Secularism and Islam in Bangladesh comprehensively analyses the syncretistic form of Bengali Islam and its relationship with secularism in Bangladesh from preBritish to contemporary times. It focuses on the importance of understanding the dynamics between religion and secularism within specific cultural contexts.
The author draws upon historical, sociological, and political literature, Bangladeshi electoral results, newspaper reports, and elite interviews with political commentators and offers a rich historical and empirical analysis. Arguing that extremist interpretations of Islam, which aim to establish a theocratic state, have not been able to influence the pluralistic religious and cultural life of Bangladesh substantially, the book shows that religious and cultural pluralism will continue to thrive despite the apparent threat posed by increasing religiosity among Bangladeshi Muslims.
This book is a timely and significant contribution to the discourse on secularism and Islam, with relevance beyond Bangladesh and the wider Islamic world. It will appeal to scholars and researchers working in the fields of South Asian studies, Asian religions, and the sociology of religion.
Abdul Wohab is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Department of Political Science and Sociology (PSS), North South University (NSU), Dhaka, Bangladesh.
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Secularism and Islam in Bangladesh
50 Years After Independence
Abdul Wohab
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-032-53272-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-53271-4 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-41122-2 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003411222
Typeset in Times New Roman by Apex CoVantage, LLC
4.1 Terrorist Incidents From 1999 to 2008 in Bangladesh 59
5.1 Number of Features, Editorials, and Opinion Pieces Focused on Controversy Surrounding Secularism and Islamist Forces 64
5.2 Terrorist Incidents in Bangladesh Between 2009 and June 2021 73
5.3 Support for the Islamist Politics in the National Elections 77
1.1 Bangladesh before independence 1971
3.1 Socio-cultural regions of early Bengal
5.1 Support for the Islamic political parties 78
Abbreviations
ABC Australian Broadcasting Corporation
AKP Justice and Development Party
AL Awami League
BJP Bharatiya Janata Party
BNP Bangladesh Nationalist Party
HT-B Hizb ut-Tahiri–Bangladesh
HuJIB Harkat-ul Jihad-al-Islami Bangladesh
ICT International Crimes Tribunal
IS Islamic State
JI Jamaat-e-Islami
JMB Jaamat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh
JP Jatiya Party
NCTB National Curriculum and Textbook Board
NGO Non-government Organisations
OIC Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
PBUH Peace Be Upon Him
PM Prime Minister
RAB Rapid Action Battalion
RIHS Restoration of Islamic Heritage Society
RSS Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
SC Supreme Court
Acknowledgments
The basis of the argument of this book came to me back in 2010 when I was conversing with a stranger in a bus while travelling from Istanbul to Antalya. The stranger explained to me how the economy should be a part of the national identity of a country, along with ethnicity, culture, language, and religion. I thanked the stranger for his suggestion, which later inspired me to work on this idea.
This book is the output of my PhD project. Therefore, I would like to acknowledge with great appreciation the cooperation that I have received from the International Centre for Muslim and Non-Muslim Understanding (MnM) of the University of South Australia. In particular, I am grateful to the Centre for providing funds for this project. It was my privilege to be a part of the wider intellectual community and amongst highly valued academics and friends at this university. Most importantly, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my academic supervisor, Dr Nahid Afroz Kabir, for her initial guidance and support in this journey. I am indebted to my academic supervisor, Professor S Sayyid, who provided me with an intellectual and in-depth understanding of my research project. He was an excellent and wonderful mentor for me in the early part of this project. Moreover, I am indebted to Dr Shamsul Khan, Professor S Aminul Islam, and Dr Wendy Bastalich. I would like to acknowledge their patience, guidance, and direction for my project, which would not have been completed without their hard work and supervision.
I would like to thank my wife, Sanzida Akhter; she has been my inspiration in our life together. She sacrificed her precious time and lived away from me while I worked on this project. My son Wadi and daughter Arisha – both were my motivation, particularly when speaking over the phone or Skype, and they never missed out on asking me, “When will you finish your study?” There were many times that I could not control my tears and told myself that this project had to be completed as soon as possible. They are my heart and soul, and I thank them for allowing me to stay away from them. No one other than my father would have been happier now to see his son complete his PhD and eventually turn his work into a book. If he were alive today, he would hug me and probably silently weep and pat my back. My mother is another iron lady who raised me in such a way that I can proudly tell everyone that she has DONE it. I will always be indebted to both my parents; they will always be a part of my life. I thank them for being extremely supportive and believing in me since childhood. Moreover, I acknowledge my mother-in-law and
Acknowledgments
my father-in-law for their encouragement and support; my mother-in-law, in particular, phoned me again and again to show her support. Furthermore, I would like to thank my friend Rafique for reading chapters and giving his valuable feedback from time to time.
I would like to thank my colleagues and friends Bulbul and Mubashar.
I acknowledge that a chapter of this book derives, in part, from an article published in Cogent Social Sciences on 27 May 2021. I also acknowledge the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh for allowing me to use the figure and maps in this book.
Finally, I would like to thank all my well-wishers and particularly, Almighty Allah, for giving me the chance to live peacefully in this world.
