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08503
July 14, 2008
Minorities push for secular constitution in Muslim Bangladesh
by Anto Akkara
Ecumenical News International
BANGALORE, INDIA — A joint forum of Buddhist, Christian and Hindu minorities in Bangladesh is lobbying quietly for the restoration of a secular constitution that was abolished 20 years ago making Islam the state religion in the Muslim-majority nation.
“We are trying our best to make our voices heard,” Nirmal Rozario, organizing secretary of the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council, told Ecumenical News International on July 8 from Dhaka.
In June, the council organized a seminar to coincide with the 20th anniversary of Islam becoming the State religion, despite a state of emergency being in force, following the seizure of power by the army in early 2007. Speakers at the seminar lamented that the abolition of the secular constitution had reduced the religious minorities in the Muslim-majority nation to “second class citizens.”
“Because of the emergency, we have only limited freedom to express our concerns. But, we have to keep voicing our concerns,” said Rozario, who is secretary general of the Bangladesh Christian Association, an ecumenical grouping.
The 1972 constitution that was formulated after the country’s independence from Pakistan in 1971 stipulated a separation of religion and State. In 1988, however, the insertion of a new constitutional article made Islam the “State religion of the Republic” with freedom for other religions to “be practiced in peace and harmony.”
Christians are a tiny minority in Bangladesh accounting for 0.03 percent of its estimated 153 million people, while about 83 percent are Muslims and 16 percent Hindus. Buddhists and people following traditional tribal religions account for the rest of the population.
Earlier in 2008, Rozario noted that the inter-religious council leaders had met top officials from the Bangladesh election commission urging them to ensure that names of religious minorities are not deleted by Islamic extremists from voters’ lists. Following the 2001 elections, he said, there were series of actions targeting minorities, especially Hindus and Christians, in areas where Muslim fundamentalist candidates were defeated.
Rozario said religious minorities have been “steadily marginalized after the secular foundation of the constitution was diluted” with the 1988 amendment.
“Due to that declaration, minorities have been discriminated against in every sphere of life - education, government jobs and even in many non-governmental organizations, as well as the police, and the administration,” said Rosaline Costa, human rights coordinator of Hotline Bangladesh, a Roman Catholic advocacy group, who was one of the organizers of the June inter-religious meeting.
Costa said that despite candidates from religious minorities securing top positions in police or army recruitment tests, they lose out in the final list. “The apartheid we [minorities] face will end only when equal opportunity is guaranteed to all religious people living in Bangladesh,” Costa told ENI.
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