photo: TakingItGlobal and BBC

So is celebrating Bengali New Year too “Hinduani”? Is it something that we, as Muslims, should celebrate? Similarly, just because someone is hardworking practicing Muslim, can we say that he/she does not believe in the Bangali/Bangladeshi Culture? What is our culture? What is the role of Islam in our culture? Has there been a trend since the liberation war to produce an artificial conflict between the Bangali culture vs the Islami culture in Bangladesh? Is there room to coexist? Why are people so afraid to use the word secularism? How does secularism translate into the day to day needs of the common man or is it just an abstract idea that has now lost its relevance in current Bangladesh? As we struggle towards our upcoming election and fight for the soul of Bangladesh, these are very important questions to be addressed to understand where we go in the coming years. Some of these questions have been touched upon by Maneeza Hossain in her new paper where she highlights the rise of “cultural radicalization” in Bangladesh. She defines this cultural radicalization as an:

“attempt to “restore” a society’s
cultural purity by reconnecting it – in practices
and in rights – with an idealized Golden Age distant
in space and time. This so-called restoration often
comes at the expense of the society’s actual historical
and cultural legacies. In the case of Bangladesh, the
cultural radicalization sought by Islamists posits a fictionalized
“society of the Prophet” that overshadows
the lived and shared experiences and traditions of the
millennia-old Bengali culture.Bengali culture at its
apogee was a synthesis of Islamic values and local traditions and practices. Islam has always been an integral
part of Bengali culture, while Bengali culture has
been the backbone of the moral, intellectual, literary,
and societal life of the Muslims of Bengal.

She points to some interesting trends — a trend to win this cultural war by providing very basic services to the common people. While secularism remain an abstract idea, this so called cultural radicalists are winning the war by successfully and directly connecting their values to the real life needs of the people.

Jamaate-Islam of Bangladesh may never have had
official connections with other national Is lam ist movements.
However, Jamaate’s grassroots mobilization
and political action methods resemble those of other
movements. The model is one that capi talizes on the
inefficiency, corruption, and lack of political vision in
the mainstream, providing alternatives in practice,
morality, and ideology. In the cases of Bangladesh, the
respective Is lam ist movements have behaved not as
conventional poli tical parties, which monitor the government’s
performance and point out deficiencies, but
rather as the kernel of an alternative system altogether.
For example, where state schools fail to provide
lunch for students, the Jamaate-sponsored mad rasas
not only furnish lunch, they also offer after-school
tutorials for students. In so doing, the mad ra sas be
come competitors to the state schools, creating an
alter native network that incorporates religious education.
To the poor and pious of Bang ladesh, this combination
of lunch and God is an attractive package that
trumps what any public school can offer. Needless to
say, the kind of religious education provided in these
madrasas is a mili tant version with its own understanding
of what is the pure Islam, one that clashes
with traditional practice prevalent in Bangladesh.
In the banking sector, the Jamaate-influenced Islam ic
Bank has been outperforming other banking institutions.
This has effectively created a parallel economy that fosters
Islamist businesses while remaining out of the mainstream
control of the state. In what may be an ominous sign of
further Islamization of the banking system, the largest
state bank was recently purchased by Saudi interests.
Public medical care in Bangladesh is full of gaps,
but the Jamaate-sponsored Ibn Sina Hospital provides
state-of-the-art health services that were un heard of in
the country until recently. In the health sector, as well
as education and banking, Jamaate institutions are
viewed as models of performance, efficiency, and in -
teg rity. In addition to providing necessary services for
the population at large, these Jamaate institutions are
excellent venues for employment for young professionals
associated with the Jamaate movement.
Where the state has failed in providing the ex pected
services in education, banking, health, and social welfare,
the Jamaate has stepped in with exemplary – albeit
highly ideological – institutions. The result is the creation
of an effective state-within-the-state, one that does
not rely on conventional measures to assert its influence.
The number of seats in parliament is of little relevance in
understanding the power of the Jamaate. The Jamaate’s
twelve seats are often dismissed by those who re fuse to
see the growing impact of Jamaate institutions all over
Bangladesh. The criterion used here does not take into
account the fact that the Jamaate seeks power through
transforming society, not through gaining parliamentary
seats. All indicators point to the fact that this transformation
is taking place.
Most Bangladeshis engage in
wishful thinking when they convince themselves that
this change is not real, or, at worst, real but contained.
They need only look west to countries such as Lebanon
to see what a presumably containable state-within-astate
can bring to a thriving society

So how to counter this radicalization? She offers a few steps. But the part I really like and agree with is that there isn’t a conflict in the first place.

If cultural radicalization is about inducing conflict
where none has existed, the response to it should
not be simply to accept that a conflict exists and
defend the component of culture that is considered
under attack. Islamist cultural radicalization targets
Bengali culture. Countering it should not be a mere
defense of Bengali culture, but instead a rejection of
the posited dichotomy between Islam and Bengali culture.
Bang ladesh can assert pride in its Islamic heritage
with out having to pass a test of Islamicity artificially
imposed by the promoters of cultural radicalization.Further more, Bangladesh can declare its embrace of
global civilization in all its facets, including democracy
and secularism, without feeling the need to justify
it in Is lam ic (or more appropriately, Islamist) terms.
Ad dressing the growing threat of cultural radicalization
re quires this spirit of no apology.

Maneeza then adds on to offer her 4 step approach of countering this approach and offers the following conclusion.

Proponents of liberal democratic values have often
claimed the innate compatibility of the notions they
advocate with Bangladeshi culture. The current situation
is indeed the test of this view, which holds that the
country’s current climate of intolerance is a transformation
brought about by promoters of radical political
views. It is against a backdrop of political corruption
and bureaucratic inefficiency that promoters of
radical movements present themselves, often credibly,
as a countermo del of efficiency and integrity. The cultural
dimen sion is therefore not their primary offering.
It does, however, follow. Presented as the “true” form
of the religion to a pious society, the transformation
pro gresses, often as a by-product of the political di -
men sion. The implications of this phenomenon in
Bang ladesh are also considerable in the Bang ladeshi
diaspora. Cultural radicalization paves the way for
political movements that often espouse violence as the
means for change. Europe has al ready experienced the
effects of a radicalization that originated overseas.
The future of cultural radicalization is conditioned
on the success of its promoters in positing a clash of
cul tures in Bangladesh. Defusing their program and
thereby avoiding their program’s ensuing political
adventurism can be achieved through reclaiming the
cultural space and denying them the institutions that
they have usurped.

Agree or Disagree, lots of thought provoking stuff in the article and it raises some very valid quesitions that we, as Bangladeshis, need to address. We would like to hear your opinions on it. We will be interviewing her about this paper. So if you have any question, feel free to pose it in the comment section and we will raise it with her.

Read the whole paper here to get a very comprehensive overview