Foreign Minister A H Mahmood Ali said Bangladesh government is promoting the engagement of religious leaders and actors in checking all kinds of violence in the name of religion especially after the terrorist attack in the Holey Artisan Bakery in 2016.
“Recognizing their (religious leaders) role, our government has long been promoting the engagement of religious leaders and actors in preventing violence,” he said this on Friday while inaugurating a workshop in a city hotel.
Office of the Special Adviser of the UN Secretary-General for the Prevention of Genocide, UNDP in Bangladesh and “Save and Serve”, an international human rights body jointly organized the workshop titled “Fostering peaceful and inclusive communities in Bangladesh: The role of religious leaders and actors”.
The Foreign Minister said Bangladesh government has taken an initiative to build 560 mosque-based Islamic Cultural Centres in district and upazila (sub-district) levels to promote Islamic values of peace and tolerance among the mass people.
“We have welcomed the Fatwa of Peace for Humanity published by the Bangladesh Jamaiatul Ulama and endorsed by hundred thousand Islamic jurists, scholars and clerics, which preaches the peaceful and non-violent nature of Islam,” he added.
Mentioning that like other parts of the globe, Bangladesh too has seen; briefly though, rise of extremism in its society, the foreign minister said “primarily motivated by some anti-liberation political elements, those acts of terror and targeted killings have only strengthened our resolve to eradicate fanaticism and religious intolerance from our society.”
After the terrorist attack in the Holey Artisan Bakery in 2016, Mahmood Ali said the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has taken extensive counter and preventive measures against terrorism and violent extremism.
“We have undertaken massive awareness programmes to encourage practice of tolerance, inclusiveness and cultural activism in the society involving women, youth and community leaders,” he said.
Saying that religious freedom lies in the root of Bangladesh socio-political existence, the foreign minister said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has particularly called the teachers and immams to play lead role in preventing religious extremism.
“I am happy to see that the international community now recognizes the role of religious leaders in establishing peaceful communities and the UN is now guiding the national efforts to achieve those goals,” he said.