1 Secularism and Islam in Bangladesh
Introduction
In both Bangladesh and abroad, there are concerns that secularism, which was adopted as one of the key state principles in the Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh in 1972, might have given an approach to an Islam-oriented political system. The incorporation of Islam-oriented state ideology after 1975 has raised questions not only about the increasing influence of political Islam as a significant socio-political factor in Bangladesh but also about the future of secular democracy in Bangladesh. International media has suggested there is a rising tide of fundamentalism and global extremism in Bangladesh. For instance, the Wall Street Journal (2015, 2016) and New Yorker Magazine (2017) reported studies with hyperbolic headlines such as “Bangladesh Secularism Under Threat” and raised concerns about the possibility of emerging religious extremism in Bangladesh, the threat of Islamic revolution, and the undermining of secular practices or secular national identity, as well as indicating that Bangladesh may harbour Islamic terrorists. Similar stories have been reported in other international media1 pointing to an imminent threat to secular practices in Bangladesh and citing the attack on secular atheist writers and bloggers by Islamic extremists in 2015. In 2015, the key Islamist groups, the Harkat-ul-jihad-al-Islami Bangladesh and the Ansarullah Bangla Team, who advocate the reordering of government and society as per laws prescribed by Islam, targeted secular bloggers in Bangladesh and killed five, including Avijit Roy, a Bangladeshi-born US writer and blogger, and injured many others. On 29 November 2005, two suicide bomb attacks killed nine people, including two lawyers and a police constable, while 78 others were injured in attacks on the court premises in the towns of Gazipur and Chittagong (The Daily Star 30 November 2005). Moreover, the country’s democratic secular political parties were targeted. An attempt was made to assassinate the chief of the current secular party, the Awami League (AL) and the democratically elected Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina. On 21 August 2004, Islamic militants launched a grenade attack on an AL rally, killing 18 people, including the high officials of the party, as well as injuring more than 200 others. This chapter attempts to introduce the relationship between religion and secularism from both South Asia in general and Bangladesh in particular and European contexts with a notion that secularism has developed in a DOI: 10.4324/9781003411222-1
historical experience of society and its culture. In arguments proposed by the Western notion of secularism, attempts have been made to report that the democratic and secular political systems were less likely to be practiced in Muslim-majority countries. However, this book and particularly this chapter argues that the secular political system remains intact in Muslim-majority countries; moreover, this presence has been visible over a period of time in Bangladesh.
Justification
The arguments of this book are based on responses received from the overarching challenges reported in the introductory part of this chapter, which that Bangladesh’s secularism is under threat; the possibility of religious extremism may emerge; and the threat of Islamic revolution or Islamic terrorism may appear and subsequently undermine the secular practices or national identity of Bangladesh. To respond to these challenges, we require to understand relationships between religion and secularism in South Asia and particularly in Bangladesh’s context.
Since 1971, the role of Islam and secularism in Bangladesh has remained a complicated subject for historians, social and political scientists, and the general public. The politicians, either sympathetic to religion or secularism, did not recognise the role of religion and secularism as a complex metaphor; rather, they used relationships between religion and secularism as a tool to obtain political support in the electoral politics of Bangladesh. For example, Major General Ziaur Rahman, founder of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), dropped secularism and introduced specific Islamic observances pertaining to political Islam in the Bangladeshi Constitution. Lt General H M Ershad, founder of the Jatiya Party (JP), replaced Ziaur Rahman and then declared Islam to be the state religion. Since 2001, under the BNP leadership, the profile of politicians in religious political parties has increased, a trend often connected with moving away from secularism. Between 2009 and the time of this writing (2022), the AL, a secular political party, has been in power in Bangladesh. They have successfully negotiated with the Hefazat-e-Islam, an Islamist group, as well as with secularist blocs involved in secular political and cultural movements in Bangladesh. Therefore, this book considers the contradictory views on relationships between religion and secularism as political interests rather than a cultural tradition in Bengal.
Although the role of religion in national and international politics has globally become a contemporary preoccupation, the subject, once widely debated within sociology, has become somewhat marginalised. The understanding of the relationship between religion and the condition of modern states and societies has often been shaped by Western history and precepts rather than by conditions in Muslimmajority countries. As reported in Chapter 2, sociological interest in the role of religion in society was based in classical European sociology, which associates secularism with modernity, liberty, and rationality and typically implicitly poses these as foreign to a Muslim-majority state. To summarise, sociological literature has focused on whether religion has declined in the West, whether it still plays a public role, and, if so, how the role of religion has changed in relation to public or formalised institutions and practices.
The role of religion, therefore, has remained an informal matter for public life in Bangladesh. Therefore, we reported that when the constitution of the newly born People’s Republic of Bangladesh was drafted and came into effect in 1972, one of the four leading principles was secularism. Secularism, as reported in Bangladesh, refers to freedom enjoyed by people of all religions to observe their own faith without fear of prejudice or discrimination. However, over the years, there has been a fear of Islamist forces making their way into Bangladesh. Politically, Islamist parties such as Jamat-e-Islam Bangladesh (JIB) and Hefazat-e-Islam gained considerable power with the former allying with BNP after Major Ziaur Rahman lifted the ban on religiously led political parties. Since then, JIB has been the leading Islamist fundamentalist party in Bangladesh having organised many rallies and strikes to favour orthodox Islam in Bangladesh (Islam 2018, p. 25).
