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Ex-CJ, German envoy cross swords over religious militancy

STAFF CORRESPONDENT
Former chief justice Mustafa Kamal yesterday said France and Germany have 'no moral right' to discuss religious militancy in this region, prompting a war of words with German Ambassador in Dhaka Dietrich Andreas at a seminar on the day.
Kamal made the remarks as the chair at a session of the seminar on "Religious Militancy and Security in South Asia" at Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (Biiss) auditorium. Andreas who was a participant in the session replied to a series of accusations against Germany and France made by the former chief justice.
The four-day seminar is organised by Biiss in collaboration with the German and French embassies in Dhaka.
"I am not worried about interstate relations in South Asia. I am more worried about the western perception of a rise in religious militancy in militarily weak countries like Bangladesh but not in big countries like India," Kamal said at the session on "Religious Militancy and Inter-State Relations in South Asia".
Questioning the focus on religious militancy, Kamal asked, "Why are we not discussing secular militancy that is doing as much damage to our society? I am worried about the west looking for another Afghanistan or Iraq to drop their bombs in. Are they looking for another opportunity?"
The former chief justice went on, "We cannot ask about the Turkish minority in Germany because we are a weak country. We cannot ask
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why are the women in France not allowed to wear hijab? They (France and Germany) have no moral right to discuss religious militancy in our country. The countries of the region are mature enough to take care of their own issues."
Responding to Kamal's remarks immediately, the German ambassador said, "We want to increase understanding and dialogue between cultures and countries ...We are always open to questions about the state of minorities in our society."
On questions of foreign concern over regional issues, Andreas mentioned the recent series of bomb attacks in Bangladesh and said, "No culprit has been found, no one has been brought to justice. Some questions can of course be thrown in that direction."
Another session held in the afternoon was on "South Asian Countries' Response to War on Terrorism and its Fallout on Regional Security," where renowned scholars from Pakistan, Germany and France presented papers.
French scholar Jean-Luc Racine observed difference between religious militancy and religious activists is blurring where groups holding extremist views are turning militant.
Other speakers said a danger also lies in simplistically branding parties, groups and communities as fundamentalist or militant.
ERRATUM:
In our report headlined "German
envoy for probe between bomb attacks, fundamentalist links" published yesterday, the name of German Ambassador Dietrich Andreas was incorrectly spelled. We sincerely regret the inadvertent error.