A familylike equality in Bangladesh
One of the world’s most poignant scenes in August was that of students in largely Muslim Bangladesh guarding places of worship for the country’s religious minorities, mainly Hindus. A student movement, organized to bring about equality in job hiring, had ousted a dictator Aug. 5 and then extended its embrace of civic equality by protecting Hindus from violent persecution by radicals during a period of political chaos.
A new interim government also set up a hotline for people to report attacks on religious institutions. “Bangladesh is a country of communal harmony,” said a new religious affairs official, Dr. A.F.M. Khalid Hossain. “There is no problem in observing [Muslim] fasting and [Hindu] puja at the same time in this country.”
The attacks on Hindus have largely ended, but the head of the new interim government, Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus, has continued a drive for peace by visiting a Hindu temple Aug. 14. He delivered this message:
“I am here to say we are all equal. ... In our democratic aspirations, we should not be seen as Muslims, Hindus, or Buddhists, but as human beings.”
“Do not make distinctions among us,” he said. “Exercise patience and judge us later – what we were able to do and what we couldn’t. If we fail, criticise us.”
As he prepares his South Asian nation for free and fair elections, Dr. Yunus – globally famous for creating a system of microloans for poor people – keeps setting a model of inclusiveness, from the diverse makeup of his interim Cabinet to his assurance of support for the world’s largest camp of refugees.
An estimated 1.3 million mainly Muslim Rohingya who fled persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar live in a Bangladeshi settlement near the town of Cox’s Bazar. Dr. Yunus told foreign diplomats Aug. 18 that he will back ongoing humanitarian aid to the camp and work with other countries to eventually return the refugees to their homeland “with safety, dignity and full rights.” He has long been a champion for the Rohingya and is well known for urging people to break down the walls of prejudice based on religion, place of birth, or ethnicity.
He has also promised Bangladeshis that they would live as a family with no room for discrimination. So far, both he and the student antidiscrimination movement that brought him to power are getting it right: “Equality” is really a verb, not a noun.