Furthermore, there have been multiple incidents that have led to the fear that fundamentalist Islam will find a way to permeate the Bengali society, thus shaking the syncretistic version of Islam generally practiced in Bangladesh. The syncretistic version, which is a mixture of Islamic beliefs and Bengali traditions, allowed for secularism to exist along with Islam. As a Muslim majority country, Bangladesh was internationally seen as an example of how secularism and Islam could coexist (Islam 2018, p. 21). These fears are then solidified by incidents such as the most recent one in which a Hindu woman who used the teep (or bindi, a coloured dot at the centre of the forehead) was harassed by a police constable after she questioned him about why he was riding his bike in the wrong lane (Dhaka Tribune 03 April 2022). The teep is observed by certain fundamentalist Muslims in Bangladesh as a symbol of being Hindu, and not as a cultural symbol that multiple Bengali women have been wearing for generations. Based on textual evidence, they believe that a Muslim must distinguish himself from someone of other religions by his clothing and attire. However, this incident has led to considerable support for women, and a surge of women online posing wearing teeps, irrespective of their religious affiliations and thus demonstrating the secular mindset of the people at an everyday level.
The incident of the teep is an example of how the visual markers of one’s religion can affect public view and perception. In Bangladesh, the teep has become a centre of controversy among Muslims in terms of whether it can be used by them. Some argue that the teep is a Hindu tradition that has nothing to do with Muslims. For example, Muslim women in Europe are under constant attack regarding their hijabs. In France, a law banning the hijab in educational institutions was passed in 2004. This ban is not only limited to the hijab, although it is the main victim, but also to other religious symbols such as the Sikh turban (Fernando 2010). The case of France is the near opposite of that of Bangladesh because the ban was made under the banner of secularism in France. As per the European ideas of secularism, religion has strictly been a private matter. Moreover, this is the basis for the European law, which allows for laws such as the hijab ban to come into effect without violating laws regarding freedom of religion. Because the hijab and other religious symbols can be observed as a physical manifestation of one’s religious beliefs, it does not fall under one’s Right to Freedom of Consciousness and Religion because the ban does not affect anyone’s beliefs. Furthermore, it is reported in
European law that the Right to Freedom of Manifestation of Religion is subject to limitations as reported by the law and as necessary for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others (Fernando 2010).
This form of secularism, which is observed in Europe, is not the type that is observed in Bangladesh. European ideas of secularism revolve around religion as a strictly private practice that is not supposed to be seen in the public sphere (Turner 2011; Bruce 2011; Martin 2005). However, religious tradition has played a role in the public, such as in the United Kingdom, where the King is the Head of the Church of England (Berger, Davie and Fokas 2011). This practice does not indicate religion influences the political decision in the United Kingdom. However, the secularism observed in Bangladesh is unlike that upheld in the Bangladeshi Constitution. As per the secular principle aligned in the Constitution, it reads in Article 2A: “The state religion of the Republic is Islam; however, the State shall ensure equal status and equal rights in the practice of the Hindu, Buddhist, Christian and other religions”. The intention of this amendment, although controversial as to whether it really is secular, demonstrates that the Government does not want
Source:
Map 1.1 Bangladesh before independence 1971.
Islam 1992, p. 597.
Secularism and Islam in Bangladesh 5 to turn religion into something that is only present in the private sphere unlike European secularism. Furthermore, another example of the government’s intentions when it comes to secularism is the slogan, “Dharma jaar jaar, Utsab Shobar” (Religion as per one’s own, but festivals are common). This slogan was adopted by the ruling AL government as an approach to showcase the secular portrayal of Bangladesh; however, it does have roots in practical Bengali life as people tend to share religious festivities with friends and neighbours from other religions, such as Hindu people celebrating Eid or Muslim people visiting pujas (Chaudhary 2020). The fourth section in Chapter 2 of this book focuses on Bangladesh as an example of a secular-but-religious country.
After considering both historical and theoretical underpinnings, this book aims to contribute to the field of the sociology of religion by exploring the role of the uniquely syncretistic form of Bengali Islam in both political and social climates in the history of the region. Moreover, this book argues that secularism has been influenced by relationships between religion and society, which may contradict the Western understanding of secularism.
Method
This book draws on historical and anthropological explanations of the social, economic, religious, and cultural conditions shaping the development of religious observance and political forms in Bangladesh from mediaeval times up to the modern period.
The scholarly sources are supplemented by primary source materials in the later chapters; these materials were obtained from interviews with politicians from non-Islamist and Islamist political parties, in addition to academics, activists, and media commentators. Participants are prominent persons and experts on Bangladeshi political events. This method is popular in social science research, particularly research focused on society and politics; it is known as elite interviewing (Burnham et al. 2008, pp. 205–220). The interviews with the respondents for this book were conducted twice: once between February and May 2014 and then again in April and May 2017, specifically in response to the unfolding political crises in Bangladesh that were related to the book’s central argument. Furthermore, information has been collected from different sources, including previous participants between December 2019 and March 2020. The political affiliations, teaching in university, writing op-ed in newspapers, working in public and private organisations, practicing law in court, and protecting minority rights have been considered for selecting participants. The confidentiality of respondents has been maintained for performing the interviews as the discussion topics and participants’ identities are extremely sensitive to some extent. Interviews were conducted in both English and Bengali depending on the preference of the respondent; they were then transcribed and translated into English as required. Respondents were contacted via the researcher’s personal and institutional affiliations in Bangladesh.
