INTERFAITH RELATIONS IN BANGLADESH: CAUSES AND SECURITY IMPLICATION

Abstract

Bangladesh, a country of around 180 million people, has a cluster of religions, races, cultures and ethnicities. Though the country is a Muslim majority one, it consists of people of other religious beliefs or faiths including Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism and Animism etc. Although Bangladesh enjoys relatively peaceful coexistence of diverse religious groups, the coexistence of different religious groups has been at times disturbed by different communal conflicts which often raise question of the interfaith relations in Bangladesh. This study aims at exploring the causes and security implications of recent (between 2000 and 2014) conflicts on the interfaith status of Bangladesh in light of religious, political and economic motives associated with the persecutions of the religious minorities. As a part of the case-study based qualitative exploration, notable historical interfaith conflicts and events of the sub-continent are studied to find out any potential pattern, if any, these persecutions follow. The study finds that socio-economic, and political motives often play a pivotal role in igniting conflicts among different religious groups which often turns into interfaith issues as religion gets played in the conflict as a divisive issue. The study also finds that interfaith conflicts have both short and long term socio-economic and security implications which have both national and international significance.