Fri 4 May 2007
Dealing with Islamic militancy in Bangladesh
Posted by Rumi under Bangladesh , Judiciary , TerrorismEgyptian Islamist zealot turned Al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri is apparently the poster boy of violent terrorism and his face in the media evokes a violent image of Islam. During the early school days of Zawahiri, the then Egyptian government decided to exterminate Islamic militancy by hanging every possible person with the slightest connection with Islamic militancy. The bloody and heavy handed violent methods of Egyptian government in controlling the influence of some relative less violent groups like Muslim brotherhood evoked sympathy and ideological allegiance to these groups among many young people. At that time Zawahiri was recruited to Muslim Brotherhood and later he assumed a leadership role in Egyptian Islamic Jihad. If we take lesson from history we would see that violently exterminating the leadership of Egyptian Islamic groups did no have any long term effect in curbing Islamic terrorism. Rather we now have this Ayman al-Zawahiri threatening the world with new fear every now and then.
May 4th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
Rumi Bhai,
I accept the general thrust of your argument. State violence can very easily further alienate an already estranged fringe. A dead Bangla Bhai can become a martyr. All this is true.
And Egypt’s experience with Muslim Brotherhood illustrates this well. In the 1950s, Muslim Brotherhood was a much less violent outfit than its Pakistani equivalent Jamaat-e-Islami. It was radicalised by Nasser’s hanging of its leader Sayyid Qutb. Another example is Algeria, where the army refusal to honour an election victory by religious parties created a nasty civil war.
But I think you’re simplifying a bit when it comes to Bangladesh. The Udichi attack of 1999, the Ramna attack of 2001 and the Mymensingh cinema hall attacks of 2002 may not have been carried out under the JMB banner. But many suspect that these were perpetrated by some Jihadi outfit. If true, then these groups were were already radicalised before any state repression.
May 4th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
A softer approach to the militancy- my brain agrees with Mr Rumi, but my soul doesn’t!
But one thing I believe with my heart and soul- ‘prevention is better than cure’! And for a better prevention, one needs to find out why a suicide bomber wants to sacrifice his life?
To my understanding, it’s the poverty and inequality, coupled with ignorance.
There is a correlation between the increasing economic inequality and growth of militancy. Take a look at the emergence of JMB… mostly in the northern part of Bangladesh… the area known for its poverty and seasonal famine (monga).
It’s not only the ‘sawab’ in the world and after it, but also the relief of free food and education which provokes poor people to send their children to madrasah. And when these children become adult and enter into the job market, the only option they find is to establish another madrasah and start teaching (beginning a vicious circle of madrasah proliferation). But at one point, when they find that the existing system is not reducing their poverty, it becomes easy to influence them to change the system!
So, we need to change the system too. First, try a fair redistribution of wealth, and second, change the syllabus of madrasah curriculam.
Just remembered… wasn’t it the economic and social inequality why the freedom fighters gave their life to free Bangladesh?
May 4th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
how about firm dealings with political violence(criminality rather than lets have a bash at the religious infrastructure), better quality of educational culture and more social cohesion.
oh . too hard!
May 4th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
Jyoti, while you can clearly understand the psych of JMB, the way they worked etc., Harkatul Jihad/Mufti Hannan confuses me.
Those sofstication used for Ramna, udichi and even 21st august… I suspect some other quarter was very much active behind a pure religious zealot.
Otherwise their sudden violent rise does not follow any formula i.e. as you said they got radicalized and violent before state repression. If you see the rise of violent Islamism around the globe, that is hardly the case.
And even investigation, confession and trial of Mufti Hannan is not proceeding as smoothly as it did in case of JMB. I doubt Hannan will confess as easily as a pure islamist militant is expected to do.
And still, keeping him alive may help us some day know the truth..
May 4th, 2007 at 8:21 pm
yes, killing individuals won’t help…we need to change their mentalities. I agree with the poster. Good posting!
May 4th, 2007 at 11:35 pm
Rumi said in his original post, “Slowly over the weeks and months, the local and international media hype, government’s overzealous handling slowly driven them to become more violent.”
i think increased funding and better network integration also played their parts in the attacks becoming more high profile and damaging.
-shahpar
May 5th, 2007 at 3:11 am
Rumi,
Since you drew a parallel with Egypt, you might find this article in the NYT magazine very interesting:http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/29/magazine/29Brotherhood.t.html?ex=1335499200&en=64089a7c58e0ee7d&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
I agree overall that violence solves nothing. A few caveats to the comparison though:
1) Not all Islamists have the same set of demands. It’s a fallacy committed by all (including highly-regarded political scientists in the West) to lump all Islamists together. Almost all demand “Shari’a”, but that’s about it. Even what they mean by Shari’a is open to dispute. Just ask your friendly, neighbourhood Iranian cleric….. Even Sunni Islamists do not know to what extent they want the Shari’a to apply. As someone mentioned on another post, that is what a Pakistani commission found in the 50s/60s.