In the book, other sources referred to include electoral results from the Election Commission of Bangladesh as well as newspaper articles. Content from the Bengali
and Islam in
newspapers (Prothom Alo, the Daily Naya Diganta, and the Daily Inqilab) and an English newspaper, the Daily Star, were collected for the period from January 2012 to 2021 from the online archives of the University of South Australia library in Adelaide, Australia, and then directly from the newspaper office in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The content was selected when it referred to the relationship between the AL alliance government and Islamist forces, the changed content of pre-primary and secondary level textbooks from secular- and Islamic-oriented material, and the controversy surrounding the removal of the “anti-Islamic” statue from the premises of the Supreme Court. Currently, these debates allowed us to examine how the AL alliance government is shifting its policy and programs at the state level.
Structure of the Book
This chapter introduces the overall arguments of the book. Chapter 2 provides a literature review on the sociology of religion. Classical sociological theorists within the sociology of religion such as Max Weber (1912) and Emile Durkheim (1995) postulated that the modernisation of society would include a decrease in religiosity levels. The study of this process is considered to determine the manner and extent to which religious creeds, practices, and institutions are losing social significance in the modern world. Certain theorists, such as Casanova (1994), Bruce (2002), Berger (1995), and Turner (2011), report that the secularisation of modern civilisation partially results from an inability to adapt to the ethical and spiritual requirements of humankind with the rapid advancements in science and technology, thus implicitly reproducing the view that where there is modernity, religiosity declines. This understanding of the relationship between secularisation and modernity has faced criticism in the subdiscipline of the sociology of religion with researchers reporting that the decline of religion in modern societies is not an even or linear uncomplicated trend. Importantly, Wilson (2008), Martin (2005), and Calhoun (2011) consider the present role of religion in the political system globally and observe that the public space welcomes the coexistence of modernity and religion. They report that modern society allows individuals to practise religion within the public sphere, in addition to secular principles.
Two views appear when Islam is discussed in the context of modern society. The first view argues that Islam is incompatible with modernity and requires reformation (Roy 2007; Lewis 1993; Ramadan 2004). The second view argues that Islam is compatible with modernity and has been integrated into European or Western cultural traditions (Asad 2003; Zubaida 1995; Sayyid 2003). Others argue that cultural tradition has a strong influence on Islam with the result that syncretistic Islamic traditions have developed in specific regions and contexts (Gellner 1981). The chapter concludes that the relationship between Islam and secular values and state policies and values can consider different historical forms.
Chapter 3 contextualises the development of syncretistic Islam in Bengal from the medieval period after considering the current debates on syncretism in South Asia. The chapter explores the historical origins and development of the unique cultural traditions associated with Bengali Islam and how they differ from
the orthodox Islamic ideology of the Middle East. The chapter explains how, as Islam spread beyond the Middle East and Mediterranean region, Islamic religious practices became more culturally and historically specific based on the immediate circumstances of their location in time and space. This was how multiple syncretistic practices of Islam, including Sufism – shaped by local culture, geography, language, and ethnicity – evolved in multiple parts of the world, including Bangladesh. As demonstrated in subsequent chapters, Sufi saints or pirs have faced considerable challenges from religious reformists throughout the history of the region.
Chapter 4 focuses on a discussion of the communal conflict between Hindus and Muslims that emerged from economic, political, and ideological factors, thus leading up to the separatist movement that led to the creation of Pakistan. The economic and political factors discussed encompass the Permanent Settlement Act of 1793 as well as the role of Hindus in the zamindari system and the leadership role of landed Hindu elites having land holdings within the political system. The analysis demonstrates that the Indian National Congress and All India Muslim League played an important role in inciting communal conflict grounded in the unfair treatment of Muslims in the political system as well as economic disparity in agricultural, economic, and cultural development. The creation of Pakistan on religious lines stemmed from the political economy of the colonial system and led to the uneven development between East and West Pakistan, thus eventually leading to their separation into two nations. Religion played an important role in the ideology and formed the basis of the nationalist separatist movement. The two-nation theory was argued on religious communal lines, thus setting up a contestation between the religion and culture of Bengal. Although the majority of Muslims in East Bengal supported Pakistan, economic and social disparities between East and West Pakistan as well as the dominance of the West Pakistani elites over the eastern part of the country led to deep divisions.
The conflict between orthodox Islamic ideology and cultural or syncretistic Islam ultimately united East Bengalis in a fight against Pakistani political elites – the subject of Chapter 4. The inclusion of East Bengal in Pakistan along the religious lines advocated by West Pakistani political elites was ultimately rejected by East Bengal (then part of Pakistan). Similarly, the cultural traditions of Bengal inspired East Bengali Muslims to embrace the secular principle as state policy; there were important cultural differences between East and West Pakistani Muslims in the practice of Islam. There was an attempt to impose Urdu as the state language and the suppression of the employment and business opportunities of East Bengalis by the Pakistani elite, which led to grievances that culminated in a demand for autonomy for East Pakistan. Therefore, the people of East Bengal supported the AL, which championed language-based national identity and secularism.
Chapter 5 of the book explores the post-independence political history of Bangladesh in three sections to understand the contestation between Islamisation and secularism. Bangladesh emerged as a secular state; however, for Muslims in the country, the notion itself was Western. Therefore, from its very beginning the idea of secularism was a contested concept. The first section analyses how military regimes contributed to the erosion of secularism as a state policy and promoted Islamisation,
and Islam in Bangladesh
including the continuous expansion and institutionalisation of madrasa-based education. Through this system, the rulers or ruling elite expected greater political and economic support from oil-rich Middle Eastern countries and increasing popularity among the Muslims of the country. The second section describes the democratic political practices since 1991 and how Islamisation contributed to rising Islamic militancy under democratic regimes. The final section argues, based on attitudinal surveys, electoral results, and the opinions of key informants, that the syncretistic cultural tradition of Bangladesh did not lose its vitality despite attempts to encourage Islamisation by multiple governments and other forces.
