Churches say extremist bombs an issue for all Bangladeshis
-1512/05
Church leaders in M
Churches say extremist bombs an issue for all Bangladeshis
-1512/05
Church leaders in Muslim-majority Bangladesh have expressed anguish about an unprecedented series of bomb blasts widely seen as the work of extremist groups wanting to impose the Islamic laws of Sharia on the South Asian country – writes Anto Akkara of Ecumenical News International.
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Eight people were killed on 9 December after two bomb explosions in the Bangladesh capital, Dhaka. Prior to this, two dozen people including judges, lawyers and policemen had been killed in four similar suicide blasts in three weeks.
“Our fear is that they [Islamic extremists] are trying to grab power by creating terror in the minds of people,” said Elgin Saha, president of the National Council of Churches of Bangladesh (NCCB) from his office in Dhaka. “Not only Christians, but everyone is concerned about the spate of bombings here.”
Christians number around 400,000 while Muslims account for 83 per cent of the 144 million people of Bangladesh, which was known as East Pakistan until 1971 and is governed by secular laws.
“The situation seems to be getting worse,” noted Saha, a Baptist church member who heads a Christian group called Health Education and Economic Development.
Police officials have blamed the blasts on Islamist groups demanding the introduction of Sharia-based Islamic law.
“Every one feels lucky when they return home safe these days,” said Sudhir Adhikari, the immediate past NCCB president. “You don’t know when the next bomb would go off.” Adhikari told Ecumenical News International that “without political patronage, such serial blasts could not go on.”
If political parties are “sympathetic to the demand for overturning democracy and ushering Sharia”, Adhikari said, “it is a matter of serious concern for the Christians and others”.
Roman Catholic Bishop Theotonius Gomes, secretary general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Bangladesh, said there could be several reasons for the blasts.
“It could be a repercussion of the developments in the West,” noted Gomes, who is also the auxiliary bishop of Dhaka. The Catholic bishops, he said, had sent an open letter to Prime Minister Khaleda Zia in September urging the government to ensure peace and security for all.
This letter followed the blasts in August when more than 200 rudimentary bombs exploded simultaneously in 63 of the 64 districts of Bangladesh. This coincided with the hacking to death of two Christian evangelists, field workers with Christian Life Bangladesh, while they were sleeping at a village in Dhupapara, 100 kilometres from Dhaka.
[With grateful acknowledgements to ENI. Ecumenical News International is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the Conference of European Churches.]
[Also on Ekklesia: Bangladesh Christian leader gives stark bomb blast warning; Aid agency says disaster prevention ‘better than cure’; Santa tells Tony Blair to Make Poverty History; tsunami: justice as well as relief needed, say Christians; Doing Theology and Development: Meeting the Challenge of Poverty (book)]
Churches say extremist bombs an issue for all Bangladeshis
-1512/05
Church leaders in Muslim-majority Bangladesh have expressed anguish about an unprecedented series of bomb blasts widely seen as the work of extremist groups wanting to impose the Islamic laws of Sharia on the South Asian country – writes Anto Akkara of Ecumenical News International.
.
Eight people were killed on 9 December after two bomb explosions in the Bangladesh capital, Dhaka. Prior to this, two dozen people including judges, lawyers and policemen had been killed in four similar suicide blasts in three weeks.
“Our fear is that they [Islamic extremists] are trying to grab power by creating terror in the minds of people,” said Elgin Saha, president of the National Council of Churches of Bangladesh (NCCB) from his office in Dhaka. “Not only Christians, but everyone is concerned about the spate of bombings here.”
Christians number around 400,000 while Muslims account for 83 per cent of the 144 million people of Bangladesh, which was known as East Pakistan until 1971 and is governed by secular laws.
“The situation seems to be getting worse,” noted Saha, a Baptist church member who heads a Christian group called Health Education and Economic Development.
Police officials have blamed the blasts on Islamist groups demanding the introduction of Sharia-based Islamic law.
“Every one feels lucky when they return home safe these days,” said Sudhir Adhikari, the immediate past NCCB president. “You don’t know when the next bomb would go off.” Adhikari told Ecumenical News International that “without political patronage, such serial blasts could not go on.”
If political parties are “sympathetic to the demand for overturning democracy and ushering Sharia”, Adhikari said, “it is a matter of serious concern for the Christians and others”.
Roman Catholic Bishop Theotonius Gomes, secretary general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Bangladesh, said there could be several reasons for the blasts.
“It could be a repercussion of the developments in the West,” noted Gomes, who is also the auxiliary bishop of Dhaka. The Catholic bishops, he said, had sent an open letter to Prime Minister Khaleda Zia in September urging the government to ensure peace and security for all.
This letter followed the blasts in August when more than 200 rudimentary bombs exploded simultaneously in 63 of the 64 districts of Bangladesh. This coincided with the hacking to death of two Christian evangelists, field workers with Christian Life Bangladesh, while they were sleeping at a village in Dhupapara, 100 kilometres from Dhaka.
[With grateful acknowledgements to ENI. Ecumenical News International is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the Conference of European Churches.]
[Also on Ekklesia: Bangladesh Christian leader gives stark bomb blast warning; Aid agency says disaster prevention ‘better than cure’; Santa tells Tony Blair to Make Poverty History; tsunami: justice as well as relief needed, say Christians; Doing Theology and Development: Meeting the Challenge of Poverty (book)]