Tribute to victims of the 2016 Dhaka attack. AP/Press Association Images. All rights reserved.The gruesome Dhaka cafe attack earlier this month has been viewed mostly through the lens of ISIS’s perceived increasing footprint in Bangladesh. But this ignores the sliding political legitimacy of a government – Sheikh Hasina’s supposedly secular Awami League – that has assumed the task of stemming terrorism in a country split along religious and secular lines since its very birth in 1971. If you want to understand the Dhaka massacre, you need to trace the ambiguous and contested domain of political legitimacy and religion in Bangladesh, which is largely responsible for the extremist violence the country is witnessing now.
An ambiguous stance toward Islam
Bangladesh won its independence from West Pakistan in 1971 after a protracted and bloody civil war that lasted for nine months, killing and displacing millions. While Pakistan was founded on the basis of Islam, Bangladesh’s Awami League, the main electoral force in the east, never emphasised Islam as the main binding force in East Pakistan. However, its 1970 election manifesto stated:
“The favoured religion of the vast majority of the population is Islam. On this matter the Awami League has decided that there will be in the Constitution very clear guarantees that no law will be formulated or enforced in Pakistan contrary to the laws of Islam well established in the Holy Quran and the Sunnah. There will be guarantees firmly established in the Constitution for preserving the purity of the numerous religious institutions. Adequate arrangements will be made for extending religious instructions at all levels.”
