Humanism, of necessity, treasures moderation and forbearance that edify to behave in a level-headed manner, despite provocation perpetrated by asinine elements in cahoots with crooks who zoom in on fishing in troubled waters that could conflagrate religious disharmony and engender mayhem. That seems to have been done at Nasirnagar in Brahmanbaria, identical to a repeat action of the violent incidents of 2012 at Ramu in Cox’s Bazar.
Among the poets of the Subcontinent who cherished and treasured secularism and communal harmony in letter and spirit, the foremost name is unmistakably the ‘Rebel Poet’ Kazi Nazrul Islam, our National Poet. Composer of a good number of excellent Hindu devotional Shyama Sangeet, Nazrul was the only poet who emphatically pronounced, “Who is there to question if we are Hindus or Muslims? Tell them: They are human beings—-children of my Mother.”
In Nasirnagar Upazila of Brahmanbaria district at least 15 temples were vandalised on 30 October 2016 on allegations of disrespect shown to Islam on Facebook lampooning the Masjid al-Haram, the holy site of Muslims; and over 100 houses belonging to the Hindus in the area were also vandalized and looted. Locals said the incident started with a Facebook post by one Rasraj Das, son of Jagannath Das from Harinber village under Haripur Union Parishad. Police detained Rasraj immediately after the allegation of blasphemy had surfaced against him. Protests against Rasraj’s post were called under the banner of ‘Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat’ in Habiganj district headquarters and Nasirnagar. A group of madrasa students demonstrated on the premises of Brahmanbaria Press Club while hundreds of people blocked Sarail-Nasirnagar-Lakhai road by torching tyres. From the demonstrations, a group of miscreants started to vandalize and loot the Hindu temples; hundreds of houses of the Hindu community were ransacked.
Conspicuously, the role of the local administration came under serious scrutiny when, according to the witnesses and journalists, the assaults on the Hindus in Brahmanbaria’s Nasirnagar Upazila could have been foiled had the local administration and police acted immediately and taken preventive measures. “Police just sat there without gears and any actions”, asserted Anjan Kumar Dev, Vice Chairman of the Nasirnagar Upazila and Kajal Jyoti Dutta, President of the Upazila Puja Udjapan Committee. Both of them were injured by the assailants. Both Anjan and Kajal mentioned that the administration and the police ought to assume liability for the assaults on the Hindus, and they were “surprisingly late” in their reaction to the assaults. [Vide Dhaka tribune. com/ Bangladesh / nation/ 2016/10/30; the Daily Star. net /rampage –over -hindus; the financial express-bd.com/ 2016/10/31; eibela24.com/article/role-of-administrator -being-referred]
Brahmanbarhia is said to be a stronghold of fundamentalists; and in January last a music college named after the acclaimed maestro of the Subcontinent, Ustad Alauddin Khan, was vandalised in the district following the death of a madrassa student.
Now it is time to tell a few home truths about the ruling Awami League, whose leaders are vociferous and loud-mouthed in claiming that since it is the secular party, some of the worst communal disturbances took place over the years. The horrendous slaughter in public of an apolitical innocent Hindu young man, Biswajit Das, by a group of the Jagannath University students belonging to the BCL were the most discussed incidents at home and abroad.
To look back, all hell broke loose on 28 October 2006 when the Awami League cadres rallied carrying long poles and oars that were used in beating several persons to death in broad daylight at Paltan intersection. Interminable lethal armed attacks every now and then during the last five years, generally with impunity, on campuses and elsewhere— most often in collaboration with the police— perpetrated by some members of the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), the student front of the ruling Awami League (AL), on general students protesting their unlawful acts, left many people dead and many more maimed.
Befuddling as it is, despite the ongoing offences against the minority Hindus at Mothbaria as well as in Dhaka city [on which incidents the Holiday ran two editorials —- about the Rebati Mohan Das Road in Dhaka incident on March 26, 2010 and land grabbing attempt on Shree Shree Bhagabat Mandir at Nabendranath Basak Lane in Dhaka on April 9, 2010], disturbances have not stopped. [Vide the Holiday dated May 14, 2010]
The bottom line is: None must hurt any religion—-Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and so forth—-and their followers. None must provoke or inflame hatred against any section of our society for political persuasion. Anti-Islam bloggers in our milieu have inflamed anti-Muslim sentiments attacking the Holy Prophet of Islam because they are ignorant about the fact that Islam and the Prophet of Islam has been admired in no uncertain terms by the great philosopher and scholar comrade M N Roy, a close comrade of V I Lenin, in his book “Historical Role of Islam: An Essay on Islamic Culture”.
Source; Weekly Holiday
