ICC Note:

Recently, the Bangladesh High Court rejected a petition which challenged Islam as the country’s official religion. The court dismissed the petition before hearing the case on the merits because it claimed that those bringing forward the petition did not have proper standing. Many in Bangladesh, especially hard-line Islamists, have taken this rejection as a validation of Islam as Bangladesh’s official religion. For religious minorities, who have come under increasing threat from Islamic extremist groups in recent months, found the court’s decision to be “frightening”. Will this court ruling bring more persecution to religious minorities in Bangladesh? 

3/31/2016 Bangladesh (Christian Today) – The Bangladesh High Court has ruled that Islam shall remain as the country’s official religion, scrapping a 28-year-old petition that sought to change it.

Religious minority groups swiftly criticized the ruling, saying this would only embolden Islamist forces from inflicting more terror in the country.

A three-judge panel reportedly threw out the petition Monday as soon as the case was opened without allowing any testimony from the petitioners, according to Agence France Presse. The petition was filed in 1988 by a group of 15 activists.

“We are saddened [at the ruling]. It’s a sad day for the minorities of Bangladesh,” said Subrata Chowdhury, who represented the secular activists in the case, CBN News reported.

Many religious minority leaders expressed fear that the court’s ruling could encourage more Islamist attacks against minorities in the country.

“It is sad that the court binned the petition without allowing the petitioners to present their arguments. This ruling will give a boost to the country’s Islamist forces and it is a sad day for all religious minorities in Bangladesh,” Rana Dasgupta, general secretary of the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council, told Voice of America (VOA).

William Proloy Samadder, organising secretary of the Bangladesh Christian Association, also said: “In their letters, the Islamists said to our church leaders that Bangladesh would be ruled by Sharia law. As they threatened to kill our leaders, in some cases they also said that only Muslims would live in Bangladesh.”

“Monday’s ruling has surely come as a shot in the arm for many of those Islamists. It is indeed frightening for all religious minorities.”

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