2) South Asia has been always been exceptional in the Muslim world in two ways: Islamists have opposed the formation of states, e.g. Pakistan and Bangladesh. While Jyoti says that the MB were less violent, that simply is not true. The MB was highly violent against the Egyptian monarchy (largely seen as a colonial vassal) and cooperated with Nasser for its overthrow. Compare and contrast with our Islamists and their views on statehood! 2) Islamists and military regimes have been very buddy-buddy, instead of being at each other’s throats. The only exception is Sadat in Egypt and Ayub in Pakistan. Otherwise, this has been the norm in South Asia.
I know there are a few more, and I’ll give them to you once I remember them!
May 5th, 2007 at 7:37 am
Shuvro your arguments have logic and heart.
One may fashion their arguments in different path of their own enriched knowledge.
2 million (figure may differ) tons of corn production expected from fallow ‘char’land of Jamuna basin that makes a point. There are few other 80 to 120 days crops can be cultivated in those sandy land. Why this was not done before, agriculturists did not see the prospect or was it credit crunch? I guess none.
Jessore and Rajshahi aswell the bastion of todays magnified jangis. This part also filled with Sarbaharas (strangely not in the furor).
State has helped put down its people not only with its shortsightedness and plunder but the society at large remain oblivious.
Equitable distribution of wealth and creating opportunities was ignored by not only the successive governments but our economists failed to raise the issues. An effective tax regime would have nab the Falu, malus before they rise as monster and state would have a stake of atleast 30% of the corporate earnings.
State do not have the strong intention to correct any of these destructive forces, we need to understand that. Did the price hike bother you, what is the reason now, BNP’s syndication, can the media still sell the story. What CPD found out, any research? Sham, sham, Jangi to politics and economics.
May 5th, 2007 at 11:27 am
Haque, i agree with the sarbaharas comment, but i dont ‘get’ the relationship with char cultivation (+ i dont beleive the numbers coming out of many organisations in bangladesh).
Communist and leftist and other violence has not been included in the equation. Bangladeshis are intolerant and extreme, its a problem in general society. If the govt was to put an incitement to hatred in the law books half of us would be in prison.
from my point of view, thats because this is an easy to recognise hammer to bash the refinement of Islamic aspiration Bangladesh Chapter 2001-present.
The yemeni case study is an interesting one. That relied on a a savvy bunch of Islamic scholars who shared some elements of the youngsters worldview.
However I doubt secular leaning bangladeshis suchil samaj could convince islamic leaning people of anything in these matters as the Sushil samajis arent very clued up, their language of legitimacy is development speak .
Maybe bangladehsi society could just bribe them with women and a better economy.Lower the conditions for a traditional man to get married, the age, the economic pressure. Watch the social stress dissapate.
Who to do the brain unwashing?
I’d suggest the Islamic Foundation, which is worth a shot, but its too governmenty and hence compromised.
May 5th, 2007 at 11:51 am
So, Rumi, how do you actually propose the government deals with the extremists in Bangladesh?
Asif makes an excellent (and often forgotten) point that usually these groups develop over local issues, and are lumped together by the media as all wanting the same thing; can all be dealt with in the same way.
I would completely agree with you that State-sponsored murder is not the answer, for any case, but what do you think is? Because it is certain that the rise in militancy has to be addressed.
May 5th, 2007 at 11:56 am
A lot can be found if you really dig down the story of Razzaq and how he became a bomber.
Any one has any more information on this boy’s background? I had saved this URL for a long time
http://www.thedailystar.net/2005/12/02/d5120201118.htm
May 5th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
Rumi Bhai,
Yes, Mufti Hannan (and possibly others) probably have different origins from JMB. I’m very reluctant to conjure conspiracy theories, but you’re probably right in that there’s much more to the picture than meets the eye when it comes to the Udichi/Ramna explosions.
AsifY,
1. My understanding is that the anti-monarchy violence was directed by and large against select targets. Compare this against the violence Jamaat perpetrated on the Ahmadiyas in West Pakistan, let alone 1971.
2. The reason why the Islamists opposed Pakistan was because they were allied with the Congress and opposed the Muslim League. Most Islamist leaders of the 1940s had their political beginning in the Khilafat movement of the early 1920s. Gandhi supported this essentially regressive and ultimately irrelevant cause to garner Muslim support for his non-cooperation movement. He got Maolana Azad’s support, while Jinnah left Congress. It’s one of the greatest ironies of history that a wine-drinking bacon-eating Jinnah created a Muslim homeland and a religious obscurantist Azad became one of the founders of ‘secular’ India.
