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Why not someone tell the story of Bangladesh in TED?
Bangladesh is a young country that earned it's freedom from a repressive regime through a bloodbath. It's founding ideals had been those of a liberal, secular democracy. But for 4 decades the fate of Bangladesh oscillated between democracy and military rule. The story of Bangladesh remained a gradual takeover of the spirited and progressive society by Islamic fundamentalism. The political parties forgot the founding principles of the country and the sacrifice that its people made for it so that the traitors that once supported the massacre by Pakistani military could go unpunished and sometime even get to be ministers.
2013 is witnessing a historical movement by civil society in Bangladesh named Shahbag movement.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Shahbag_protests
This is possibly the last chance for Bangladesh to win a decisive battle against religious fundamentalism and in favor of liberal democracy if not entirely secular. Can we accumulate our opinions about this remarkable social change by a largely Muslim population striking at the core of it's own religious extremism?
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Salim Solaiman 50+
In post 1975 era, the anti linberation fundamentalist forces being in power in disguise of military dictatorship and cantonment made democracy tried to bring a fundamentalist character to the country by taking out Secularism out of the constitution. They also twisted the history to confuse new generation. Until Shabagh Movement happened Politicians and even the so called Civil Society was not sure about IDENTITY awareness of New Generation.
Thanks goes to development of IT and information super highway......New Generation don't have any identity crisis. They are clear about the secular nature of Bengali Psyche. They know their enemy......they also could make the generation next awake i.e. Kids who are yet to start their journey along the information super highway got the wake up call for their own soul searching......which will have profound positive impact in days to come....
It also gave a clear message to the politicians that meddling up with negative forces of society for short term political gain will not be tolerated.
https://www.facebook.com/salim.solaiman?ref=tn_tnmn#!/photo.php?fbid=528344530541702&set=a.525843160791839.113334.525832910792864&type=1&theater
https://www.facebook.com/salim.solaiman?ref=tn_tnmn#!/photo.php?fbid=529258780450277&set=a.525843160791839.113334.525832910792864&type=1&theater
https://www.facebook.com/salim.solaiman?ref=tn_tnmn#!/photo.php?fbid=530950866947735&set=a.525843160791839.113334.525832910792864&type=1&theater
https://www.facebook.com/salim.solaiman?ref=tn_tnmn#!/photo.php?fbid=512721198778328&set=a.507907859259662.126127.507894382594343&type=1&theater
https://www.facebook.com/salim.solaiman?ref=tn_tnmn#!/photo.php?fbid=528294497213372&set=a.525843160791839.113334.525832910792864&type=1&theater
Pabitra Mukhopadhyay 30+
Kate Blake 50+
Sadly if Muslims don't stand up to the fundamentalists this disease will only grow! Thank you for sharing.
How can we in other countries support this?
Salim Solaiman 50+
Some other beauty of this event is the spontaneous nature of participation.....while political parties spend money to bring people (it might be unique to my country ...) in their meetings , in this case its sponatenous rather who are participating spending money to help others....say one is buying a bottle of water sharing it with the person beside her/him !!!
Participation of women and kids are another big mark of it ..usually they tend to avoid political meetings......so the claim of opponent of this movement it being politically motivated or painting it as anti-religious is futile.
Age distribution of the mass is also another positive indicator.....pre-dominantly young girls and boys who seldom are interested about political issues are participating en mass......moreover usually in our society parents advises kids not go to such events.....it's exceptional from that perspective as well because partents are also participating.....say I went there number of times with my family.....
Bengalis living indifferent countries already expressed their solidarity with this movement .....things are happening in Australia as well....
Being an enlighten human like you , people of other countries can stand against any move by their own government which is against this Shabagh movement.....Thanks
Kate Blake 50+
I think if my government is aware of what the Shabagh movement is about there would be massive support. One of our politicians was just deported from Malaysia because he had protested about their human rights record. must remember to ask Muhammad about that as I wasn't aware of any transgressions in Malaysia, and we certianly don't have too good a record here in Aus.