, the demand for the trial needs elaboration of the following questions:  

a) Can an individual be tried twice for committing the same crime?
 
b) Isn't one considered innocent after nothing was found/proven against one?
 
c) Can any successive government revoke a general amnesty declared by a previous government, a legitimately elected one?
 
d) Can someone be considered a "war criminal" just for lending support to an illegitimate regime, verbally or through written statements?
 
e) Don't we need solid evidence -- say eye-witness accounts, photos and videos showing someone engaged in killing (rape is hardly ever committed in front of cameras -- although it happened in some places) to implicate one in war crime?
 
f) Finally, shouldn't the Bangladesh Government try people from "the other side of the fence", the victors, who also committed war crimes? The whole world saw the infamous Time magazine photos, reproduced so many times, portraying the killing of two Biahri "Razakars" in broad daylight at Dhaka Stadium on 18th) December 1971? Thousands of "pro-Pakistan" elements, mostly non-Bengalis got killed both during and after the Liberation War. Should not these crimes be also considered "war crimes"? 

As we know people say and do things to save one's skin. And we also know that during a civil war or even a war of liberation people remain divided. Those Americans who opposed independence in the 1770s and those who wanted to secede from the Union in the 1860s were never tried as "war criminals" after the USA came into being or after the end of the Civil War. Same thing happened in what was South Vietnam up to 1975. Nobody was tried as "war criminals" in united Vietnam.
 
I think the "trial of war criminals" is more out of political considerations rather than out of genuine love for justice. Family members and friends of innocent victims along with people who are just and upright have never been listened to by any government since 1972. And even worse, people who are likely to be tried this time, especially Matiur Rahman Nizami, till 2001 were very close friends of so many top AL leaders. And we remember AL's Presidential candidate in 1991, Justice Badrul Haider Chowdhury, went to Ghulam Azam's house for "dua" or blessings so that Justice Chowdhury could be elected with the support of 30 Jamaat MPs. Wasn't Ghulam Azam a "war criminal" in 1991? One is sure about one thing: if Jamaat decides to support Awami League once again (as it did in 1994-96 to topple the BNP Government), it would again become a "patriotic party".

Meanwhile Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's signing the controversial "transit deal" with Indian PM Manmohan Singh has strengthened the "Islam-Loving" groups (BNP, Jamaat and others) who know how to successfully play the "India Card" to outwit the Awami League. In sum, it is next to impossible to revert the major changes towards Islamization that have taken place since 1975. No government since the overthrow of General Ershad in 1990 has gathered enough courage to drop Islam as the "state Religion" from the Constitution of Bangladesh. Another General's (Ziaur Rahman) amending the constitution replacing "Secularism" with "Absolute faith in Almighty Allah" and "Socialism" with "Social Justice" are very much "alive". Zia's inserting Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim (In the name of the merciful and benificient God) in the preamble of the Constituion is also there. So, no judiciary or parliament in bangladesh is strong enough to de-Islamicize the polity of Bangladesh.

Half-heartedness, hypocrisy and opportunism of politicians have strengthened political Islam in Bangladesh. Nothing short of a revolution can de-Islamicize Bangladesh. And such revolutions will NOT take place in the foreseeable future. One should realise that the emergence of political Islam is not an isolated case in Bangladesh. All the Muslim-majority countries have been going through this phase; some by default and some by playing with the fire as they promoted, nurtured and nourished the monster of Islamism out of sheer political expediency. Pakistan and Bangladesh may be mentioned in this regard. Nothing short of good governance, economic growth and justice; and universal liberal secular education can revert the growing menace of Islamism in Bangladesh or anywhere else. The judiciary or even the Parliament cannot attain much in this regard.
Cheers.
 
Taj Hashmi
Honolulu



----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Taj Hashmi <taj_hashmi@hotmail.com>
Sent: Mon, February 15, 2010 5:30:51 AM
Subject: My Comments on Raman's Article

Please read my comments at the end of the following article which came out in NewAgeIslam.Com by J. Sri Raman
 
Please keep it to yourself, for the time being.
 
