- News>
- Asia
Bangladesh ministry blasts HK magazine on article
Bangladesh`s foreign ministry on Wednesday said an article in the latest issue of the Hong Kong-based Far Eastern Economic Review magazine describing the mainly Muslim country as a land of rising fundamentalism and religious intolerance was baseless.
Bangladesh's foreign ministry on Wednesday said an article in the latest issue of the Hong Kong-based Far Eastern Economic Review magazine describing the mainly Muslim country as a land of rising fundamentalism and religious intolerance was baseless.
"Bangladesh is deeply committed to democratic practises and tolerance, and religious disharmony is farthest from people's mind," a senior foreign ministry official, who declined to be identified, told reporters.
"On the contrary, Bangladesh has been universally described as a moderate, Muslim democracy," he said, adding that the Review article's description of the country was a "figment of someone's wild imagination."
Nearly 87 percent of Bangladesh's 130 million people are Muslims.
The article said: "rising fundamentalism and religious intolerance are threatening secularism and moderate Islam (in Bangladesh)."
"The implications (of these) for the region and beyond are grave, but it's not too late for a counter-revolution." The April 4 edition of the magazine which carried the article has not hit the streets yet in Bangladesh, but its online version is available locally and has been seen by some readers. The government has not decided yet on the course of action it plans to take following the magazine's publication of the article, the ministry official said. The Review's deputy editor David Plott in Hong Kong told reporters: "I did receive a letter from the Bangladesh consul-general here...we'll be publishing some of the letter that I got from them in our issue that comes out on Thursday."
He declined to comment further. The Review article said Bangladesh had "militant groups with links to international terrorist groups" and "mushrooming Islamic schools churning out radical students.
It also spoke of " government inaction despite the clear evidence of creeping fundamentalism over the first decade." The Bangladeshi official said: "The strongest manifestation of religious tolerance in Bangladesh was most visible when there were absolutely no repercussions in the country after the recent carnage in Gujarat (in western India)."
More than 800 people, mostly Muslims, died in religious violence that erupted between Hindus and Muslims in Gujarat state in late February. "Firm measures by the government of Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia and a supreme sense of maturity on the part of the population enabled complete peace and harmony in the country in the face of grave provocation," the official added. "A series of high level foreign political visits have taken place to Bangladesh since the coming to office by the new government and many more are in the pipeline. This is testimony to the global confidence in Bangladesh," he said. "What is perhaps more surprising is that such a baseless, unfounded story should find a place in a well known publication like the Review," he added.
Bureau Report
"On the contrary, Bangladesh has been universally described as a moderate, Muslim democracy," he said, adding that the Review article's description of the country was a "figment of someone's wild imagination."
Nearly 87 percent of Bangladesh's 130 million people are Muslims.
The article said: "rising fundamentalism and religious intolerance are threatening secularism and moderate Islam (in Bangladesh)."
"The implications (of these) for the region and beyond are grave, but it's not too late for a counter-revolution." The April 4 edition of the magazine which carried the article has not hit the streets yet in Bangladesh, but its online version is available locally and has been seen by some readers. The government has not decided yet on the course of action it plans to take following the magazine's publication of the article, the ministry official said. The Review's deputy editor David Plott in Hong Kong told reporters: "I did receive a letter from the Bangladesh consul-general here...we'll be publishing some of the letter that I got from them in our issue that comes out on Thursday."
He declined to comment further. The Review article said Bangladesh had "militant groups with links to international terrorist groups" and "mushrooming Islamic schools churning out radical students.
It also spoke of " government inaction despite the clear evidence of creeping fundamentalism over the first decade." The Bangladeshi official said: "The strongest manifestation of religious tolerance in Bangladesh was most visible when there were absolutely no repercussions in the country after the recent carnage in Gujarat (in western India)."
More than 800 people, mostly Muslims, died in religious violence that erupted between Hindus and Muslims in Gujarat state in late February. "Firm measures by the government of Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia and a supreme sense of maturity on the part of the population enabled complete peace and harmony in the country in the face of grave provocation," the official added. "A series of high level foreign political visits have taken place to Bangladesh since the coming to office by the new government and many more are in the pipeline. This is testimony to the global confidence in Bangladesh," he said. "What is perhaps more surprising is that such a baseless, unfounded story should find a place in a well known publication like the Review," he added.
Bureau Report