Open Mind

০১ লা সেপ্টেম্বর, ২০১৬ সকাল ১১:২০

Secularism is one of the four fundamental principles that had been induced into the original Constitution of Bangladesh in 1972. The secularism principle was removed from the constitution in 1977 by the 5th amendment of the constitution by Ziaur Rahman and also declared Islam as the state religion in 1988 by Muhammad Ershad. In 2010, Bangladesh Supreme Court declared the 5th amendment illegal and restored secularism as one of the basic tenets of the Constitution.

At present The Constitution of Bangladesh declares Secularism as one of the four fundamental principle of the state policy in Article-8 of Part-II[5] and also declares Islam as the state religion in Article-2A of Part-I.In Article 12 of Part -II of the constitution which was restored by the 15th amendment states -

The principle of secularism shall be realized by the elimination of -

Communism in all forms;
the granting by the state of political status in favor of any religion;
the abuse of religion for political purposes;
any discrimination against, or persecution of, persons practicing a particular religion."

So the question arises. Can we accept secularism in our society? Would it make any good or harm to us?
Can the bengali culture diversify with the muslim perspective? To me, it definitely can but sadly there are hurdles that must be overcomed as open and new ideas are not very welcome in this part of the world.

A Muslim might not want to become fully Bengali when a part of the Bengali culture contradicts with a core belief in his religion. Here is the conflict between the Bengali culture and Muslim Bengalis. For instance we can look at paying respect to the national heroes. Creating sculptures, paying tribute with flowers, lighting candles, and respecting fire is part of the Bengali culture. Islam does not allow these practices. There are two major conflicts. Islam allows for prayer only and is very strict about practices related to idolatry. Bengali culture contains many practices that are directly related to Hindu worship. So naturally the Bengali Muslims feel distant with these practices. Secondly, many of these practices are completely forbidden in Islam. For example the dominant Islamic scholarly opinion is that making sculptures is haram. It is true that a large number of Bengali Muslims are “liberals”. They go to the jumma prayer and at the same time have no problem honoring a statue by giving flowers at the altar. It is also true that another great number of Bengali Muslims are orthodox Muslims. They find it difficult to accept new practices and want to practice their religion without alterations. Although most modern schools have a Shaeed Minar, most madrasas do not have one. Bengali Muslims, including people of the Tabligh Jammat, Madrasa educated people, and Islamic political parties, are very sensitive about paying tribute at the Shaheed Minar. It would be wrong to term this sensitivity as ‘reactionary’. It did not come out of disrespect for the martyrs of Bengali language movement but it came out of the non Islamic way of paying respect to them. If the state disregards this conflict and force this ‘Bengali culture’ then the state must stand clearly against the orthodox Islam in the name of secularism. Since the orthodox Islam is the dominant Islam in the world this stance will be seen as secularism versus Islam and it will simply divide the people.

The Bengali Muslims are ethnically Bengali but they are Muslims by religion. But when the Bengali culture cannot adapt to the Muslim reality then it becomes a problem for the Bengali Muslims. To some it becomes important to put the Bengali identity first and to some it becomes pertinent to put the Muslim identity first. This is why some prefer the 6th century Arab clothing to Bengali clothing and to some Rabindranath becomes god. Some consider reciting the Quran after Fajr very important and yet some developed the habit of practicing music in the morning. Some try to unify these two ways and yet some consider one pole unacceptable or less acceptable. Clearly, the Bengali culture has failed to become this unifying platform and it will continue to be so in the future. So we must think about secularism from a different perspective. We have to look for something else outside of the “Bengali culture” to unify the Bengali Muslims and Muslim Bengalis. The crisis of secularism can be solved if the Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, all can come together as Bangladeshi citizens. We believe the solution is not in excluding one or the other but to embrace both identities.

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