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| নির্বাচিত পোস্ট | লগইন | রেজিস্ট্রেশন করুন | রিফ্রেস |
রেজাউল করিম ফকির
অধ্যাপক, কোবে গাকুইন বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়
Real Talk: Why This Matters
Let's be direct: religion can be a source of meaning, community, and resistance—or it can be twisted into a weapon of control. In Bangladesh, we're witnessing how certain Islamic groups aren't just interpreting Islam differently; they're actively monopolizing, commercializing, and corrupting religious discourse to consolidate power, silence dissent, and marginalize anyone who doesn't fit their narrow vision. This isn't about theology—it's about power, and it's time we call it what it is.
For Gen Z scholars entering sociology, this case study matters because it reveals how identity politics, digital radicalization, economic precarity, and authoritarian tendencies intersect in our hyperconnected world. The tools may be ancient texts, but the tactics—platform manipulation, network effects, cancel culture, gatekeeping—will feel familiar.
Deconstructing the Game: Power Dressed in Piety
1. The Monopoly Move: Creating Religious Gatekeepers
Think of religion as open-source software. Islam's texts and traditions are meant to be accessible, interpretable, adaptable. But certain groups are trying to turn it proprietary—claiming they hold the only valid license to Islamic authenticity.
This is epistemic violence—controlling not just what people do, but what they're allowed to think and believe. When one sect declares itself the sole authority on Islam:
• They delegitimize centuries of diverse Islamic thought (Sufism, rationalist traditions, feminist interpretations)
• They create artificial hierarchies where none existed
• They gatekeep who counts as a "real Muslim"
• They erase the intellectual contributions of those who disagree
The digital dimension: Social media algorithms amplify this. Extremist content often generates more engagement (outrage, fear, shares), giving monopolistic interpretations disproportionate reach while nuanced, pluralistic voices get buried.
2. Follow the Money: Religion as Business Model
Let's talk about the commodification of faith. Some groups have turned Islam into a profitable enterprise:
• Educational capture: Controlling madrasas and Islamic education to shape future generations
• Charity-industrial complex: Using zakat (charitable giving) to build dependency networks and buy loyalty
• Media empires: TV channels, YouTube, TikTok accounts monetizing religious content
• Political patronage: Trading religious legitimacy for government protection or resources
This isn't just about money—it's about creating structural dependencies where people need these gatekeepers for education, social services, political protection, even basic community acceptance.
3. Weaponization: When Belief Becomes a Threat
Here's where it gets dark. Religious discourse becomes weaponized when:
• Takfir culture (declaring others apostates) justifies violence or social death
• Blasphemy accusations become tools to eliminate rivals, activists, or critics
• Sectarian identity replaces substantive political ideology ("Vote for us because we're the real Muslims")
• Purity politics creates impossible standards that keep everyone in line through fear
This is authoritarianism wrapped in religious language. The goal isn't spiritual growth—it's compliance, submission, and the elimination of alternatives.
Theoretical Frameworks: The Sociology Behind the Power Play
Let's connect this to the conceptual tools sociology gives us:
Bourdieu's Religious Capital: Those who control religious interpretation accumulate "religious capital"—a form of social power that translates into economic and political influence. In Bangladesh, this capital is being hoarded, not shared.
Gramsci's Hegemony: When particular interpretations achieve dominance, they become "common sense"—naturalizing specific power arrangements while making alternatives seem deviant. The fight isn't just for power; it's for what counts as normal.
Weber's Charismatic Authority: Religious leaders claim direct connection to divine truth, bypassing rational-legal authority and traditional checks on power. This makes their authority difficult to challenge without being accused of challenging faith itself.
Foucault's Power/Knowledge: Control over religious knowledge means control over bodies, behaviors, and entire communities. Who gets to define "proper" Islamic practice controls how millions live their daily lives.
The Intersectional Damage: Who Gets Hurt?
The victims of religious monopolization aren't random—they're predictable:
Other Muslims: Sufis, progressive Muslims, Ahmadis, anyone interpreting Islam through lenses of social justice, feminism, or pluralism
Religious minorities: Hindus, Buddhists, Christians who face increased marginalization as exclusivist Islam gains ground
Women and LGBTQ+ folks: Restrictive gender norms and heteronormativity enforced through selective religious interpretation
Secular Bangladeshis: Anyone advocating separation of religion and state becomes a target
Critical thinkers: Academics, writers, bloggers who question or analyze religious authority (remember the blogger killings?)
This isn't just about religious freedom—it's about who gets to exist safely in public space.
The Betrayal: Islam's Humanistic Core vs. Its Weaponized Distortion
Here's the irony that should radicalize us as scholars: the Islam being weaponized contradicts its own foundational principles.
