“The situation of minorities in Bangladesh is less well known … We want to create awareness about it.”
Matthew Lapierre: Dozens of people marched on Parliament Hill, the home to Canada’s federal government, on Saturday to decry increasing communal violence in Bangladesh.
“All faiths deserve respect,” said Ria Paul-Chowdhury, whose aunt and cousins live in Bangladesh. Her relatives are Hindu, a minority in the predominantly Muslim country. In recent weeks, Hindus have been the target of a rising wave of violence.
“I’m really scared,” Paul-Chowdhury said. “I’m anxious for them. My aunt has been telling me that she’s scared to go out when the sun sets because they’re scared for their own safety.”
Ria Paul-Chowdhury, middle, has an aunt and cousins who live in Bangladesh. Her relatives are Hindu. PHOTO BY ASHLEY FRASER /Postmedia
The recent violence began in October, during a large Hindu religious festival called Durga Puja, when allegations spread on social media that a Quran, the Muslim holy book, was disrespected inside a Hindu temple. Local media reported that groups of Muslims attacked Hindu temples.
But the roots of the conflict go back much further, according to Hasan Mahmud Tipu, a researcher who has studied the situation in Bangladesh and who attended Saturday’s march in Ottawa. He said the conflict had its roots in the 1980s, when a military government took power in Bangladesh and changed the country’s secular constitution, establishing Islam as the state religion.
Hasan Mahmud Tipu, a researcher who attended Saturday’s march in Ottawa says the conflict in Bangladesh has its roots in the 1980s, when a military government took power and changed the country’s secular constitution, establishing Islam as the state religion. PHOTO BY ASHLEY FRASER /Postmedia
“Religion in the constitution — the state religion being Islam — is implying power to the majority,” Mahmud Tipu said. He attended the demonstration even though his family in Bangladesh are Muslim and are largely unaffected by the violence. “Everyone has the same rights,” he said. “There should not be any discrimination regarding religion, regarding customs, regarding anything.”
“Over the years, it has gone down,” Paul-Chowdhury said. “Almost 200,000 Hindus migrate out of Bangladesh every year because of unsettlement or because of being too scared to stay.”
Saturday’s demonstration in Ottawa followed others in cities across Canada, including Toronto, Calgary, and Winnipeg. The purpose of these marches, according to a man named Subrata, who came to Parliament Hill, but preferred to only be identified by his first name because he feared professional reprisals for speaking out on a sensitive topic, was to raise awareness about the situation in Bangladesh.
A group gathered on Parliament Hill on Saturday for a solidarity walk to draw attention to the situation facing minorities in Bangladesh. PHOTO BY ASHLEY FRASER /Postmedia
It was not only Hindus who needed support in Bangladesh, Subrata said. The signs he and his fellow demonstrators carried highlighted how Buddhists and other minorities, including some smaller Muslim sects, had long faced discrimination and violence.
“It’s a question of making an alliance of secularists everywhere and standing up for the minorities,” he said. “The most important thing is that 20 million people (Bangladeshi minorities) will feel at home. They won’t feel like second-class citizens in their own homeland.”
The support of the global community could go a long way towards helping Hindus and other minorities inside Bangladesh, according to Sanjay Dash, a demonstrator who also has family in Bangladesh.
“Canada has a big partnership with Bangladesh,” he said. “We want Canada to be vocal about this. Then they can demand justice and security for these minorities.”
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