Taj Hashmi
 
Islam and Politics
12 Feb 2010, NewAgeIslam.Com
Blow to Religion-Based Politics in Bangladesh: Lesson for Pakistan

After the Supreme Court's verdict, Law Minister Shafique Ahmed has said that all religion-based parties should "drop the name of Islam from their name and stop using religion during campaigning." He has also announced that religion-based parties are going to be "banned." The government, however, has disavowed any intention to remove the Islamic invocation from the Preamble of the constitution.

All this has already drawn attention in Pakistan, which has continued to suffer from religion-based politics despite its popular rejection in successive elections. Veteran Pakistani columnist Babar Ayaz, in an article captioned "Amendments for a secular constitution" in the Lahore-based Daily Times, talks of the clauses in Pakistan's constitution, introduced by former dictator Zia ul-Haq "who considered himself a kind of religious guardian of the country."

Noting the moves in Bangladesh, Ayaz adds: "Pakistan may not be able to ban religion-based political parties in the near future, but it should move towards expunging the ridiculous constitutional clauses mentioned above ... It would be a long and hard struggle, but it is doable."-- J. Sri Raman

url: http://newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamIslamAndTolerance_1.aspx?ArticleID=2454

----

Blow to Religion-Based Politics in Bangladesh: Lesson for Pakistan

by: J. Sri Raman,

Friday 05 February 2010

Here is some disconcerting news for all disciples of neocon gurus, who had discovered Islam as the enemy of democracy and the successor to the "evil empire" of the cold war era. An Islamic country of 160 million people, under an elected government, is witnessing important but ill-noticed moves to abolish religion-based politics.

On February 2, the Supreme Court of Bangladesh struck down a nearly 11-year-old constitutional amendment that had allowed religion-based political parities to function and flourish in the country. The ruling had the effect of restoring the statutory secularism, which Bangladesh adopted in 1972 after liberation from Pakistan and lost five years later following a series of military coups.

It may also have the effect of inspiring at least a debate on the issues in Pakistan, the other Islamic country of South Asia. It may also have a ripple effect, helping to raise the issues subsequently in sections of the rest of the Islamic world.

This only carries forward an old battle. The logic of Bangladesh's liberation war itself led the nation's founder, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, to place its linguistic identity above the religious. The reverse of the same logic drove religion-based groups in the pre-liberation East Pakistan to side with Islamabad in the war.

The first constitution of Bangladesh, under Article 38, placed a bar on religion-based parties and politics. Mujib, as he was popularly known, and most of his family were assassinated in a coup on August 25, 1975. A series of coups since then culminated in the country's takeover by Maj.-Gen. Ziaur Rahman in 1977. In April 1979, the Zia regime enacted the infamous Fifth Amendment to the constitution, paving the way for the return of religion-based parties and politics.

Article 38 of the original constitution proclaimed: "Every citizen shall have the right to form associations or unions, subject to any reasonable restrictions imposed by law in the interests of morality or public order." But it clearly added: "Provided that no person shall have the right to form, or be a member or otherwise take part in the activities of, any communal or other association or union which in the name or on the basis of any religion has for its object, or pursues, a political purpose."

As revised under the Fifth Amendment, the Article said: "Every citizen shall have the right to form associations or unions, subject to any reasonable restrictions imposed by law in the interests of public order or public health." The amendment scrapped the original Article 12, which enshrined "secularism" and "freedom of religion" in the supreme law of the land.

Earlier, by a proclamation, the martial law regime made other major changes in the constitution as well. The Preamble to the constitution was preceded by the religious invocation, "Bismillah-ar-Rahman-ar-Rahim" (in the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful). In the text of the Preamble, the words "a historic struggle for national liberation" were replaced with "a historic war for national independence." The phrase mentioning "nationalism, socialism, democracy and secularism" as the "high ideals" in the second paragraph was replaced with "absolute trust and faith in Almighty Allah, nationalism, democracy and socialism meaning economic and social justice."

