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No time to hibernate

How could one find solacp and comfort in a society with AK-47, AK-56 rifles and time device detonators in clandestine hands? How could the government close its eyes to such horrific things? The government has failed to comprehend or rather underplayed the media reports without checking the authenticity and now when the country trembled with synchronised serial blasts skilfully organised and meticulously monitored, the whole administration was running helter-skelter for clues as well as identification of the evil gangs. True, we are living in an era of new terrorism.

Md. Asadullah Khan
Between n and n-30am on August 17 Bangladesh trembled with a series of bomb blasts at different strategic points across 63 districts. The most synchronised blasts, numbering about 500, without any shadow of doubt were orchestrated by groups inimical to the interest of the country. Those who tried and nearly succeeded in shaking Bangladesh had got their target symbolism right and strength tested. Now it is for the government in the country to comprehend the enormity of the danger: the nation is in the line of fire.
This is not the moment of finger pointing, recriminations and blame game - familiar traits of our political culture. The blasts on strategic points have exposed the possible vulnerabilities especially at a time when the country is passing through an economic down turn. It is the moment for shedding the legendary Bangladeshi type complacency.
What the moment calls for is: wake up and defend, for someone is out there to deform you, to break you down. Precisely true, the enemies have nothing to lose but themselves for their act is born out of blind fanaticism, but the country has a lot to preserve - the national will, its honour and freedom, characteristicsand culture.
Sure enough, the adversaries of democracy have crossed the threshold. The intimations have been there in varying degrees of terror. Today as 8/21 of the past year rhymes with 8/17 of this year, the day of infamy should beadayofawakeningaswell. The blast was a message to the law makers, law enforcers and civil population that in an environment of high political stakes, bickering and heightened anxiety, no one was safe. The consequences are too frightening to comprehend. The blasts neatly organised and synchronised reminded us what an ominous storm Bangladesh is about to face from zealots in hiding.
From the very moment evidences started surfacing, the administration sidelined the issue. The coalition government's soft attitude or rather inaction to arrest growing militancy in the country may have inspired the "holy warriors" consumed by hate and revenge to wage war against the rule they call man-made. In the case of carnage and murder of intellectuals, politicians and journalists working to establish a just society, based on religious harmony through promotion of liberal education and mutual partnership of all sections of people in the society, by a group determined to establish a quaint system divorced from the realities of the world, it must be said that an ideologue with a closed mind kills one with an open mind. Precisely speaking, it is the desire to know that has been murdered by the 'need not to know'. If there was any lingering doubt that the militant groups have graduated from
poorly armed to the most threatening insurgents, that notion died on the 17th August.
Questions that we are not asking is because we are afraid of hurting radical beliefs and sentiments, so afraid that even after Pakistan's President General Pervez Musharraf admitted that such radicalism was causing a problem in Pakistan, we have not dared admit that we face a similar problem here. Being a moderate Muslim country, as we prefer to call ourselves although things have often gone at variance with our claim, we need to take note of the effects of radical sentiment among the lower middle classes and the semi-literate and illiterate, but we continue to pretend that we have nothing to worry about. There are two reasons for this and the first has to do with the fact
will find that all they teach is Islam and Arabic. There is nothing wrong in knowing Islam and Arabic rather it should be mandatory for Muslim children to know Arabic and the essence of Islam. But polarised education is bad. It has been widely acknowledged that unchecked mushrooming of such schools -often affiliated to hardline organisations and jehadi groups - has been the major factor in the spread of the culture of militancy. Children taught to look at the world through a religious prism will always see it divided into believers and infidels.
Undeniably true, institutions imparting religious education at day and militancy training at night to the children of the poorest section of the Muslim populace at no cost basis as reported in the media and confirmed
that we are currently ruled by the coalition government that include members who have still difficulty in accepting the ideology of Bangladesh and such people with closed mind either in the government or outside interpret Islam in the way that suits them and so any attempt to point out flaws in their interpretation gets you labeled" pro-western".
The second reason is that most attempts at rational discourse on the question of radical Islam fail because even moderate Muslims resent any questioning of religious faith. This is where the problem lies. If radical groups have become the voice of either in our own country or elsewhere in the world, it is because moderates are by and large too afraid to speak up. And it has to be sadly said that they also suffer a siege mentality that makes them partly join the chorus of those who seek to absolve say, Osama bin Laden for the hate campaign and secret bombings launched by his followers.
