Prime minister’s International Affairs Adviser Dr Gowher Rizvi said religious diversity is strength of the country as it fosters secularism and non-communalism.
“We should keep in mind that we are not homogenous. We are living in a plural society. There are diversities of religions. It is not weakness, rather it gives us strength,” he said this on Tuesday while speaking at a roundtable on “Relevance of Non-communal Values in Muslim Majority Country” at Emmanuelle’s New Hall in Gulshan here.
He said: “If we have same faith and express same opinions in a society, we will have no interest in that society. It will be the most boring society in the world.”
State Minister for Information Dr Murad Hasan, former Vice-Chancellor of Dhaka University Professor AAMS Arefin Siddique, Hindu-Bouddha-Christian Oikya Parishad General Secretary Advocate Rana Dasgupta, Bangladesh Ambassador in Turkey M Allama Siddiki, journalist Syed Ishtiaque Reza, Jagannath University Film and Television Department Chairman Professor Zunaid Halim and Dhaka University Sociology Department Professor Dr Khairul Chowdhury, among others, addressed the roundtable.
Hasumonir Pathshala, a social organization, organized the function with its president Marufa Akhter Popy in the chair. Dr Rizvi said Bangladesh is a secular country which does not mean that its people will not follow religion.
“Religion is our private affair. State will not interfere here. It is not the business of state to interfere in your religious practice or tell how to practice your religion,” he added. On the other hand, he said, in public policy and law, religion is not a factor. “If we keep those words in our mind, our public discourse will be in a different height,” he said.
Mentioning that intolerance is increasing in society, Dr Rizvi said this problem is not about religion as no religion permits carrying out attacks on members of other religious faiths.
“Terrorists and criminals have no religion. They are not Muslim or Hindu, Christian or Buddhist. Their only identity is criminal. Why we are giving them religious or political identity? We need to move away from that,” he added.
He underscored the need for putting more focus on strengthening the rule of law to eliminate all social problems.
Murad Hasan said 30 lakh people of the country, irrespective of religion, laid down their lives to free the country from the Pakistani subjugation in 1971 Liberation War to build a secular and non-communal Bangladesh.
Imbued with the spirit of Liberation War, Bangladesh is moving fast on the highway of development under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, he said. He said a vested quarter is hatching conspiracy to harm the country’s communal harmony.