Chapter 5 also explains the political history of the AL alliance government, a secular political party, after resuming state power a second time in 2009. Secular principles at the political level produced considerable differences between the previous and current terms. This chapter analyses the content of four newspapers from 2012 to 2021: Prothom Alo, the Daily Inqilab, the Daily Naya Diganta (Bengali newspapers), and the Daily Star (an English-language Bangladeshi newspaper). The analysis reports that, when it came to power in 1996, the AL alliance government compromised with Islamist forces and organisations, a strategy that was absent from its political approach and policies. Editorial and media opinion pieces strongly argued that the AL is attempting to mediate between secularism and Islamic forces. In the context of religious revivalism in multiple parts of the world, a number of researchers within the theoretical debate of the sociology of religion in the West report that secular values and religion can coexist in what they call postsecularism. Although the process may not be directly comparable, a similar trend of growing convergence between secularism and religion is occurring in Bangladesh. Therefore, the current political history of Bangladesh can be understood as an increasing trend of coexistence of secularism and syncretism, which is getting eroded by Islamic orthodoxy. These tensions are evident in the policies of the AL governments from 1971 to 1975 and 1996 to 2001. It assumed considerable force from 2009 to 2017, manifesting in a complex political culture in contemporary Bangladesh, which the chapter discusses.
After an analysis of the historical, cultural and political commentaries in literature and published newspapers, Chapter 6 passes an argument about how the future of secularism will take shape in Bangladesh. The political, cultural, and societal matters of Bangladesh have been considered in developing arguments. However, there is suspicion that the future of secularism in Bangladesh might be more accommodative in the nature of religion into the practices, which is unlike the context of Europe. The chapter concludes by arguing that, despite the societal and cultural factors under consideration, Bangladesh may face considerable challenges in defining the future of secularism. How will the general public in Bangladesh respond to the new form of secularism? We all have to wait for that moment to come.
Chapter 7 summarises the arguments provided in all the chapters. The summary shows that Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority country, is where secularism has been practised since the medieval period as a cultural artefact. With time, religious organisations have attempted to modify the nature of this trend by including religion and continuing secularisation processes in both societal and political domains,
although the accommodation of religion and secularism in the political domain remains a question among politicians and the civil society members, those of which who are sympathetic to secularism. Therefore, this book argues that the future of secularism can be challenging in Bangladesh because the current political party in power has demonstrated its preference to integrate religion and secularism in the political environments and keep them separate from the state administration. This is certainly a challenging task; however, the political commentators and social scientists have raised questions about this integration. Therefore, this book finally attempts to argue that the future of secularism in Bangladesh remains challenging for politicians and other stakeholders as they are involved in the political development of this country.
Limitations of the Book
This book has reported two limitations in the literature: Eurocentricism, which reports incompatibility between Islam and secularism; and the lack of historically informed theoretical exposition of the relationship between Islam and secularism in Muslim-majority countries. The classical sociological literature and the popular Western imagination (influenced by presumptions originating in Western culture) often implicitly assume that what is Western is modern and that Islamic tradition is not modern and not secular. This book has contradicted this perception by providing evidence from syncretistic Islamic traditions that allow diverse religious and cultural traditions to blend in approaches that demand religious neutrality at the state level. Policy-makers may refer to the incompatibility of Islam and democracy in Muslim-majority countries because of the perception that a return to religion in a state policy undermines the democratic practices. Rather than blame religion, the Bangladeshi experience indicates that what undermines democracy is political corruption and a lack of robust state institutions. Preventing government corruption, fostering political accountability, and strengthening trust in the political process by strengthening democratic institutions and processes would effectively stop the flow of extremism and politically motivated violence in Bangladesh. This analysis shows that the Islamic parties never gained considerable political support at either political or societal levels in Bangladesh. In recent times, political struggles surrounding Islamisation may have given rise to an impression that secularism has declined in Bangladesh. There is, however, no possibility that Bangladesh will revert to a theological state undermining secularism, which is an integral part of the Bangladeshi culture.
Note
1 The Australian reported “Murder of Blogger Rahman Rips at Heart of Secular Bangladesh” on 1 April 2015 (Hodge 2015); the Turkey Agenda reported “Secularism in Bangladesh and Beyond: Not Secular Enough for All” on 24 March 2016 (Sakib 2016); the Wilson Centre reported “Will ISIS Infect Bangladesh?” on 4 August 2015 (Ahmad and Kugelman 2015); and Terrorism Research Initiative reported “Bangladesh: An Emerging Centre for Terrorism in Asia” (Gohel 2014).
