Bangladesh - Silencing the secular

A Bangladeshi blogger, Niloy Chatterjee, who used the pen name Niloy Neel and was a critic of religious extremism, was killed by suspected Islamic militants on August 7. This is the fourth time that a blogger has been hacked to death with a machete in Bangladesh this year. Chatterjee was an atheist of Hindu background. Those that have been killed in the past have had varying religious identities and backgrounds. All of the four men that have been killed this year were on a list of 84 “atheist bloggers” that was submitted to the government and circulated publicly. Not all of these bloggers were atheists but they had been part of a campaign to promote secularism in Bangladesh. The only thing that all these attacks have in common is that they were all directed against bloggers who have raised their voice against the rising trend of Islamic extremism in the world and have demanded that the perpetrators of atrocities in Bangladesh’s 1971 war should be brought to justice. Bloggers in Bangladesh, Chatterjee among them, had been demanding the prosecution of Islamic leaders accused of being involved in war crimes during the 1971 war of independence. The Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina Wajed, set up a tribunal to conduct trials for war crimes in 1971 and several leaders of an Islamist party that had carried out massacres have so far been convicted, of whom a few have been hanged. The recent rise in violence from Islamic extremists could be a backlash against this drive. The Bangladeshi government, under Sheikh Hasina, is expected to do everything in its power to bring to justice those who perpetrated these attacks. The government should also provide security to bloggers, journalists and all others vulnerable to such attacks.

Imran Sarker, the leader of a network of activists and bloggers has condemned the attack, saying, “We are speechless. He was demanding justice for killing of other bloggers. Who will be next for demanding justice for Niloy?” As Sarker has suggested, these attacks are attempts to silence all secular voices in Bangladesh. Perhaps one of the reasons for the recent escalation of religiously motivated violence in Bangladesh is the increasing prevalence of radical Islamic terrorist groups and ideologies. It is quite admirable that these bloggers continue to provide an alternative narrative to the growing fundamentalist propaganda by groups such as Islamic State, knowing that they are risking their lives in doing so. Such individuals, anywhere in the world, should be celebrated and protected and the world must realise the importance of promoting and defending a secular counter-narrative to fundamentalism.