Bangladeshi Christians who account for less than half percent of some 165 million inhabitants in the country pray during an Easter Mass in Dhaka on April 8, 2007. (Photo: AFP/ UCAN files)
Interfaith groups and minority outfits have urged the Bangladesh government to act on the annual United States International Religious Freedom (USIRF) report which said Christians, Hindus, and Buddhists are often targeted in the South Asian nation.
“The perpetrators of communal violence largely enjoy impunity," the report, released on May 16 in Washington, said about Bangladesh.
“What the report says is true,” said Rana Dasgupta, general secretary of the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council.
“The government should act to free religious minorities of the fear and apprehension with which they live in Bangladesh,” Dasgupta observed.
Dasgupta noted that the population of minorities has decreased by 10 percent over the last five decades since Bangladesh’s independence in 1971.
The government must ensure that this decline does not continue, demanded Dasgupta, citing the 2022 census, which said the percentage of Sunni Muslims increased to 91 percent from 89 percent in 2011 while the Hindu population decreased to 8 percent from 10 percent. Christians were down to 0.30 percent from 0.31 percent while Buddhists declined to 0.61 percent from 0.62 percent.
The USIRF report, published by the US State Department, contained details of communal attacks against Christians, Buddhists and Hindus and their places of worship in 2022.
Sanjeeb Drong, general secretary of Bangladesh Adivasi Forum, described the USIRF report as a true reflection of what is actually happening in Bangladesh.
“It is the responsibility of the state to ensure the security of minorities,” he said, citing many incidents where perpetrators go scot-free due to political patronage.
What is worrying about Bangladesh “is the perpetrators of rights violation enjoy impunity,” said Drong.
The US report also talked about criticisms from minority communities for arbitrarily arresting their members under the sweeping Digital Security Act and its provision to prevent blasphemy.
“These attacks are sometimes politically motivated,” said Nirmal Rosario, president of the Bangladesh Christian Association.
“What we see happening with minorities in Bangladesh is actually occurring with minorities across the world,” said Nirmal.
The USIRF report shed light on budgetary allocations for religious bodies.
The allocation for the Islamic Foundation increased to 18.17 billion taka (US$179 million) compared with 17.58 billion taka ($167 million) in fiscal 2021-2022.
The Hindu Welfare Trust received 668.9 million taka ($6.3 million) compared with 1.724 billion taka ($16 million).
The Buddhist Welfare Trust received 18.3 million taka ($174,000) and the Christian Welfare Trust got 13 million taka ($124,000).
When contacted, Mufti Mohammad Ruhul Amin, the Khatib who delivers the sermons at Baitul Mukarram National Mosque, like many other religious leaders, declined to comment on the USIRF report’s findings that the imams were censoring their sermons to conform to government policies and diktats in the Muslim majority nation.
