Falling Off Moderation’s Path : Bangladesh is wrong to prosecute writer on charge of insulting Islam

A court in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka has upheld a ruling that writer Taslima Nasrin can be tried on a charge of insulting religion. That does not mean a trial would be right, however. For the sake of justice, this wrongheaded charge should be dropped.

Nasrin’s lawyers last week obtained another delay in the trial while they seek dismissal of the charge. The writer fled to Sweden a year ago after an Islamic clergyman ordered her killed for allegedly saying the Koran should be revised and brought up to date. She said she was misquoted.

Earlier, the government banned one of her books that described the murder of Bangladeshi Hindus by Muslims.

Even when it was known as East Pakistan, before independence in 1971, Bangladesh strove for secularism. Islamic militancy is relatively new in the country, with its practitioners seeking to capitalize on the desperate poverty. A number of political parties themselves have sought the backing of fundamentalists, an unfortunate injection of politics into religion.

A leader of one of the major Islamic political parties struck a welcome note of moderation after Nasrin left Bangladesh, saying the country had “unnecessarily wasted its time and energy” on the writer. That was not good enough for a collection of fundamentalist organizations, which threatened to bring down the government if Nasrin was not tried, even if only in absentia .

Nasrin, a physician, was an outspoken advocate of better treatment of women in Bangladesh. The attacks on her often had as much to do with her feminism as her portrayals of Islam. Although militants were able to turn out 50,000 people in the streets of Dhaka last year shouting for her execution, that was a relatively small crowd for South Asia, and her case has attracted little attention since she left.

The government of Bangladesh should not stir the pot anew. Drop the charge against Nasrin.

From Egypt to Turkey, Algeria to Malaysia, countries with majority Muslim populations are wrestling with the role of religion in politics these days. Bangladesh would be well-advised to stay on the route of moderation.