Armies of Liberation

Jane Novak's blog about Yemen

My article on Bangladesh in the Arab News

Filed under: General, Janes Articles — by Jane Novak at 6:20 pm on Sunday, April 10, 2005

in Saudi Arabia is here.

Bangladeshis have much to be proud of. They achieved independence and a pluralistic state after a hard-fought war. Nearly twenty years later they took to the streets dissatisfied with military rule and stood united for democracy. Devastating annual floods covering a third of the country does not deter their commitment to democracy and modernity. Lately Bangladesh has gained notoriety for the spread of extremism, but jihadis don’t spring from the ground like mushrooms.

Also at Middle East Transparent and Blogger News Network.

Update: Also at Townhall, Foreign Policy April 12. “The Conservative Movement Starts Here.”
(Townhall motto.)

And Tech Central Station April 14. “Where Free Markets Meet Technology.” (TCS motto.) They put a picture of a scary looking guy. Now it seems like a whole different article. They should have put a picture of two cute kids to give it the mood I wanted.

And Pakistan in The Daily Times.

And World Press.org

16 Comments

1

Trackback by Cranky Neocon

4/10/2005 @ 7:53 pm

Armies of Liberation
I NEVER get tired of saying, Armies of Liberation published another tribute to democracy in the Middle East. This stop – Bangladesh (in the Arab News). Bangladeshis have much to be proud of. They achieved independence and a pluralistic state

2

Comment by Walter E. Wallis

4/10/2005 @ 11:18 pm

Hollywood abandoned them.

3

Comment by Jane

4/11/2005 @ 3:56 am

Where’s George Harrison when you need him? Maybe Bono can do a song and wake everybody up.

4

Comment by Asif Imtiaz

4/11/2005 @ 11:35 am

Thanks for the article.

5

Trackback by The Jawa Report

4/11/2005 @ 11:55 am

Weekend Update, with Rusty Shackleford
Had a long weekend. Spent all day Saturday in Memphis. My first time in TN. It was one of those travel-in/travel-out on the same day deals. Can any one in Memphis tell me what the deal is with the pyramid?…

6

Comment by Jane

4/11/2005 @ 12:12 pm

Its an honor to write about a country like Bangladesh. I have a great respect for this young democracy and her people.

7

Comment by FH

4/11/2005 @ 7:08 pm

They have accomplished a lot with what resources they have. Its not easy setting up a democracy in a country which never experienced the Englightenment

8

Comment by Jane

4/11/2005 @ 8:09 pm

Its a great Muslim democracy, with a steady transition of power, dynamic, and forward looking. But there’s a lot of different forces enabling the jihadiis and none of them are acting in the best interest of Bangladesh.

9

Comment by The Redhunter

4/13/2005 @ 4:58 pm

Well, I certainly learned something about a country usually ignored (by me as well, I admit) Thanks, Jane

10

Comment by Jane

4/13/2005 @ 5:08 pm

Well Tom thanks very much. That was my goal.

11

Comment by wamy

4/19/2005 @ 2:15 pm

Jane, I don’t trust your government officials and their press briefings. Therefore, I won’t make any judgment based on information provided by them. And therefore, you need to provide evidences of how the mentioned organisation provided money to the mentioned numbers of mosques to perform what illegal acts. I want you to come to this country and find out for yourself what those mosques have done with the money you are talking about and then verify the information provided by your officials. Only then I’ll appreciate your efforts.

Don’t you think it is fictitious to write about some country 8,000 miles away from home and without knowing how the air smells there?

12

Comment by Jane

4/19/2005 @ 2:19 pm

I am often sorry that the newspapers dont publish my references with the articles so people can go back to the original sources. The souce for the 700 mosques reference was a Bangladeshi newspaper, the Daily Star, but you can see it all below:

Works Cited:

BNP Involvement: http://www.bangladesh-web.com/news/view.php?hidDate=2005-03-11&hidType=POL&hidRecord=0000000000000000037084

2001 Bangladesh election: http://www.freedomhouse.org/research/freeworld/2004/countryratings/bangladesh.htm

700 mosques: http://thedailystar.net/2005/02/24/d5022401011.htm

US Treasury Sec Paul Oneil http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/1/10/55655.shtml

Amnesty International: http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGASA130012005?open&of=ENG-BGD

Kibria bombing: http://independent-bangladesh.com/news/jan/28/28012005ts.htm#A1

Chowdry: http://www.albd.org/news/2005/02/24/24_1.htm

Ban on JMJB: http://thedailystar.net/2005/02/24/d5022401011.htm

HUJI: http://www.saag.org/%5Cpapers13%5Cpaper1274.html

13

Comment by Jane

4/19/2005 @ 2:32 pm

I checked it again. This is the whole paragraph:

At the same time the JMJB was formed and the JMB headed by Abdur Rahman started working in Dhaka with the same goal to turn the country into an Islamic state. With help from Galib, Rahman’s JMB militants used the facilities of some 700 mosques built across the country by the Revival of Islamic Heritage Society. The bank accounts of the society in Pakistan were seized after the 9/11 incident.

14

Comment by wamy

4/19/2005 @ 2:54 pm

Thanks, but sorry. I don’t trust any of your sources.

15

Comment by Jane

4/19/2005 @ 6:04 pm

They’re Bangladeshi newspapers and websites plus Amnesty International.

16

Comment by Sean

5/5/2005 @ 1:39 pm

Thanks for adding another sloppy piece of article in the already over crowded anti-Bangladesh propaganda. The sources that you have mentioned are all biased and bear no representation of the real Bangladesh whatsoever.

Philip Browning has written an excellent article in the International Herald Tribune about Bangladesh. Few excerpts:

“Is Bangladesh a successful low-income democracy or a failing state? A secular Muslim exemplar or a fundamentalist seedbed? A liberal society, or one beset by corruption and political violence? A crucial component of South Asian geopolitics, or a weak and irrelevant adjunct to India?

All these descriptions contain elements of truth – except irrelevance. Bangladesh matters not just because it has 130 million people, mostly Muslim, or because it is the most densely populated country on earth, but because its Bengali identity makes it the most homogenous nation on the subcontinent.

It is all too easy, however, to overemphasize the dangers of radical Islam here. As in India, there is little history of Islamic violence – more of leftist violence and general political thuggery. The bedrock identity of Bangladesh is being Bengali first, Muslim second.

The bottom line is that Bangladesh remains, with some blemishes, a plural, secular, open and democratic nation whose virtues are seldom credited and whose problems stem in part from the electoral arithmetic and financing needs of party politics.”

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