A moderate country
Masud Rana, On e-mail
While living outside of Bangladesh, I miss my country very much and am very proud of it. The US state department has lauded Bangladesh for its freedom of religious practice, which Bangladesh deserves because throughout its history, it has always been accepting and tolerant to multiculturalism and multiple religions. Still there are some cases of law and order problem and problem with our politicians for which our country has been suffering for quite some time. But these are not problems with the ingrained nature of our very peaceful and tolerant nation. It is because of the very moderate nature of our dear people that Bangladesh, I believe, will never grow to be a religiously fanatic and fundamentally extremist country. Neither will it grow to be a liberal extremist country (like France) where the right to wear hijab will be taken away in the name of secularism. In a sense I don't see any difference between the Taliban who pull down and destroy Buddha statues of immense historical importance in the name of religion and the government of France who support banning hijab by Muslim women in school in the name of secularism. Canada is now the most tolerant multicultural society in the world. But if our politicians in Bangladesh, Pakistan and India can understand and act accordingly, I believe the countries in the subcontinent will be, historically speaking the most tolerant, moderate and multi-cultural societies in the world. The people of this part of the world have always proved that. Should our politicians not heed to the language of this part of the world?
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Photo: AFP |
