USA to Bangladesh: give minorities religious freedom

Washington asks for more safeguards for persecuted communities but guarantees its commitment to maintain close ties with the country. Meanwhile, an Ahmadi mosque is set on fire. Bangladesh: we will punish those guilty of violence, but this is propaganda against us.

Dhaka (AsiaNews) – The Bangladesh government is seeking to put into perspective condemnation about an increasing number of episodes of religious persecution, while the United States expresses concern about the growing violence against the minority Ahmadis in the country. Yesterday, American Undersecretary of State, Nicholas R. Burns, while visiting the capital Dhaka, pointed a finger at persecution of Ahmadis perpetrated by Islamic fundamentalists. He referred explicitly to a recent attack against a mosque of this community, who are held by Orthodox Islam to be heretics.

Yesterday Burns had two separate meetings with the Interior Minister, Kutfozzaman Babar, and the Foreign Affairs Minister, M. Morshed Khan, to discuss bilateral relations. The undersecretary asked that Bangladesh respect minority rights but assured that the USA  will do all the necessary to maintain close links with the country, which is among its key allies in the war on terror.

 The Ahmadis are the target of a growing campaign of violence perpetrated by Muslim fundamentalism. AsiaNews had denounced the rapid and silent spread of this campaign with the complicity of police authorities. Human Rights Watch (HRW), a human rights organization, recently called on the international community to press Bangladesh not to sweep cases of religious persecution under the carpet and also to punish the guilty. According to HRW, "the current government coalition (led by the Bangladesh National Party – BNP) is more intolerant than any government since the country's founding."

The latest episode of violence against the Ahmadis took place last Friday, 24 June, in the town of Brahmanbaria. A group of extremists set fire to the mosque of Kandipara and detonated between 30 and 35 bombs inside the building, wounding two people. Manjur Hassan, one of the religious leaders of the local Ahmadiyya community, denounced the intimidation campaign as the work of the Khatme Nabuwat (KN), a group affiliated with Sunni extremists.

Interior Minister Babar however reassured Burns that the government is investigating Friday's attack and mentioned the arrest of eight suspects. In an attempt to present itself as tolerant and moderate before the international community, the Bangladesh government covers up activities of extremist Islamic groups and continues to keep quiet about prevailing strong fundamentalist pressures. In his meeting with the US Undersecretary, Foreign Affairs Minister Khan invited the United States not to pay attention to propaganda orchestrated against Bangladesh and he asked that the country be included in the Millennium Challenge Account promoted by the USA. This is a program of economic aid which distributes funds to developing countries which "have eradicated corruption, respect human rights and promote economic freedom."

• Bangladesh
• usa
• islam
• religious
• freedom
• development
• minority
• ahmadis
• fundamentalism
• millennium
• challenge
• account