Article 8 of the original constitution - laying down nationalism, socialism, democracy and secularism as the four fundamental principles of state policy - was amended to omit "secularism" and replace it with "absolute trust and faith in Almighty Allah." In repeated pronouncements, Zia also substituted "Bangladeshi nationalism" for the "Bengali nationalism" of the Mujib days that stressed a non-religious identity.

Lt.-Gen. Hussain Muhammad Ershad, who staged yet another coup and ruled Bangladesh during 1982-86, carried Zia's initiative forward by making Islam the "state religion" through the Eighth Amendment.

The battle between the secular and anti-secular camps continued through all this, and became more open after the country's return to democracy in 1991. The Awami League (AL), headed by Mujib's daughter Sheikh Hasina Wajed, has always fought for abrogation of the Fifth Amendment. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), founded by Zia and now led by his widow Begum Khaleda Zia, and its allies pursuing religion-based politics have remained uncompromising supporters of the amendment.

The AL and its allies scored a legal victory in August 2005, when the country's High Court held the amendment unconstitutional. The court said: "These changes (made by the Fifth Amendment) were fundamental in nature and changed the very basis of our war for liberation and also defaced the constitution altogether." It added that the amendment transformed secular Bangladesh into a "theocratic state" and "betrayed one of the dominant causes for the war of liberation."

The government in Dhaka, then a coalition of the BNP and the religion-based Jamaat-i-Islami (JeI), moved a petition in the Supreme Court against the ruling. The order was stayed and the issue of the amendment was put on the back burner, where it stayed for four years.

Then came a major political change. A year ago, on January 6, 2009, Hasina returned as prime minister after a landslide electoral victory. In early May 2009, the AL government withdrew the old, official petition for staying the 2005 court ruling. The BNP-JeI alliance was quick to react. BNP Secretary General Khondker Delwar Hossain and three lawyers from the JeI rushed to the Supreme Court with petitions seeking to protect the amendment. Their petitions have been thrown out.

The JeI and other religion-based groups did not endear themselves to the country, as the results of the last general election showed, with their violent activities. The serial bombing they carried out across Bangladesh in 2005, taking a heavy toll of human lives, did not help the BNP return to power through the ballot box. The period 2001-06, when the BNP-led alliance wielded power, witnessed "unprecedented" atrocities against religious and ethnic minorities, according to Bangladeshi rights activist Shahriar Kabir. The victims included Hindus, Ahmediyas and other communities and the atrocities ranged from killings and rapes to destruction and desecration of places of worship.

After the Supreme Court's verdict, Law Minister Shafique Ahmed has said that all religion-based parties should "drop the name of Islam from their name and stop using religion during campaigning." He has also announced that religion-based parties are going to be "banned." The government, however, has disavowed any intention to remove the Islamic invocation from the Preamble of the constitution.

All this has already drawn attention in Pakistan, which has continued to suffer from religion-based politics despite its popular rejection in successive elections. Veteran Pakistani columnist Babar Ayaz, in an article captioned "Amendments for a secular constitution" in the Lahore-based Daily Times, talks of the clauses in Pakistan's constitution, introduced by former dictator Zia ul-Haq "who considered himself a kind of religious guardian of the country."

Noting the moves in Bangladesh, Ayaz adds: "Pakistan may not be able to ban religion-based political parties in the near future, but it should move towards expunging the ridiculous constitutional clauses mentioned above ... It would be a long and hard struggle, but it is doable."

Bangladesh is in for a long and hard struggle, too. The BNP has threatened an agitation against the changes. It is likely to combine this with a campaign against India (under whose pressure Hasina is alleged to be acting), and New Delhi can be counted upon to keep providing grist to Khaleda's political mill with Big Brother-like actions widely resented in Bangladesh.