Quranic principles being violated:
• "There is no compulsion in religion" (2:256) → yet forced conformity
• "O humanity, We created you from male and female and made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another" (49:13) → yet sectarian division
• Emphasis on knowledge, reason, and debate → yet anti-intellectualism
• Justice (adl) and compassion (rahma) as core values → yet oppression
The concept of tawhid (divine unity) philosophically implies human unity. The principle of rahma (compassion) extends to all creation, not just co-sectarians. When religion is used to dehumanize rather than humanize, to divide rather than unite, to oppress rather than liberate—that's corruption. Full stop.
Digital Age Dynamics: How Sectarianism Goes Viral
Gen Z scholars need to understand the platform politics of religious extremism:
Algorithm amplification: Extremist content often outperforms moderate content because it's more emotionally charged. The attention economy rewards outrage, and sectarian content delivers.
Echo chambers: People get trapped in sectarian bubbles, never encountering alternative Islamic voices. Recommendation algorithms keep feeding them similar content.
Viral takfir: Accusations of heresy spread faster than rebuttals. By the time a scholar responds thoughtfully, the mob has already moved on.
Influencer Islam: Religious authority shifts from trained scholars to whoever has the most followers. Charisma and production value matter more than theological depth.
Cancel culture, religious edition: Public shaming and mass harassment of dissenters. Digital mobs enforce orthodoxy more effectively than any traditional institution could.
Disinformation campaigns: Fake quotes, manipulated videos, and manufactured controversies spread to discredit pluralistic voices.
The speed and scale of digital communication means monopolistic interpretations can achieve dominance faster than ever before. What took generations historically now happens in months.
Comparative Context: Bangladesh in Global Perspective
Bangladesh's experience isn't isolated—it's part of global patterns:
Similar dynamics elsewhere:
• Wahhabi expansionism funded by Gulf states across Muslim-majority nations
• Hindu nationalist instrumentalization of Hinduism in India
• Buddhist nationalism in Myanmar against Rohingya Muslims
• Christian dominionism in parts of the US and Africa
• Sectarian conflicts in Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen
Common conditions enabling religious instrumentalization:
• Economic precarity and inequality
• Weak or captured state institutions
• Transnational funding and ideological networks
• Identity-based politics replacing class-based movements
• Digital platforms amplifying extremism
• Postcolonial identity crises and nationalist movements
Understanding Bangladesh requires seeing it in this global context of religious politics, neoliberalism, and authoritarian populism.
Counter-Movements: The Resistance Is Real
But here's the hope: monopolization is meeting resistance.
Progressive Muslim voices: Scholars and activists reclaiming Islam for justice, equality, and pluralism—showing that alternative interpretations are authentic and grounded.
Feminist Islamic theology: Women reinterpreting texts from women's perspectives, challenging patriarchal readings that were always contextual, never universal.
Queer Muslims: Challenging heteronormative readings, finding LGBTQ+ affirmation within Islamic traditions.
Digital activists: Using the same platforms to spread pluralistic messages, creating counter-algorithms of compassion.
Interfaith movements: Building solidarity across religious lines, recognizing common struggles against authoritarianism.
Syncretic traditions: Bangladesh's rich Baul mysticism, Sufi practices, and cultural Islam that never fit narrow orthodoxies.
Youth movements: Gen Z Bangladeshis questioning inherited frameworks, creating hybrid identities.
These movements show that the story isn't over—religious meaning is still contested, and humanizing interpretations are fighting back.
Research Agenda: What Gen Z Scholars Should Investigate
If you're studying this, here are critical questions:
1. How do ordinary Bangladeshis navigate competing religious authorities in their daily lives? (Ethnography, interviews, digital ethnography)
2. What role do economic factors play in sectarian mobilization? (Follow the money—who funds these groups? What's the political economy of religious authority?)
3. How does gender shape religious authority and interpretation? (Who gets to interpret? Whose interpretations matter? How are women's voices suppressed or amplified?)
4. What's happening on digital platforms? (Network analysis of religious content spread, algorithm studies, platform ethnography)
5. How do transnational networks operate? (Saudi funding, Turkish influence, Pakistani connections, diaspora dynamics)
6. What enables pluralism to survive and thrive? (Where are the spaces of religious diversity persisting? What protects them?)
7. How do youth negotiate these pressures? (What's Gen Z Bangladesh doing with inherited religious frameworks? What's emerging?)
8. What are the mental health impacts? (Religious trauma, identity conflict, the psychology of living under religious authoritarianism)
9. How do class and caste intersect with sectarian politics? (Who benefits materially? How does religious capital convert to economic capital?)
