Why the rest of the world should care about Jihad in Southeast Asia by Madeline Brooks

On August 5, 2024, the duly elected Prime Minister of Bangladesh had to flee for her life. Sheikh Hasina, who had served for fifteen years as a force for secularism, found refuge in neighboring India, but her stay is uncertain. Mobs of angry Muslims in Bangladesh tore apart her home, stealing anything they could, and are demanding her return so that they can “try” her for alleged mass killings.

Given that they’ve already killed many members of her party and absent the rule of law, it’s possible they’ll succeed in killing her, as they did her father, who successfully led the revolution to gain independence from Pakistan. Currently, Bangladesh is experiencing huge demonstrations of Islamists waving pro-Palestine flags and shouting, “Execute Hasina” and “The blood of the martyrs is our power.”

The Bangladesh National Party (“BNP”), which is openly tied to Islamist forces, effected the coup against Sheikh Hasina and her secular political party, the Awami League. They’ve seized passports from Awami League members to prevent their leaving the country to punish them, whether through trials or worse.

Image: A Muslim-ignited hotel fire that burned dozens to death. YouTube screen grab.

The BNP’s basic principle is “full faith and trust in Allah.” It partners with Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh’s largest Islamist group, which demands an end to secular rule. Jamaat’s mission is to return Bangladesh to Pakistan’s strict fundamentalism, which Bangladesh abandoned when it broke free from Pakistan in 1971. Other fundamentalist groups behind BNP are Hefazat e Islam, which has been demanding capital punishment for “atheist bloggers”, and Khelafat Majlish (Caliphate), which insists that “no laws or policies are enacted [that] contradict the Quran and Sunnah.” All these groups actively fight for a worldwide, fundamentalist Islamic Caliphate.

The coup in Bangladesh represents one more country on the road to becoming a staging ground for jihad attacks. These are the same forces that attacked the U.S. on 9/11 and, since then, have attacked Israel, Britain, France, Germany, and many other places. In the face of Western weakness, they continuously gain ground.

In Bangladesh itself, Muslims are escalating attacks on non-Muslim minorities. Hindus, who are the largest and, so far, most vocal minority, say they are experiencing genocide. They point to the fact that Muslims are threatening to wipe out all non-Muslim faiths (or, in the case of atheists, lack of faith), traditions, and cultures in favor of full Sharia law.

Bangladeshi media frequently fail to report on this violence, effectively whitewashing Islamists. When they do report on the violence, those reports are swiftly removed from the internet so that many of the links below may be dead within a short time. The international media, including the US news, pay scan attention to the violence. Here’s just a short list of what they’re ignoring:

• Muslims burned alive 24 people in a hotel that a member of the Awami League owned.
• Muslims burn Hindu temples, houses, and shops.
• While Muslims murder Hindu men, they abduct Hindu women.
• There are reports that Muslim-run hospitals, even government-sponsored ones, are denying treatment to Hindus.
• A mob beat a teenage Hindu boy to death inside a police station— while the police just watched!—simply for responding to a taunt made to his religion.
• In academia, Muslims force professors to resign.
• In schools, Muslims force Hindu students to wear the hijab and recite verses from the Koran.
• Muslims stone Hindu religious processions, an old practice stepped up since the coup began.
• Muslims threaten Hindus to stop them from celebrating the Durga Puja.
• Muslims force poor Hindus to join Jamaat, meaning they wage jihad on their own people.
• Muslims destroy or steal Christian property while beating the owners and telling them to leave their homes or die.
• Sunni Muslims have destroyed Sikh shrines.
• Muslims burn indigenous people’s homes, businesses, and temples so that many are forced to flee, leaving everything behind.
• Muslims burn Buddhist temples.

Bangladesh’s newly-appointed interim head, Muhammed Yunus, smiles benevolently and says that all parties will be treated fairly, even as he claims attacks on religious minorities are “exaggerated“ and mere “political narratives“ from India meant to make Bangladesh look excessively Islamist.

However, the outrages by Muslims against minorities in Bangladesh continue, and jihad gains another foothold to threaten the rest of the world.

Madeline Brooks, M.A., is the former head of the New York chapter of ActforAmerica and is a conservative and counter-jihad writer. Her articles have been published in AmericanThinker.com, CanadaFreePress.com, FamilySecurityMatters.org, and elsewhere. Her book, What You Need To Know About Islamic Jihad: Information The Main Stream Media Is Not Giving You, is available on Scribd. She can be reached at ResistJihad@aol.com.