There are also limits to which a constitution alone can counter religion-based politics. The far right's activities in India, proud of its staunchly secular constitution, furnishes just one example.

The significance of what is happening in Bangladesh, however, cannot be belittled either. It demonstrates the far greater role popular will can play in combating religion-based politics than cluster bombs and drones.

http://www.truthout.org/blow-religion-based-politics-bangladesh56699

url: http://newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamIslamAndTolerance_1.aspx?ArticleID=2454

COMMENTS
2/14/2010 2:27:44 AM Taj Hashmi

I think this is a sketchy pedestrian piece by an ill-informed analyst who does not know how Islamized the polity of Bangladesh, including the so-called liberal democratic politicians, has turned into since the 1970s. He has possibly no clues as to why "secular-socialist" Awami League (AL) for more than two decades now has been promoting political Islam by proclaiming "Allah is all powerful" in its banner. He possibly does not know that in October 2006 top AL leaders, including its Secretary General Abdul Jalil, signed an MOU with obscurantist Islamist group like the Khilafat Majlis (one of its leaders issued the infamous "fatwa to kill" against Taslima Nasrin in 1994). The Awami-Khilafat MOU was a pre-Election understanding stipulating Awami League's commitment to introduce Shariah law in Bangladesh. This smacks of AL's opportunism or a clever bid to gain some support among Islamists in desperation to counterpoise the Jamaat-i-Islami, a coalition partner of AL's arch rival BNP.
 
The analysts is definitely unaware of the fact that the judiciary in Bangladesh, including the Supreme Court, has been compliant, corrupt and politicized, mostly reflecting the wish and viewpoint of the ruling party. Now the ruling party wants to destroy its arch rival the BNP-Jamaat coalition. Hence the tirade against Islamism and demand for the trial of the "war criminals". The "war criminals" or collaborators of the Pakistani occupation army in 1971, again mostly represent the Jamaat-i-Islami and other Islamist groups. We need to discuss the demand for the trial of the "war criminals" together with the issue of proscribing religion-based (mainly political Islam-oriented) political parties in Bangladesh.

Since a large number of Islam-oriented and "Islam-loving" East Pakistanis collaborated with the Pakistani occupation army during the Liberation War of 1971, soon after the emergence of Bangladesh the new Government put behind bars thousand of Pakistani collaborators. Formal charges of rape and killing brought against many and the rest were tried for active collaboration with the enemy. Due to the dearth of solid evidence only a few got extended jail terms; only one "Razakar" (a para-military soldier raised by the Pakistani occupation army) was sentenced to death for war crime. Within two years after the emergence of Bangladesh, Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman pardoned the rest of the collaborators by publicly declaring a general amnesty in 1973. Meanwhile, the Government had proscribed all religion-based political parties and adopted the four-pronged state ideology for the country: a)Nationalism; b)Democracy; c) Socialism and d) Secularism.

In view of this, the demand for proscribing Islam-oriented politics cannot be understood in isolation without linking it with the latest demand for the trial of the "war criminals". However, the demand for the trial needs elaboration of the following questions:  

a) Can an individual be tried twice for committing the same crime?
 
b) Isn't one considered innocent after nothing was found/proven against one?
 
c) Can any successive government revoke a general amnesty declared by a previous government, a legitimately elected one?
 
d) Can someone be considered a "war criminal" just for lending support to an illegitimate regime, verbally or through written statements?
 
e) Don't we need solid evidence -- say eye-witness accounts, photos and videos showing someone engaged in killing (rape is hardly ever committed in front of cameras -- although it happened in some places) to implicate one in war crime?
 
f) Finally, shouldn't the Bangladesh Government try people from "the other side of the fence", the victors, who also committed war crimes? The whole world saw the infamous Time magazine photos, reproduced so many times, portraying the killing of two Biahri "Razakars" in broad daylight at Dhaka Stadium on 18th) December 1971? Thousands of "pro-Pakistan" elements, mostly non-Bengalis got killed both during and after the Liberation War. Should not these crimes be also considered "war crimes"? 