10. What forms of everyday resistance exist? (How do people quietly subvert monopolistic interpretations in daily practice?)
Methodological Real Talk: Studying Religion Critically
As scholars, we face a challenge: how to critically analyze religion without:
• Reproducing Islamophobia or orientalism
• Dismissing genuine faith as "false consciousness"
• Treating all religious claims as equally valid
• Ignoring material power dynamics
The move: Analyze religious discourse as a social practice embedded in power relations. We're not judging theological truth—we're examining how religious interpretation functions as social power, who benefits, who suffers, and what alternatives are suppressed.
Practical approaches:
• Use discourse analysis to examine how texts are deployed
• Apply network analysis to map authority structures
• Conduct ethnography to understand lived experience
• Employ intersectional frameworks to see multiple oppressions
• Practice reflexivity about your own positionality
• Center marginalized voices in your research
• Collaborate with community organizations and activists
Ethical considerations:
• Protect research participants from harm (especially in authoritarian contexts)
• Don't extract knowledge without giving back
• Be explicit about your normative commitments (this research isn't neutral—it's for justice)
• Acknowledge what you don't know (especially if you're not Muslim, not Bangladeshi, not from affected communities)
Praxis: From Analysis to Action
Sociology isn't just about understanding the world—it's about changing it. For Gen Z scholars, research should connect to practice:
Amplify marginalized voices: Use your platforms to highlight pluralistic interpretations and alternative authorities
Document resistance: Make the counter-movements visible; they exist but often lack academic validation
Teach critical religious literacy: Help people understand how religious discourse operates as power
Build coalitions: Connect religious justice movements with other social justice work
Challenge institutional complicity: Call out how universities, governments, and NGOs enable religious monopolization
Support activists: Use your research to strengthen grassroots movements
Create accessible scholarship: Write for publics, not just academics; use social media strategically
Conclusion: Scholarship as Resistance
For emerging Gen Z scholars, studying the instrumentalization of religious discourse in Bangladesh isn't just academic—it's urgent. These dynamics affect millions of lives, shape political trajectories, and determine whether pluralism or authoritarianism wins.
Your generation brings crucial tools to this work:
• Digital fluency to understand platform dynamics and online radicalization
• Intersectional analysis connecting religion, gender, class, ethnicity, sexuality
• Global perspective seeing Bangladesh in transnational context
• Justice orientation refusing to normalize oppression
• Methodological innovation combining traditional and digital methods
• Collaborative ethics working with rather than on communities
The fight over Islamic interpretation in Bangladesh is ultimately about who gets to be fully human—who gets dignity, safety, freedom to exist and dissent. Sociology can't solve this struggle, but it can illuminate the mechanisms of oppression and amplify the voices of resistance.
Your job isn't neutral observation—it's rigorous analysis in service of human dignity and pluralistic coexistence. Bangladesh's Muslim communities deserve interpretations of their faith that honor both their spiritual commitments and their common humanity.
The instrumentalization of religious discourse isn't inevitable. It's a political project that can be contested, resisted, and ultimately transformed. Every sect claiming monopoly on truth faces the same contradiction: Islam's own intellectual traditions emphasize diversity of interpretation (ikhtilaf), the use of reason (aql), and the understanding that only God possesses ultimate knowledge.
Let's do the work.
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Contemporary Resources for Further Engagement:
Follow: Feminist Islamic scholars like Amina Wadud, Asma Barlas, Kecia Ali Read:
• Ayesha S. Chaudhry's work on domestic violence in Islamic law
• Khaled Abou El Fadl on authority in Islamic law
• Farid Esack on Quranic liberation theology
• Ali Riaz on Islamism in Bangladesh specifically
Explore:
• Muslim reform movements and their digital presence
• Progressive Muslim platforms and podcasts
• Bangladeshi feminist collectives and digital activists
Investigate:
• Decolonial Islamic thought challenging Western and authoritarian frameworks
• Critical studies of Gulf funding for religious institutions globally
• Transnational Islamist networks and their political strategies
Connect:
• With Bangladeshi activists and scholars working on these issues in real-time
• With progressive Muslim communities online and offline
• With interfaith justice movements
Platforms: Progressive Muslim podcasts, YouTube channels, Twitter/X communities, Substack newsletters
Classic Foundations:
• Talal Asad, "The Idea of an Anthropology of Islam"
• Saba Mahmood, "Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject"
• Olivier Roy, "Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah"
• Pierre Bourdieu, "Genesis and Structure of the Religious Field"
• Ali Riaz, "God Willing: The Politics of Islamism in Bangladesh"
০ টি 
+০/-০©somewhere in net ltd.