The views expressed by a group of people in the country are just crazy. A section claiming to be staunch followers of Islam are propagating some quaint edicts, "Kill in the name of Allah until you are killed. Then you will be in peace forever in paradise." Devout Muslims are shocked to hear that the name of their faith, which means submission to Allah, can summon up such images of violence. Paradoxically true, Islam's Holy Prophet Muhammad's (SM) precepts interpreted as a code of earthly behaviour that should have galvanised Muslim societies with hope for renewal are instead made to create a fear of upheaval. Yet we ask no questions nor make any attempt to persuade those groups to start asking questions themselves.
If you go to some religious schools which have mushroomed across the length and breadth of the country, you
by intelligence agencies and never denied by the government has been much of the problem. We can't fail to notice that large amount of foreign money, mostly from Muslim countries in the Middle East, came into Bangladesh both legally and illegally to establish mosques, madrassahs and to support orphanages, and small wonder, a large chunk of that money was pumped into jihadi fund, and an ugly manifestation of such activities the country has now witnessed.
Islam did not impose itself by the sword. In a statement in which the Arabic is extremely emphatic, the Quran insists, "There must be no coercion in matters of faith"(Sura 2,256) More so, Islam is not addicted to war and jihad is not one of its pillars or essential practices. The primary meaning of the word "jihad" is not holy war but "struggle"-- the difficult effort that is needed to put Allah's will into practice at every level, personal and social as well as political. Prophet Muhammad (SM) often told his companions when they went home after a battle, "We are returning from the lesser jihad (battle) to the greater jihad, the far more urgent and momentous task of extirpating wrongdoing from one's own society and one's own heart".
The investigative report published in different dailies about the huge amount of money is worrying because when such large amounts of foreign money have come in for the country's Muslim organisations, it has also promoted an ugly kind of fundamentalism in the country which earlier had the most gentle form of Islam.
Islam in Malaysia and Indonesia is another proposition than what we see here. Though influenced by Middle Eastern political currents, but Southeast Asia's mixed races have lived together and will continue to do so to attain their formidable
growth rates. They have understood that being illiberal means doom. And why should Islam be illiberal? At bottom, the Prophet Muhammad's (SM) revealed word is among the most egalitarian of religions. Certainly one of Islam's strongest appeals down the centuries was to people who felt victimised and deprived of worth in Allah's eyes, under the social hierarchies sanctified by some other faiths. In theory, with an ethic that allows merit to be rewarded, Islam ought to serve as a solid platform for political flexibility and economic growth.
Abdelwahab Belwahi, a Tunisian lawyer and a great scholar of Islamic studies sounds the same theme as he says, "Islamic militancy is entirely political." Algerian-born Mohammad Arkoun, professor of Islamic thought at the Sorbonne in Paris and one of the most penetrating analysts of the Islamising movement, underlines the extent to which social dislocations in the Muslim world have created a yearning for dignity. He hastens to add "Fundamentalist activism is nothing, if not youthful, and its young disciples are mostly urban, unemployed and profoundly unhappy with the politics they have known". In fact Islam is as universal-ist and as generous a consolation when it comes to finding a purpose, a guide for the soul, in a confusing world.
Imtiaz Ahmed, at New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University, attributes the more literalistic, even punitive and belligerent readings of the faith today to Islam's sense of being surrounded by threats. He says, "There are two views of Islamic law. They correspond to two portions of the Quran revealed in Mecca and Medina". In Mecca, where the Prophet's religion was fighting for survival, the precepts were "more militant", he says, while in Medina, where Islam ruled, the messages became more tolerant of minority views and other faiths. Medina may be the Islamists' ideal state but the stricter codes of Mecca are what they tend to consult for inspiration. So the practices followed in Medina by the Holy Prophet of Islam should perhaps guide our religious teachers and proponents of Islamic faith in establishing a cohesive society based on justice and fair play.
How could one find solace and comfort in a society with AK-47, AK-56 rifles and time device detonators in clandestine hands? How could the government close its eyes to such horrific things going inside the country? The government has failed to comprehend or rather underplayed the media reports without checking the authenticity and now when the country trembled with synchronised serial blasts skilfully organised and meticulously monitored, the whole administration was running helter-skelter for clues as well as identification of the evil gangs. True, we are living in an era of new terrorism. And the audacity of the planners befooling all intelligence agencies has stunned the nation. It is now clear that the merchants of death have the capacity to aim at dramatic attacks at strategic points that may shake the foundations of society and undermine the confidence of the people.
Md. Asadullah Khan is a former teacher of physics and Controller of Examinations, BUET.