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At a press interview on his return to Dhaka on 2lst February, Saifur Rahman, our finance minister, exhibited understandable frustration. After all, it must be a considerable snub to any finance minister. Particularly one as proud and verbose as Rahman, that Bangladesh’s aid partners had decided to meet in Washington to discuss strategy without inviting anyone from Bangladesh. However, the finance minister’s press conference shows why the aid partners met in Washington and why they had not invited anyone. They must be seriously concerned that despite the escalating violence and intolerance in Bangladesh and despite their repeated observations to the government over the last three years, the BNP-Jamaat alliance and their supporters have been in self-denial vis-a-vis religious extremism while the rest of the country, and indeed the rest of the world, watches on aghast at developments here. As predicted by some a few years ago, a BNP alliance with Islamists alliance did not bode well for Bangladesh’s secular and liberal credentials. This scenario continues to be the case.
   At the above meet the press session, Saifur Rahrnan criticised the aid partners for holding a meeting outside Bangladesh, although both during his present term in office and during his last term in 1991-1996, he has attended aid meetings overseas. In fact, he is due to attend one in Paris. His real gripe of course is that he was ignored. He blamed this on a group patronised by the opposition. Is he saying that the aid partners do not have sufficient resources of their own in Dhaka to arrive at their own conclusions? If he is, he is plain wrong. On the issue of religion-related terrorism, Rahman puts this down to a global phenomenon and claims that other countries have not solved terrorist incidents. Once again he is wrong. Because while nations such as Pakistan, Indonesia, Turkey, Saudi and others have acknowledged they have a problem with religious extremists and tackled it head on, Bangladesh has remained in silent oblivion. The minister also justified crossfire deaths by saying this happens in all countries. Two wrongs do not make a right, and apart from Thaksin’s Thailand where a number of highly controversial extra judicial killings occurred some years ago in their war against drugs, I am unaware of any other country, apart from Bangladesh where such a large number of daily crossfire deaths of so-called proven criminals are taking place. It is most unfortunate and extremely short-sighted that the present government did not choose to address the very serious law and order situation in a more legalistic and universally acceptable manner.
   The finance minister’s remarks are revealing as he belongs to the senior leadership of the country and it appears that this inner circle believes that Bangladesh does not really have a serious problem with extremist fundamentalism and all this is a concoction of the opposition and vested overseas interests who are feeding lies to an ignorant agenda driven by the West. However, the reality is that Bangladesh is facing an alarming rise in extreme religious fundamentalism, intolerance and related violence which is in plain view of all to the bombing of NGO offices to the murder of opposition politicians, journalists and secular academics. No point in hiding like the proverbial ostrich or pretending that all is under control.
   It is now at last somewhat reassuring that outside pressure (both through the media and politically) is working because the government has finally moved to arrest extremists and ban certain groups who have been openly calling for the establishment of a state based on religious principles as defined by a small minority’s interpretation of Islam, it is yet to be seen whether the government’s moves are genuine and long lasting. It is disheartening that the government paid no heed to a domestic constituency which had been loudly calling for action against these groups. The government must now not only seriously move to clamp down, on religious extremism., but also act decisively to control the huge inflow of funds destined for these groups who set up madrassahs where lower income children are taught religion through the extremist lens.
   The BNP’s alliance with the Islamists in 2001 has stymied and blurred the party’s ability to analyse developments honestly due largely to its need to placate its Islamist partners, as testified by the alarming events of the last three years. It is sincerely hoped that the BNP will disengage itself from this alliance and contest the 2007 elections as a middle of the road, moderate party.
   Ahsan Ahrned
   Indira Road, Dhaka

Unfortunately, when Bangladesh cricket is possibly on the recovery road in the field, the cricket top governing body is embroiled in a courtroom controversy regarding the legality of BCB. Your staff correspondent’s report (March 6) is indeed a sad saga of uncricket like activities. One wonders about the motive of a vested quarter regarding this.
   Cricket, as the saying goes; is a gentlemen’s game. Cannot the Directors of BCB who are surely gentlemen sort out the matter in a gentlemanly way without washing dirty linen in the courtroom?
   Like most constitution and rules of procedure, I am sure the BCB constitution provides appropriate process for modification. Hence, if modification is needed, this should be done in the proper manner. It is unfortunate that at a time when our cricket activities need the support of a dedicated group of people at the helm, we have come to such a sorry passage of conflict. It broods only ill for Bangladesh cricket.
   S A Mansoor
   Gulshan, Dhaka

The recently announced alliance between Syria and Iran is a step in the right direction, but it is not enough to stop US or Israel from launching an attack. Both Iran and Syria are militarily weak. However, this alliance can be strengthened if other Arab and Muslim countries step in and send a strong and straight message together that any invasion of Iran or Syria will not be tolerated. Muslim countries should make it clear that if Iran or Syria is doing anything wrong, they will sit down with the UN and resolve this matter on their own. There is no need for any military attack from America or Israel.
   But we all know this is wishful thinking. Muslim leaders are scared and they think America will get them if they say anything against it. So their strategy is to save their neck by keeping quite. What these leaders don’t realise is that this is a very short-term solution and their silence is precisely the reason why their countries are being invaded and their people being humiliated in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. America may not get them today, but one by one every Muslim countries will be occupied by the US (run by puppets, ‘occupation’ will not be used, it will go under some sanitised, viewer-friendly terms so that the civilised people of the West don’t find it offensive). Muslim leaders also fail to understand that getting ready to fight doesn’t necessarily mean you will definitely fight. If all Muslim countries unite together to defend their people, big powers - no matter how powerful they are - will think twice before attacking. But this will only work if you can convince your enemies that you are dead serious.
   The tragedy, of course, is that the Muslims aren’t serious. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis murdered (majority unarmed civilians), but not a single Muslim country said anything.
   Azad Miah
   Oldham, UK