2 Revisiting Worldviews on Secularism and Religiosity
West and Beyond
Introduction
The chapter is structured in two sections. The first section explores the three waves of sociological scholarship. The first wave explores how the social and cultural dynamics of religion and politics, particularly the European reformations of the 16th and 17th centuries and the European Enlightenment, have influenced the understanding of secularism. This social context gives birth to classical sociology, reflecting on European assumptions about modernity and secularism, as well as the association of religion with irrationality. In political and economic contexts, this discussion refers to the expression in Auguste Comte’s idea of the end of theological stage of society in modern times, Durkheim’s distinction between sacred and profane, and Weber’s view of gradual disenchantment of the world and increasing rationalisation of human life. This section focuses on the opposition of freedom and religion or the association of rationalisation, tolerance, and modernisation with secularism from its inception. By focusing on an association between secularism and modernity, liberty and rationality, and posing these as foreign to a religious state, early classical European sociological understandings of secularism – or what I have termed the first wave of scholarship – carry the implication that theological states cannot be modern, democratic, and rational.
The second wave of scholarship focuses on the changing patterns in religious beliefs and practices in Europe and America. This wave of sociological interest in secularism challenges the first wave’s prediction that religiosity has declined in modern societies. These researchers highlight the rising and uneven pattern of religiosity in the modern world, the role of religion within the public sphere, its sociocultural importance within multicultural modern Western societies, and its relevance for secularism as a state policy.
The third wave of scholarship claims that the advent of religious revivalism in the contemporary period suggests that the concept of secularism may no longer be adequate to explain modern states, whereas the concept of post-secularism may be more appropriate. These researchers report a post-secular period in which religion takes on a renewed and important role but a generalised or immanent form in society. In Bengal1 until 1947, cultural Islam was a generalised form of religion. However, between 1947 and 1975, cultural Islam continued to play a major role in both the political and social environment in Bangladesh (1947–1971 as East Pakistan;
DOI: 10.4324/9781003411222-2
1971–1975 as the sovereign country of Bangladesh). This trend has changed to more religious than cultural after 1975, thus supporting the idea of a post-secular society.
The literature on secularism delves into several aspects, including (1) the extent and nature of freedom granted by the State to practice religion in a society; (2) the occurrence and nature of secularisation or revivalism processes; (3) whether religion has declined in modern states; (4) the relationship of religion with formal institutions like law, government, and the church; and (5) the existence or absence of secularism in society. Regardless of insights offered by the literature, few studies consider how secular Eurocentric narratives in the sociology of religion, which are deployed to examine secularism in the Muslim-majority countries, have affected perceptions about the state of secularism in these countries. Generally, the Western scholarship reports that Islam must be both intellectually and practically reformed to accommodate multiculturalism, modernisation, westernisation, and democratisation. These debates do not consider the unique relationship of Islam and the modern state within Muslim-majority country contexts (e.g. Bangladesh). The chapter concludes by exploring the theoretical debate on Islam and the modern state. The final section of this chapter demonstrates that Islam takes diverse forms and roles in the State and civil society in Muslim-majority countries. This makes it extremely important to provide additional historical context such that we can understand the diverse forms of religious expression better and their relation to the political domain for improved interfaith and inter-civilisational dialogues.
Revisiting Secularism
The term secularism is derived from the Latin word saecularis or saeculum; it means worldly and profane (Oxford English 2016; Merriam-Webster 2016). During the 13th century, saecularis and saeculum were used to refer to worldly objects and principles that were free from the domination of the Church. The word “secularism” can be traced to the old French word seculer, with two understandings: living in the world and not being a part of a religious order. Laicism is a French word, which is used to identify secularism (Eliade 1987). This laicism was derived from French word laicite, meaning the separation of the State and religion.
Casanova (2011) provides an overview of the modern understanding of secularism: as a statecraft doctrine first and then as an ideology. As it pertains to the doctrine of statecraft, Casanova states that some principle of separation between religious and political authority [is needed], either for the sake of the neutrality of the state vis-à-vis each and all religions, or for the sake of protecting the freedom of conscience of each individual, or for the sake of facilitating the equal access of all citizens, religious as well as nonreligious, to democratic participation.
(p. 66)
From an ideological viewpoint, Casanova reports that religion is “grounded in some progressive stadial philosophies of history that relegate religion to a superseded
Revisiting Worldviews on Secularism and Religiosity
stage” (p. 67). He then clarifies that sociologists generally hold that “religion is either an irrational force or a non-rational form of discourse that should be banished from the democratic public sphere” (p. 67). The assumption here is that religiosity will reduce with modernisation.
In his analysis of secularism, Casanova (2011, p. 72) argues that the concept of the secular was initially a Christian theological category that helped to organise the social structure of Western Christendom and guide the process of freeing oneself from it. Over time, however, due to the historical process of secularisation, the secular became the dominant category that shapes and limits the nature and boundaries of religion in various spheres, including law, philosophy, science, and politics. Casanova’s argument suggests that the concept of secularism has evolved from its initial religious roots to become a pervasive force that influences the way religion is understood and practiced in modern society.
The term “secularism” was coined by George Jacob Holyoake, an English philosopher, in 1896. In his book Origin and Nature of Secularism, Holyoake (1, p. 50) defines secularism as the pursuit of the highest possible development of man’s physical, moral, and intellectual nature, and the practical promotion of human improvement by material means. He proposes positive agreements as a common bond of union for those who wish to regulate their lives by reason and enable it by service.
