Minority Islam” in Muslim Majority Bangladesh

The Violent Road to a New Brand of Secularism

Bibliographic Data

ID6085753
AuthorsMirajul Islam (0000-0002-6217-0430, corresponding author), Saidul Islam, Md Saidul Islam (0000-0002-8597-0211)
Year2011
Volume31
Issue1
Pages125-141
Publication date2011-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueInstitute of Muslim Minority Affairs Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0266-6952 • E-ISSN: 1469-9591
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13602004.2011.556893
OpenAlexW2070442191
LanguageEN
Citations received16

More than 85% of Bangladesh's 150 million people are Muslims. Bangladesh earns its title as "the third largest Muslim country of the world" following Indonesia and Pakistan because of its enormous size of Muslim population. Their religion, Islam, is however becoming a "minority" day by day. While Muslims in the West—in spite of being a minority—are enjoying their basic religious freedom, this basic right is increasingly being denied to the Muslims in Bangladesh while it continues to aspire to become a "uniquely secular" society. Based on a robust content analysis and interviews, the study shows that the current regime in Bangladesh has taken on a comprehensive policy of secularization with an aim to emasculate Islamic influence from political and social landscape of Bangladesh. Apart from undermining basic religious freedom of Muslims, the policy—which turns out to be both aggressive and violent—is increasingly becoming hostile to democratic principles, rule of law, freedom of movement, and political pluralism

Democracy · Development economics · Economics · Freedom of Religion · Geography · Human rights · Islam · Muslim world · Pluralism (philosophy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Population · Secularism · Secularization · Sharia · Sociology · Asian Studies and History · Bangladesh Politics, Society, and Development · Indonesian Election Politics and Participation · Law

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