Fakhrul warns against religious division

Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Minister Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Friday alleged that a vested quarter is trying to undermine the country's communal harmony by creating divisions in the name of religion.

The minister made the remarks while addressing a views-exchange and representatives' conference titled "Ensuring Protection and Security for Minorities", organised by the Sammilita Sanatan Parishad at the Diploma Engineers Institution auditorium in the capital.

Fakhrul, who is also the BNP secretary general, urged people to remain united against such attempts to destroy the country's longstanding tradition of communal harmony.

He said establishing an effective democratic state is the best way to ensure the protection and security of minority communities, stressing that the constitutional, personal and religious rights of all citizens would be safeguarded under a functioning democracy.

Greeting followers of the Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist and Christian faiths, Fakhrul said there should be no division on the basis of religion, adding that Bangladesh's greatest weakness has been its failure to build a strong democratic state.

He said women nominated to the National Parliament include representatives from the Sanatan and Matua communities as well as plain-land ethnic and hill communities, describing the initiative as part of the party's "31-point Rainbow State" concept.


Urging people not to dwell on past grievances, he said repeatedly revisiting past oppression would make it difficult to move forward and called on everyone to remain vigilant against efforts to sow communal discord.

Thanking followers of the Sanatan religion for supporting the BNP in the last election, Fakhrul said the party remained committed to preserving Bangladesh's tradition of communal harmony.

Speaking on the country's political situation, he said democracy had been destroyed over the past 15 years but Bangladesh now had an opportunity to institutionalise it again.

He said those who seek to erase the history of 1971 do not believe in Bangladesh, while the July Movement also cannot be denied because many people sacrificed their lives to restore democracy and end authoritarian rule.

Opposing any attempt to divide the country on religious grounds, Fakhrul said extremism and fundamentalism could not be tolerated under any circumstances, adding that the government's goal was to build a liberal and democratic Bangladesh.