3. Sadat was also very chummy with the Brotherhood until he went to Jerusalem.
May 5th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
It will be a long protracted war either way, soft or hardline. I feel soft line has a chance to win while the hardline does not.
My first stand would be NOT to hang them all hurriedly. This is very counter productive.
We can not follow Yemen path as unlike Yemen, the militants in Bangladesh are coming from the edge of the society, where a strong family protection-supervision is missing.
All the madrassa and mosque activities should be brought under a organized surveillance program. Madrassa education will have to be designed in a way that it will never again produce a Shayokh Abdur Rahman. I feel in this sort of militancy, while the foot soldiers will come from the margins of the society, the mid or top level leadership will come from Madrassa.
We need the bigger mainstream Islamic parties like Jamaat, IOJ, Khelafat andolon, Jamiatul Madarresin (inqilab) under one platform on this issue and demand their cooperation. A partnership with them rather than blaming them will be more beneficial.
In every rural and urban communities in Bangladesh there is occassional Waz Mahfil and Siratunnabi. Govt should use these gatehrings to make the academic-theologic cases against violent Jihad.
The to do list can go on. But these could be good start.
May 5th, 2007 at 6:23 pm
Jyoti,
3 was my point too, sorry for the confusion. I meant that the rule was all non-South Asian military regimes in Muslim-majority states were unfriendly towards Islamists. Exception: Sadat. Vice versa for South Asia: exception, Ayub despite his many flaws.
2) It is one of those great ironies in our history isn’t it? I could point to a few others, but alas, who will believe at this point… I would never charge Azad with obscuratism. The people I had in mind were people like Maududi who were at best inactive during the Pakistan campaign. And please remember, as irrelevant as the Khilafat movement was, it was popular and showed that Gandhi really did care about his Muslim compatriots.
1) MB violence was widespread throughout Sadat as well, thanks to the execution of the virulent Qutb. But to say that their violence was “targetted” is to really fudge the matter. Jamaat targetted Ahmaddiyas and Bangalis. Yes, ‘71 beats anything done in Egypt, but again, the fact is that they had state-backing unlike Egypt’s.
Though no one has done this explicitly, omparisons with Jamaat in ‘71 are highly HIGHLY misleading. At that point, Jamaat was aligned with the existing state (Pakistan). At this point, all these militants are aligned against the state (BD). These two things happen for very dissimilar reasons.
May 6th, 2007 at 1:45 am
“Madrassa education will have to be designed in a way that it will never again produce a Shayokh Abdur Rahman.”
change in this department is very very slow. so long as the brighter kids from *good* families study IT/BBAs or whatever. The particular madrassa was just one factor of many. A conflict ridden society, lack of law and order, corruption in the police and vilification of the place of religion in society.
May 6th, 2007 at 6:16 am
AsifY,
Yes, equating/comparing Jamaat 71 with any of today’s Jihadi outfits is extremely misleading. Another very common but dangerously misleading comparison is between Jamaat and Muslim League / Muslim nationalists - both opposed the Liberation movement, but for different reasons and in different ways.
It’s also quite eye-opening to read/listen to the lessons Jamaat drew from the War. It argues that there were 2 main reasons it lost the war. First, Pakistan Army was simply incapable of beating India. It doesn’t believe that Bangladesh army is capable of beating India in a conventional war. So its aim is to create ‘fortresses’ along the border. Second, it didn’t have support among the educated class. So its aim is to recruit among the educated class.
May 6th, 2007 at 6:45 am
Fugstar,
I meant the economics. How do we correlate – Clinton – It is economy stupid, Amartyo Sen – Poverty is not the main reason for violence, Nelson Mandela – We will forgive but will not forget. Economy, culture and vision at the centre point here.
When poverty is the dominant evil, our political and social culture making it worse on our part of tolerance and sanity (pick a character – a teacher from DU, a secretary, a doctor, a business man, an economist you will find one think common how unethical they are in terms of their professionalism and personal behavior). It is recent phenomenon the society become so unstable and developed the intolerance but deep in heart we still bear Saratchandra, Rabi Thakur and Nazrul’s characteristics.
As per my ‘small reading’ and ‘little understanding’, to contain the current perception of emerging violence we should need to improve on economics i.e provide livelihood (employment), a new breed of writers to assimilate a culture with knowledge and humility and a leadership with vision to improve life in our delta.
Until we can break down the civil society into civil ‘right groups’ their functioning will be as vague as government’s lofty utterances.
I believe so far most of the Islamic Institutions are in dire need of broadened knowledge of human history and understanding on contemporary politics and economics in line with the Islamic sharia and until they improve on that their performance will be by large limited to small section of so called spiritual group.
Rumi
I agree with your opinion.
Bringing all those parties into a common term that they will assimilate knowledge on jihad and make propaganda against any emotional outburst with physical harm to fellow Muslim should be agreeable.
