A persecution watchdog is warning about recent developments in Bangladesh that are reportedly already putting Christians and other minority religious adherents in grave danger.
“About a month ago, after a few weeks of really bloody protests and bloody suppression of protests by the government, the government of Bangladesh was overthrown in essentially a military coup,” Joel Veldkamp, head of international communications at Christian Solidarity International (CSI), told CBN News.
He continued, “And what followed was about a week of rioting in which Hindus, and Christians, and Buddhists all across Bangladesh were attacked by mobs organized by Islamist groups.”
Pandemonium broke out in the South Asian nation last month after a student-led protest movement pushed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina out of office; she fled to India as furor exploded, with 600 people dying amid the consternation.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus was sworn in to help lead an interim government and bring back order. So far, instability persists, according to Voice of America.
Considering the newfound chaos — and the fact Bangladesh is a majority-Muslim country — these developments have been seen as incredibly troubling.
Despite its overwhelmingly Islamic populace, Bangladesh has what Veldkamp called a “long history of secularism and tolerance,” with its government existing in secular form before its fall. The shifting and chaotic dynamics now have experts like Veldkamp worrying about what could come next.
“Now that government has been overthrown … we’re extremely concerned that the floodgates are kind of now open for much wider Islamist and jihadist violence against Christians, against Buddhists, against Hindus, against all the non-Muslims in the country,” he said.
