Anti-Hindu violence has reignited once again in the Islamic nation of Bangladesh. Over the past week, some 15 Hindu temples and over 100 Hindu homes were vandalized by crowds of radical Islamists; the attacks are supposedly in retaliation for an alleged facebook comment posted by a village Hindu, the comment was said to be insulting to Islam.
These attacks are ending off a particularly violent year for the anti-Hindu elements of Bangladesh. Over the past year, there has been an ever increasing ISIS element within Bangladesh which has claimed responsibility for several deadly attacks on non-Muslims, including the murder of elderly Hindu and Buddhist priests, the hacking to death of a Hindu tailor and a Hindu teacher, the murder of two Christians outside a prayer meeting, and the targeted slaughter of two gay rights activists.
These most recent attacks have sparked protests both within and outside the nation of Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, Hindu youth activists have brought their message to the street with large demonstrations demanding that the Bangladeshi government take action to protect the religious minorities of the state. In Queens, New York, members of the Bangladeshi Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council (BHBCUC) staged awareness demonstrations to highlight the plight of Hindus living in their homeland. Could it be possible that Bangladesh cannot uphold its secular values because Islam is the state religion?
In the United States, Hindu congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard has started a video and petition campaign to help fight the rise of violent Jihad within the Islamic State of Bangladesh. Her video and petition highlights the ongoing religious cleansing of Hindus from Bangladesh, the decimation of the Hindu population from 18% in 1971 to less than 10% today, expulsions and land grabs, the rape and forced conversions of young Hindu women, and the ongoing attacks on Hindu places of worship. Please support Tulsi’s campaign to end Islamist violence in Bangladesh.
Transcript:
Aloha and Namaste. While we here in the United States may sometimes take our freedoms for granted, Hindus and other religious minorities in Bangladesh are living in perpetual terror. Forced conversions to Islam, rapes and abductions, extortions and land grabbing and forced expulsion, desecration and destruction of places of worship, are just a few of the types of violence that are currently being unleashed. The population of Hindus in Bangladesh has dwindled from 18% in 1971 to a meager 9.7% today. Accounting for the overall population growth during this time this is a net loss of about 53 million Hindus from Bangladesh. That’s close to the total population of a dozen European Union countries or that of more than fifteen U.S. States that has simply vanished from a tiny country about the size of Greece or the State of New York.
Compounding the problem is the rapid rise of violent jihadists in Bangladesh. We’ve seen in the news recently word of terrorist attacks, machete attacks and beheadings of Hindu priests, secularists, bloggers, and intellectuals. Yet there has been no real action taken by the Bangladesh government to quell this festering crisis.
We must stand together with the people of Bangladesh. Please sign this petition as we call on the Bangladesh government to take urgent action against the horrific oppression and terror that plagues religious minorities in Bangladesh every day.