The Religious Cleansing of Bangladesh

The Hindu man to the left was beaten to death by Muslims after a Friday prayer in Bangladesh. Apparently the imam riled the congregants and immediately upon completion of the prayer the worshippers stormed into the street and grabbed the first Hindu they could find, and beat him to death. As you can see in the photo he begged for his life, to no avail. Someone once argued for religion saying "Wouldn't you feel safer knowing a mob coming down the street had just left a prayer service." Whoever said that wasn't a Hindu in Bangladesh.

While Muslims parade (read: 'riot') around claiming to be defenders of the "human rights" of Palestinians, remind them how millions of Hindus have been forced out of their homes and country and even killed by rampaging Muslims. Muslims hypocritically use "human rights" as a tool in their arsenal to wage their ongoing jihad against the state of Israel, but are quite a bit more shy when it comes to the Muslims systematically gang raping Christian women in the Sudan. {I commented briefly on gang rape as an institutionalized form of redressing offenses to "honor" here}

In 1947 when East Pakistan (as Bangladesh was then known) gained independence, Hindus comprised roughly 28% of the population. As of the most recent census data, the number has been reduced to 9.2%. This is largely attributable to a Muslim policy of religious cleansing of Hindus. As Hindus are polytheists, and polytheists are the most despised in Islam, it is not hard to motivate the Muslim masses to participate in such practices, or at least tolerate them.

In 1971 (during Operation Searchlight) and running clear through the Bangladesh War of Independence there was an active policy to kill both Bengali intellectuals, Biharis, and Hindus. Below is a quotation from "Statistics of Democide: Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1900" (Ch.8):

"In East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) [General Agha Mohammed Yahya Khan and his top generals] also planned to murder its Bengali intellectual, cultural, and
political elite. They also planned to indiscriminately murder hundreds of
thousands of its Hindus and drive the rest into India. And they planned to
destroy its economic base to insure that it would be subordinate to West
Pakistan for at least a generation to come. This despicable and cutthroat plan
was outright genocide."

After 267 days of offensive operations the army of Agha Mohammed Yahya Khan had killed approximately 1.5 million people (intellectuals, ethnic Biharis, and Hindus). They had also created 10 million refugees (people who were forced to flee to neighboring India, which instituted a policy to turn most back or treat them as intruders which resulted in the shooting of a 12 year old girl ). It is worth noting that 1.5 million was a conservative estimate, other estimates have come in at 3 million dead in the genocide.

In June of 1988 President, Gen. H.M. Ershad signed an amendment to the Constitution of Bangladesh stating that Islam was the state religion and that absolute faith and trust in Allah would be the basis of all action. Is it any wonder that a state now designated as officially "Islamic" would carry on persecuting the mushrikeen (polytheists)? And indeed it carried on in official state policy with the passing of the "Enemy Property Act" after the 17 day war with India. After the passage of this act the "Islamic" state began confiscating property belonging to Hindus, at will. And even when this law was repealed in 2001 (Property Return Bill) the State Minister informed the press in April, 2001 that this was for the sole benefit of Muslims.

Nor is this unique to Bangladesh. Afghanistan was similarly cleansed of Hindus... if one notices the mountain range "Hindu Kush" in Afghanistan, the translation of this is "Hindu Killer". Kush invariably means "killing" in Old Persian. This is in reference to the multitudes of Hindus who had died in the passes of these mountains after they had been taken as slaves by the Muslims (Islam permits the taken of slaves) and forced to march through the mountains.

There is no doubt that there are Muslim apologists who will say that this is a result of the nation state, identity, etc... The unfortunate fact is that it isn't unique or new when a Muslim population comes to control a region. In the original Islamic conquest it is estimated by some scholars that as many as 70 million Hindus were killed, and many more subtly forced to convert to Islam. Although things got better under the Mughal dynasty, this was due, possibly, to the fact that the Mughals were Timurids (Turko-Mongol), and not Arabs. By comparison, the conquest of the Mongols (Genghis Khan) looks mild versus what Muslims did in the subcontinent. Genghis Khan had a policy of including local religions in his empire, taking their input, and giving them freedom of worship. This much more accurately explains why the Mughals gave greater latitude to the Hindus than any false notion of Islamic tolerance.

Where is the Islamic basis for such behavior? Let's look at some verses from the Qur'an regarding polytheists.... Qur'an 9:5:

"When, when the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters
(polytheists) wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege
them, and prepare for them each ambush. But if they repent and establish worship
and pay the poor-due, then leave their way free. Lo! Allah is Forgiving,
Merciful. "

Explanation: Fight and kill polytheists until they become Muslim.

Qur'an: 89:6

"Those who reject (Truth), among the People of the Book and among the
polytheists, will be in Hell-Fire, to dwell therein (for aye). They are the
worst of creatures. "

The point is made. The Muslims have systematically killed, expelled, and oppressed Hindus in the Subcontinent. This is due to the Islamic principles of intolerance and hate for polytheists. Let us not fall into the trap of discussing human rights with Islam apologists.