As we know people say and do things to save one's skin. And we also know that during a civil war or even a war of liberation people remain divided. Those Americans who opposed independence in the 1770s and those who wanted to secede from the Union in the 1860s were never tried as "war criminals" after the USA came into being or after the end of the Civil War. Same thing happened in what was South Vietnam up to 1975. Nobody was tried as "war criminals" in united Vietnam.
 
I think the "trial of war criminals" is more out of political considerations rather than out of genuine love for justice. Family members and friends of innocent victims along with people who are just and upright have never been listened to by any government since 1972. And even worse, people who are likely to be tried this time, especially Matiur Rahman Nizami, till 2001 were very close friends of so many top AL leaders. And we remember AL's Presidential candidate in 1991, Justice Badrul Haider Chowdhury, went to Ghulam Azam's house for "dua" or blessings so that Justice Chowdhury could be elected with the support of 30 Jamaat MPs. Wasn't Ghulam Azam a "war criminal" in 1991? One is sure about one thing: if Jamaat decides to support Awami League once again (as it did in 1994-96 to topple the BNP Government), it would again become a "patriotic party".

Meanwhile Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's signing the controversial "transit deal" with Indian PM Manmohan Singh has strengthened the "Islam-Loving" groups (BNP, Jamaat and others) who know how to successfully play the "India Card" to outwit the Awami League. In sum, it is next to impossible to revert the major changes towards Islamization that have taken place since 1975. No government since the overthrow of General Ershad in 1990 has gathered enough courage to drop Islam as the "state Religion" from the Constitution of Bangladesh. Another General's (Ziaur Rahman) amending the constitution replacing "Secularism" with "Absolute faith in Almighty Allah" and "Socialism" with "Social Justice" are very much "alive". Zia's inserting Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim (In the name of the merciful and benificient God) in the preamble of the Constituion is also there. So, no judiciary or parliament in bangladesh is strong enough to de-Islamicize the polity of Bangladesh.

Half-heartedness, hypocrisy and opportunism of politicians have strengthened political Islam in Bangladesh. Nothing short of a revolution can de-Islamicize Bangladesh. And such revolutions will NOT take place in the foreseeable future. One should realise that the emergence of political Islam is not an isolated case in Bangladesh. All the Muslim-majority countries have been going through this phase; some by default and some by playing with the fire as they promoted, nurtured and nourished the monster of Islamism out of sheer political expediency. Pakistan and Bangladesh may be mentioned in this regard. Nothing short of good governance, economic growth and justice; and universal liberal secular education can revert the growing menace of Islamism in Bangladesh or anywhere else. The judiciary or even the Parliament cannot attain much in this regard.
Cheers.
 
Taj Hashmi
Honolulu





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[chottala.com] Photos of Inaugural ceremony of Bangladesh Peace Clock in a road of Windsor city, Canada [27 Attachments]

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Dear chottala readers,

Photos of Inaugural ceremony of Bangladesh Peace Clock in a road of Windsor city, Canada donated by a Bangladeshi Named Mr. Aziz Chowdhury from Sylhet staying here as citigen of Canada for the last 40 years. There were so many dignified persons like Mayor of Windsor city including our Bangladesh Ambassador His Excellency Mr. Yakub Ali attended the inaugural ceremony. We the Bangladeshis are really proud of Mr. Aziz Chowdhury. Mayor of Windsor city in his speech appreciated our Bangladesh too much. Our Bangladesh Ambassador also in his speech appreciated him and told Mr. Aziz Chowdhury is a pride of our Nation. Please find the pictures in the link of that inaugural cermony here in Windsor, Canada on 12th January, 2010. 

Dowllah (Dr. Siraj Uddowllah).



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