May 6th, 2007 at 8:21 am
Jyoti my friend,
I don’t know if you checked my blog today, but that is precisely the point I made about Muslim League and Jamaat! Good to know that I’m not the only one asking for definitional rigour:D!
Your knowledge about Jamaat fascinates me. Where did you learn this? In other words, where can I learn more? It’s pretty rare that I get to talk to Jamaat supporters.
Lesson 1 does not take a genius to figure out. Jamaat has always had this elemental fear of an Indian invasion. Probably the only thing they share with the average Bangladeshi.
Lesson 2 is what really interests me. I’m afraid that the more they try to get at the “educated” classes, the more moderate they will have to be. For one, they will have to eschew and loudly denounce the politics of violence. So far, they have not done that loud enough to please me. Secondly, they will need to have REAL policies instead of fluff like women’s fashion and “state religion” (ever wonder what “state religion” actually MEANS???) They don’t have that. Frankly, Jamaat does not have the intellectual capabilities to do that.
May 6th, 2007 at 10:46 am
AsifY,
I’ve now read your post. Obviously we were thinking about the same thing.:)
The answer to your question is, I talked to Jamaat supporters/activists/thinkers. This is usually not done in the ‘progressive’ circles in Bangladesh, and quite a few in my extended family expressed concerns.
I should add that I don’t support Jamaat’s, or any other type of Islam-oriented, politics. But Jamaat is a real factor in Bangladesh politics, so for that reason alone we should learn more about it.
May 6th, 2007 at 1:00 pm
While I anxiously admit Jyoti’s point about Jamat’s intention to ‘recruit among the educated class’, I am even more fearful as I disagree with Asif bhai’s prediction that ‘Jamaat does not have the intellectual capabilities to do that’.
Jamat has customized recruitment processes for different target groups. For madrasa students, “state religion” may be a lucrative goal, but they have totally different way for the others. For instance, the ‘honesty is the best policy’ game. I have seen many highly educated people, including one of my best university friend, became Jamat followers simply because they were demonstrated the ‘honest’ side of the party procedures. The current CTG is also seems to be convinced (!) that Jamat leaders are not part of corrupt politicians (commenting on the basis of Jamat’s share in total political imprisonment by CTG).
On the other hand, one will be surprised to see the portion of Jamat supports among the professionals such as doctors, engineers. I am not exactly sure how many of them are converted Jamati and how many of them are by born jamati (i.e. either parents were Jamati or they have been raised in madrasah). One will also find enough jamat people in the elite class of the society. The only relief is that the elites are only a small (though powerful) portion of ‘educated class’. The large educated middle and upper middle class always remained outside Jamat’s reach (no wonder Jamat’s performance was so humiliating in 1996 election).
But Jamat’s future will largely be decided on how they play the international politics, how successfully they use big parties such as BNP in future days, and how effectively they manipulate the elites of our power politics.
[Did anyone anticipate in 1971 that Jamat will one day become ministers in Bangladesh?]
May 6th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
I agree with Rumi’s point of uniting all islamic parties against extremism. But also economic factor is the key.
However, another factor has largely left out is the lack of islamic scholars in BD to counter the extremism. Islamic Scholars - By that I don’t mean Harvard PhD in Islamic studies but BD madrasah graduate with advanced Al Azhar or Qom education. Because these guys will have mass credibility in what they say.
May 10th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
Bangladesh is again under military autocracy. This will be a major boost for Jamaat-e-Islami who now will consolidate their position in Bangladesh’s politics with direct patronage from the army which is being backed by the US and local reps of WB-IMF who have been flown in from Washington, DC to rip off Bangladesh. Jamaat has infiltrated the army and all arms of the government during its misrule with the BNP from 2001-2006 and 1991-1996.
The US policy will backfire. Indians will make a major blunder if they opt to back US strategic interests in the region by antagonizing China. India should not betray the Asian cause.
The US is interested in brewing sectarian and religion based divisive politics in the region. The US hawkish policy makers are doing everything to turn the region into a fundamentalist religion backed governments. They will feel comfortable if India falls into the hands of BJP and Bangladesh becomes a Jamaat-e-Islami government catapulted into power by the army.
Remember the BNP-Jamaat government has already been power from 2001-2006 following which the BNP ran into trouble.
Even now the unelected illegitimate interim government is run by mostly former members of the jamaat-BNP alliance government. The fascist caretaker government has the hidden agenda of abolishing secular democracy from the face of Bangladesh which also happens to be the agenda of Cheney-Rumsfeld-Wolfowitz axis. Such a scenario in Bangladesh will surely help the West plunder Bangladesh’s resources through the army backed islamist fascist despondent government of Fakruddin. This is exactly the trend in Asia and the Middle East.