On Saturday, Sept 27th, 2014, I encountered a group of Bengali Muslims from the BNP (Bangladesh Nationalist Party) protesting outside the United Nations against the atrocities committed against innocent people in Bangladesh [PICS BELOW]. The majority of these "innocent people" are of course Hindus, however, their signs did not highlight this fact. To those who are naive to "minority politics" in Bangladesh, one might think that this display is wholly a good thing. On some level, it does help the Hindu cause because it proves that there is indeed a violence issue in Bangladesh, this fact coming from the very lips of Bengali Muslims themselves. However, behind these pleas for peace lay much more sinister motives, and as usual, it is Hindus who pay for such political maneuvering and trickery.
You see, Bengali politics are divided between hard line Islamists (radical Islamists disguised as BNP) vs the quazi-secular Socialism of the now ruling Awami League. Both sides know how to use the suffering of minority Hindus to their advantage. The strategy of the Islamist elements of Bangladesh is more straight forward, if they don't get their way they simply attack and kill minority Hindus until the Awami League gives into their demands, this because the Awami League has schemed the Hindus of Bangladesh into a captive vote bank, dead Hindus equals less votes for Awami. But by allowing Islamist violence against Hindus to flourish under their rule, the Awami League can then offer the troubled community Hindu a minimal amount of relief in exchange for their cooperation during election time. Bengali Hindu friends of mine tell me that Awami League officials actually silently incite Islamist violence so as to force Hindus into their vote bank and to increase their image in the West as a partner in the war on terrorism.
But now the tide has turned in the other directions, the cat is out of the bag and the Awami League's double play has become transparent. By purposely putting minority Hindus in danger the Awami League has given Islamists their card to play. The Islamist elements have one agenda, that is to get the Awami League out of power, so they send their unidentified elements to protest the legitimate machinations of the Awami League. With their game turned against them, the Awami League ceases to see Hindus as a vote bank asset but a liability as Hindus are now being used to smear the Awami Leauge. There is of course only one recourse for the Awami League to take, and that is to try to tarnish their Islamist BNP rival's image with more Hindu bloodshed. The more the violence against Hindus in Bangladesh can be blamed on BNP, the better for the Awami League, and so this becomes the crypto-policy of the party. In return, the Islamists can use violence on Hindus as a corruption smear campaign against the Awami League, and so violence on Hindus becomes useful to to both sides.
The disingenuousness of the BNP (a.k.a. Jamaat-E-Islami in disguise) protesters became apparent when I approached them with some literature on Jammat-E-Islami's violence against Hindus. When they saw that I was highlighting the Islamist role in the cycle of minority violence they became upset with my presence and made it clear they did not want me around. These protesters don't care about violence against innocent Hindus, only using violence to tarnish the name of the Awami League so they can get in power. And so what is the solution? The solution is to expose the crimes of both sides of this conflict. The Socialists are just as guilty of violence against Hindus as the Islamists. Only when all parties involved are identified and attacked will Hindus lose their political expediency, we can get a wedge in Bangladesh's politics of minority violence and truly obtain Justice For Hindus.
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