The world is currently witnessing the Talibanization of Bangladesh through Islamists. The biggest victims of this political transformation are Bangladesh’s religious minorities: Christians, Hindus, and Buddhists.
The government of the Awami League Party led by PM Sheikh Hasina was forcibly overthrown on August 5th as a result of protests over a quota system for government jobs. The protests were later hijacked by Islamists, who are part of the majority Sunni Islam population. Since then, attacks against minorities and their places of worship have run rampant. Jamaat-e-Islami and other Islamic terrorists are now freely operating under the interim government, which is led by Muhammed Yunus. Attackers loot and destroy both churches and Hindu temples. Hundreds of homes have been targeted.
A Bangladeshi priest told La Croix that he has received multiple reports of “attacks on small churches and Christian villages.” One such report mentions “attacks and fires” in a village in the northwest Dhamirahat region.
The human rights organization Open Doors has reported on some of the latest examples of escalating persecution against minorities in Bangladesh. For example, Pastor Sirajul and his family (all converts from Islam) received death threats when a group of Muslims came to their door late at night on September 25th and attempted to abduct him. With multiple witnesses approaching the scene, the group left the pastor alone. But, while leaving, one of them shouted a final death threat—saying they could come “any place, any time”.
“If the villagers hadn’t come out, then the perpetrators would’ve abducted me and killed me,” said Pastor Sirajul. “I felt very unprotected. Today, I got a warning message from someone I know who said they—the group of Muslim extremists —are plotting to attack me.”
In another instance, a Christian family in western Bangladesh had both their home and shop destroyed by a Muslim mob. Open Doors reports:
Tapon, his wife, three children and elderly father were at home when a mob of 20-25 extremists, armed with weapons, advanced on their house. In fear for their lives, Tapon and his family fled, abandoning everything they had worked so hard to build. The attackers destroyed everything in their path, looting Tapon’s shop and leaving nothing behind. For four days, they hid nearby. But the extremists discovered their location and demanded a ransom of 100,000 Bangladeshi taka (£640) to spare their lives—that’s the equivalent of eight months’ salary at minimum wage. With the help of villagers, Tapon and his family were eventually rescued. Even after returning to their ruined home and shop, the family have continued to receive threats—and are forbidden from using the only local source of water.
Meanwhile, some churches in north Bangladesh received long letters telling Christians to “say your goodbyes.” The letters were from a local hardline Muslim political party. They contained disturbing and frightening words regarding the churches’ plans for their Christmas celebration on December 25th and made church members, especially those from a Muslim background, panic and fear for their safety and protection.
Open Doors also exposes how Christian children in Bangladesh are persecuted. Their main persecutors are their Muslim relatives, neighbours, Muslim classmates and playmates along with their parents, and teachers::
Christian children and youth endure considerable levels of violence as their parents choose to convert to Christianity—including verbal, physical, psychological and sexual violence. Often, they are bullied, mocked and discriminated against at school. They are isolated and can even be a target for abduction and drug addiction.
The systematic violence and intolerance against religious minorities in Bangladesh has a long history. Even the birth of the country was marked by genocidal violence by the Pakistani government and its Islamist collaborators (such as Jamaat-e-Islami) in Bangladesh. In 1971, the government of West Pakistan launched a devastating ten-month campaign of mass murder, rape, and other atrocities against the Bengali residents of East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh).
West Pakistan was predominantly an Islamic, Urdu-speaking region. On the other hand, East Pakistan (Bangladesh) was both a Hindu and Islamic, Bangla-speaking region. East Pakistan was also exploited for resources, money, and labor to support West Pakistan. Pakistan’s leaders aimed to enforce Islamic unification of the West and the East. According to the Hindu American Foundation,
In the eyes of the Pakistani military, Hindu, Bengali, and Indian identities were one and the same. Although Hindus were a special target of the Pakistan military, Bengali Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, and other religious groups were also significantly affected.
Although precise figures are difficult to obtain, approximately 3 million people were killed during the genocide. Around 10 million Bengali refugees fled to India and another 30 million were internally displaced. Most of the victims were Hindus.
Kimtee Kundu, a Harvard International Review staff writer, notes that,
Pakistani forces used brutal methods to ensure the massacre of men. Women were not spared; over 200,000 were raped and assaulted by Pakistani forces. Destroying villages also became part of the strategy to ensure civilians could not escape oppression.
The genocide ended after the Indian military intervened on December 3, 1971. In less than two weeks, the Pakistani army surrendered, ensuring Bangladesh’s independence. In 1974, Bangladesh was admitted to the UN.
However, violence and discrimination against religious minorities by Islamists have never ended in the country. Yet, since Yunus’ ascension to power, attacks against minorities have become even more widespread. With Islamist groups gaining further political influence in Bangladesh, church sources are increasingly concerned about the treatment of Christians and ongoing attacks on Catholic schools, reported Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) in November 2024. Christians in the country often struggle to find work, church construction projects are delayed, and the future of Catholic schools is under threat, according to a Church source who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons:
The list of holidays has recently changed, and more Islamic feasts have become national holidays. Christians are demanding at least one day for Easter, which is not even listed properly as a holiday. During Easter, people have to go to work, and students have to sit for exams, so they cannot attend Mass and other celebrations.
Islam arrived in what is today Bangladesh, then a majority-Hindu region, in the eighth century. It gradually became the dominant religion from the early thirteenth century through the military campaigns led by Muslim jihadists. Across centuries, the population balance was altered through Islamic tyranny. For instance, the decline of the Hindu population in Bangladesh, from more than 22% in the 1940s to less than 8 % today, is the result of severe Islamic persecution.
Today, Bangladesh’s non-Muslims are facing yet another phase of persecution. As the nation is becoming increasingly Islamic, with the interim government now appeasing Islamists more than ever, Islamic militants in the country are pressurising all non-Muslims. Religious freedom, despite being guaranteed by the Constitution, is not being respected. A Christian source in the country said that “the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami party,” which has ties to the government, “wants Islam to be the only religion in Bangladesh.”
If Yunus’s government is not brought to account for allowing Islamist militants to target non-Muslims, it is entirely plausible that Jamaat’s genocidal objective for Bangladesh will be achieved.