Holyoake, the founder of the Secular Society in England, wanted a transformed society based in science that was free from the bond of religion. He observed, “the secularist concerns himself with this world without denying or discussing any other world” (Holyoake 1896, p. 51). In his understanding, progress is possible only via liberty or the removal of obstacles to the freedom of thought, action, and speech. Secularism condemned theology as superstitious and mischievous and identified it as an obstacle to progress. In his view, secularism dispels superstition and the authority of religion over state affairs; it rationalises morality, dignifies labour, and extends material well-being; moreover, it allows for the realisation of the self-government of individuals.
Worldview of Secularism
The First Wave
The disjunction of freedom and modernity from religion within the meaning of secularism is the product of a specific social, cultural, economic, and political European context. The origin and development of secularism as a doctrine and its practice in Europe went through multiple phases over an extended historical period.
One of the conflicts shaping the development of secularism in Europe was the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648) between states that supported Martin Luther and his reformed views, and those that supported the Pope and his action against Martin Luther (Parker 1997, pp. 1–33, 78–90; Wilson 2008, pp. 554–586). As both sides faced financial difficulties, they sat at the negotiation table, culminating in the
Treaty (or Peace) of Westphalia. The Treaty ensured that the Protestants in Catholic countries and Catholics in Protestant countries would enjoy freedom to pursue their religion. The relationship between the Treaty of Westphalia and the rise of capitalism is complex because it then fostered emerging capitalism and the ideals of the Enlightenment and rationalisation.
During the Reformation Movement (16th and 17th centuries), religious transformation was significant as Luther’s doctrine finally led to the separation of the State and the Church. He radically proposed opposition to the temporal authority of the Church (Thompson 1996). The Movement spread across Europe, accompanied by the view that the power of the Catholic Church should be curtailed and that there should be a separation of the Church from the State (Thompson 1996, p. 494). A secular worldview developed in Europe based on ideals about the benefits of a rational, tolerant, and democratic society, which led to the extraction of the Church from the State. This is the worldview that is reflected in the contemporary uses of the term secularism. The Protestant Reformation Movement ensured the emergence of a secular society and an apparently enlightened Europe.
The Enlightenment and the Age of Reason
The Enlightenment (from the middle of the 17th century to the end of the 18th century) was a movement and a state of mind. The term characterises a stage in the intellectual account of Europe; however, it also defines agendas of transformation in which influential intelligentsia outlined specific aims for criticism and suggestions for action. The Enlightenment can be described as the revolution of science and philosophy in the 18th century, stemming from the progress of individualism and rationality, following the Reformation (Gay 1995, p. 118). The importance of the Enlightenment depends on its combination of principle and pragmatism, which was intrinsic to the contemporary associations of rationalisation, capitalism, modernisation, and secularisation.
The Reformation led to greater religious freedoms and democracy, facilitated by the use of technology in the form of the printing press. The printing press assisted the spread of Luther’s 95 Theses and information about the abuses of the Roman Catholic Church, ultimately resulting in the popular resentment of papal authority and taxes. Moreover, it facilitated an association of knowledge with light and progress (Gay 1995, p. 391). The newfound emphasis on individualism and rationality of this period ultimately led to the Enlightenment, which ensured the triumph of reason and hegemonic discourse of secularism that went into shaping the political and social order of the European society; moreover, it was driven by advances in Western philosophy and the growth of knowledge and academic understanding.
The Idea of Secularism in Classical Sociology
The great socio-political revolutions that accompanied the development of modernity were the cradle for the appearance of sociology at the end of the 18th century. Emile Durkheim made a fundamental distinction between the sacred and profane, whereas
Max Weber made a fundamental distinction between irrationality and rationality, thus underpinning the scientific understanding of the role of religion in the modern society. This era created the basis of the modern mindset, which was more critical, sceptical, and individualistic while enabling scientific advancement and spread of secular ideology, thus resulting in a greater scientific understanding of humanity and an increasingly dominant view that religion would decline with advancements in society.
EMILE DURKHEIM
Durkheim (1858–1917) developed a systematic analysis of religion from a sociological perspective and propounded that the sociology of religion purported to explain the basis of all religions whether ancient or modern. Central to Durkheim’s thesis is that religion plays a functional role in a society and defined religion as “a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden – beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a church, all those who adhere to them” (Durkheim 1995, p. 44). For Durkheim, the sacred – all those things separated off from the mundane or everyday life – is generated using rituals that work to create social cohesion and individual ties within a community, thus focusing on how religion originates in the human desire to express a collective identity.
Sociologists following Durkheim have sought to explain how the separation of the sacred from the profane functions in a modern society marked by processes of rationalisation. Lukes (1985, p. 56) observed in this context that in the modern globalised world, Durkheim’s view of religious morality is no longer in the domain of the sacred, and scientific advancement, rationalisation, democracy, and modernity have taken over the primitive functions of religious institutions. In today’s society, Durkheim’s imagination of what is sacred and profane no longer applies to secular morality, although it does continue to assume a separation of these two realms (cited in Lukes 1985, p. 57). Lukes argued that, in Durkheimian terms, the social and religious realms are interchangeable and identified with the sacred. In particular, modern secularisation entails the profanation of religion through its privatisation and individualisation, while certain aspects of the secular domains of politics, knowledge, and economics are sacralised (Lukes 1985, p. 58). Durkheim’s functionalist approach reported that secularism was an inevitable part of the societal differentiation that defined the development of industrial Western societies. Industrialisation was understood to lead to a useful “rationalisation and separation, de-traditionalisation and individualisation, the cumulative effects of which had a direct impact on the decline in church involvement” (Inglehart and Norris 2007, p. 254).
