I am a Bangladeshi Muslim by birth, now a US citizen. I am a freedom fighter of the Bangladesh War of Liberation. I am going to be 70 next August. My motherland, Bangladesh originated from a Muslim country. Now a question frequently chases me: what I am? What are my beloved countrymen?
Our forefathers, to get freedom from the Hindu atrocities, exploitations and humiliations, struggled for Pakistan and created a Muslim Homeland in 1947 to enjoy freedom and a fearless life. But we, in 1971, broke the same Pakistan that our parents created. We didn’t know that we were again going to become the slaves of the same foes from whom our predecessors freed us only 23 years before.
We celebrate the language day every year, but we forgot its significance. February 21 was earlier celebrated reciting the Holy Quran and saying Fateha for the salvation of the departed souls who dedicated their lives for languages. But we replaced that with singing songs and offering wreaths on the altar of the Shahid Minar, which has no relation with the martyrs, all of whom were Muslims. We dedicated our lives for the Bengali language. We ought to promote and preserve it and save it from all overt or covert aggressions. But we forgot it and now we embrace Hindi and watch Hindi movies and dramas. We allow Hindus to even intrude into our kitchens. We introduce and practice Hindu culture in the name of Bengali culture, though the Hindus never recognized us as Bengali, they termed us as Muslims. We are losing our Muslim identity, tradition, history and culture.
We fought for independence, but now we are selling it to India. We broke Pakistan for democracy, but we don’t know where our cherished democracy fled away. We struggled against Pakistani exploitation, but now we remain silent seeing Indian exploitation and robbery. We cannot even speak or write against India. Speaking or writing against India is a punishable crime. The murder of Abrar, a BUET student and many others, are burning examples of such punishment. India became our master and we accepted Indian lordship, which is entirely contrary to our spirit of the liberation war. We betrayed the souls of martyrs of 1971.
Our young boys and girls are unemployed, but over a million Indians legally work in Bangladesh. The actual number of illegal Indian workers in Bangladesh is unknown. Bangladeshis cannot speak out against such a situation. If anyone raises his voice, he is silenced.
Though we are Muslims, our dress and lifestyles don’t represent a Muslim identity. Questions surfaced about whether we are really Muslims. Many of us don’t pray or practice Islam. We stupidly claim religion is an internal matter, a matter of the mind, which is absolutely wrong. We forgot that Islam has theoretical as well as practical aspects. What a Muslim believes in mind, he is bound to practice in his daily life. Islam is not a matter of mind or personal issue. On the other hand, we practice such things that a Muslim must not do. We steal, loot and misappropriate people’s money and assets.
We, for our self interest, support such anti-social and anti-state persons, who are thieves and killers. We honor these killers, liars and thieves. We kill our own brothers and sisters. We became selfish. We lie and forgot speaking the truth. We lost humanity. We are outwardly human beings in appearance, but in practice, many of us turned inwardly into animals. We don’t love our own country, even though an animal loves its own abode. Though we claim we are patriots, we don’t hesitate to allow our adversary to eat up the vitals of our country under the cover of agreements, pacts, treaties and memorandum of understandings. We place money and power above our country.
What fantastic people we are! I don’t know when we will be able to come to our senses to rectify our errors to regain our lost track.
The writer is Bangladesh-origin American journalist and researcher based in the US.
February 22, 2021
The viewpoints expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect the opinions, viewpoints and editorial policies of Aequitas Review.
