Militants are militants...
Shamsher Chowdhury, Dhaka
My attention has been drawn to a news- item under the heading "Islamic Militants no threat" says, our Home Minister Altaf Hossain published in your esteemed daily on 24th August. To me the statement made is rather insensitive and naive giving out wrong signals to the otherwise free and democratic Bangladeshi society. Although our readers would recall that making wrong kind of statements is not new with our venerable Home Minster. Most of our law makers have been making remarks which are arrogant, naive and often depressing. Remember our Shipping Minster proudly announcing that he and he alone was capable of delivering the goods when dead bodies were floating on the rivers. And now this. My first reaction to his remark was "Why should there be any Militant whether it is Islamic, Hindu, Christian or Buddhist. Militants are militants and should be dealt with severely" I have often wondered why is it that all over the world including the Muslim majority countries talk of Islamic or Muslim militants only and not the Hindu or Christian militants. The reason is simple. Militants also exist elsewhere in the world but then they have not been allowed to cast a negative influence on the socio-economic order of the countries. It is now a tested fact globally that politics and religion or politics of religion do not go hand in hand. No one knows it better than Bangladesh. Where else has Islam been so much used and abused like that in Bangladesh. I for one certainly do not wish to see a repetition of a similar experience. On the other hand these are difficult times. We do not wish to nurture or encourage any individual or organisation which may have the slightest possibilities of giving rise to situations like the Bali carnage or the recent bombing of the UN Offices in Baghdad. We must realize that no nation today can survive in isolation. The world has become a global village and we do have other matters to deal with than being complacent and or encourage religious fundamentalists.
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