MAX WEBER
In Max Weber’s essay “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism” (1912), Weber critiques Marx for his over-deterministic explanation of historical development and argues that Protestant thought about work and capital accumulation influenced Western societies by changing morals and orientations toward profit-seeking
activities (Weber 1912; Kessler 2011). He argued that secular vocations could be equally God-pleasing. This secularisation process or the view of rational society helped the spread of ideas that advanced capitalism (Kessler 2011). With time, Protestant ideas blended with cultural materialism and financial rationalism at the core of industrial capitalism. In understanding rationalisation and capitalist spirit, Weber used another term, the “disenchantment of the world”, which is attributed to the intersection of the Protestant Reformation and scientific revolution in the 15th and 16th centuries. Weber reported that these structural shifts instated a logical understanding of actions where individuals began to trust technical investigation as a particular way to truth, eventually resulting in the practice of and trust in magic, in God and myth weakening, and a rise of secularisation and bureaucracy (Bendix 1977, p. 84; Kessler 2011, p. 31). Religion played a more significant role in Weber’s intellectual pursuits than what conventional presentations of him as merely a sociologist may suggest. Despite Weber’s belief that modern Western culture has become disconnected from its Christian roots, the act of disconnecting cannot be seen as a major secularising rupture. This is because the principle of historicism that Weber inherited rejects the notion of sudden and extreme breaks and instead favours more gradual and continuous transitions.
Both Durkheim and Weber reported that religion would decline with the advent of modern society. The weakening of religion was the conventional premise in the social science disciplines through most of the 20th century. Weber argued that religion was experiencing an age of inevitable decline. The theses of Weber and Durkheim have had considerable impact on the authority and public credibility of religion. In particular, the classical sociologists identify links between processes of modernisation and secularisation and the weakening of religion, which led to the second wave secularisation theory.
The Second Wave
Contemporary researchers writing in the area of the sociology of religion, including Berger (1995), Casanova (1994), Turner (2011), and Stark (1999), challenge the expectation that religion has declined in modern nation states, thus reporting that religion has not withdrawn from public spheres globally. Despite Bruce (2011) defending the secularisation theory, others report that this assumption depends on Enlightenment and modernist assumptions about secularisation when societies have modernised alongside the transformation of religious institutions and practices. Accordingly, Stark (1999, p. 270) described that “after nearly three centuries of utterly failed prophecies and misrepresentations of both present and past, it was finally time to carry the secularisation doctrine to the graveyard of failed theories”.
Other sociologists have attempted to refine rather than discard the argument about decline in religiosity in modern societies. For example, Casanova (1994, p. 19) argued that the older theory of secularisation may lose its importance in the modern society. However, this theory can be revised to answer both its critics and the questions.
Similarly, Calhoun (2011) and Martin (2005) define secularism as a belief that anticipates the separation between religion and religious institutions from the State, where the State functions should never be under the dominion of religion. Secularism asserts that religion is a private and voluntary matter, and the State affairs should be guided by independent laws. Academically, contrasts are observed between the view that secularism is dominant in society and the observations made regarding the role of religion in the public sphere. Calhoun (2011, p. 76) explains that the complexity of post-modern society can be understood by examining the role of religion in liberal and democratic societies. Religion is often seen as having an antagonistic relationship with scientific reason in these societies.
Bruce (2011) argued that the declining power of religion in modern societies has led to a decline in religious individuals because it becomes more difficult to socialise children in their faith (p. 2), although religion declining in one state does not mean the same will occur in another social and cultural context. However, diversity can foster an increase in religiosity and its importance in the public sphere. Therefore, Bruce argues that secularism must be observed within different cultural and social contexts, in which power plays out differently. For example, the changing patterns of religious belief and practice in Europe and the United States, as observed by Berger, Davie and Fokas (2011), discuss how European society is more secular than American society. European parliaments legislate about religion and its restriction within the public sphere; however, in the United States, the judiciary is more likely to determine the place of religion in the public sphere, thus limiting religious activity in public schools in the United States (Berger, Davie and Fokas 2011, p. 25). Although both the United States and Europe attempted to establish a similar pathway of embracing distance between the role of religion and the State, they failed to arrive at a consensus in relation to the role of religion in private and public places.
In the discussion of the secularisation process, Casanova’s position is complex because he supported the secularisation thesis in his early writings but then raised multiple questions about the role of secularisation in relation to the complex nature of the role of religion in private and public places in the modern world. Casanova highlights the importance of systematically rethinking the relationship between religion and modernity, and the possible roles religion might play in the public sphere of modern societies. He argued that every religion that is classified either by doctrine or by cultural tradition has a public, communal identity, and that religions assume public roles in the modern world. Globalisation is then helping religion to assume public roles (e.g., the global involvement and reach of the Catholic Church; Casanova 2013, pp. 76–77).
However, Turner (2011) provided a unique historical and comparative analysis of the place of religion in the emergence of modern secular society in which he brings the role of multicultural society and a multi-faith population into this secularisation discussion. To establish a democratic, developed, and rational society in a multicultural context, secularism is more important than religious revival (Turner 2011, p. 29). Turner (2011, p. 45) observes that when social media and the Internet become the means of developing and bearing new and modified religious thoughts, they can bring change to the social ground of a community. Sometimes, religious authority influences the freedom of the individual in a society. Turner
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