The Analysis Of The Rising Religious Extremism In Bangladesh After 2014

Terrorism is one of the most emotive,politically charged and controversial issues of the world today.Today,it appeared throughout the world as a threat to humanity.Bangladesh,a peace aspiring country has a strong opposition against any kinds of terrorism within and beyond the border.The constitution of this Republic orders to show zero tolerance against the militancy.Since its independence in 1971,the country had not seen any kinds of militancy or its any sign till 1990.But after the involvement of some Muslims in the Afghan war against USSR in 1979-1990,the import of extremism and militancy started in this country.Despite Bangladesh being globally identified as a moderate Muslim country located in South Asia.Bangladesh has been experiencing some destructive terrorist events for last few years.Most of these events are taking place under the cover of "War of justice".Youths are mostly involved in these despicable acts.We are witnessing that the youths of Bangladesh are not confined to militant activity within the country only rather involved in various militants events throughout the world.We witnessed that,in Holy Artisan attack at Gulshan on 1st of July 2016 all of the attackers were young and from rich families.Beside that Shualakia Edgar,Atia Mohol of Sylhet and other spots of the country have had attacked by the young attackers.These all incidents had taken place within the country with direct order of ISIS.On the other hand,many Bangladeshi youths and workers residing various country like USA,UK,Australia,Singapore etc.have been found involved in many militants attacks or behind the planning of the attack in connection with the militant groups like ISIS,Al Qaeda,Taliban,Zaishe Mohammad etc.There are many reasons why religious extremism is rising after 2014 in Bangladesh and why the youths are more attracted towards joining the terrorist organizations like ISIS and become extremists and terrorists.This study finds out the factors contributing to the rising trend of religious extremism in Bangladesh.And what the impacts of rising religious extremism have on the security situation of Bangladesh and surrounding areas.Which factors make it vulnerable day by day? This research also tries to find out the root cause of religious extremism in the country and analyses the holistic impact of religious extremism in Bangladesh.This study also focuses on how the counter-terrorism strategies are manifested and implemented in Bangladesh and surrounding areas.This paper presented the flaming reasons mainly in two parts like domestic factors and international factors.Most of the places they are involving in the religious terrorism for the lack of sufficient Islamic knowledge,the alluring financial offer from the world famous terrorist outfits,for the very loose family bondage,cognitive dissonance,conflicts of believes etc.Above factors made our youth vulnerable to the terrorist organizations in an international arena.Moreover,the free flow of information,easy monetary transaction,the popularity of social networks and uninterrupted internet connection paved the way for terrorist organizations to attract the youth of Bangladesh.That's why terrorist organizations like ISIS have been attracting the youths to them.Consequently,the security situation of Bangladesh has gone under threat and it also influenced the world's security condition.This thesis is divided into 5 chapters.Chapter 1 introduces the background of the study,objective of the research is to find out the factors contributing to the rising trend of religious extremism in the youths of Bangladesh,why they are involving in the terrorist groups local or international like ISIS And what the impacts of rising religious extremism have on the security situation of Bangladesh and its surrounding areas.Chapter 2 describes the main traits of religious extremism in Bangladesh after 2014 where it is observed that these main traits don't have uniformity and similarity with previous time as it changes over the time with the changes of its purpose,changes of the world politics,changes of the patterns of discrimination against world Muslims and the way of politicizing the Islam.This chapter identifies-protection of Muslims nation over the World,establishing "Khelafat: Islamic State” adoption of Killing as the main tool: Stopping Blasphemy or AntiIslamism as the main traits of religious extremism.Chapter 3 discusses the main task of this research that is identifying the reasons for the rising religious extremism in Bangladesh.These factors are divided into two – Domestic factors and International factors.Through domestic factors,this study tries to identify the internal factors which are mainly liable for the rising of homegrown militants and also for the easy access of the international terrorist groups in this country.On the other hand,the International factors try to show how the international events against Muslims wave the world Muslims especially the youths and encourage and consult them to be a part of the international terrorist group like ISIS through social media,various blogs,Facebook pages,and groups,various YouTube channel etc.This Chapter finds-influence of international events against Islam,influence of international militant groups,abuse of social Media in attracting the youths to the international terrorist groups,clash of Civilization,confused religious identity,violence against Muslim minorities,cognitive dissonance among Muslims,unregulated financial flow from abroad,western policy regarding Middle-East Countries etc.are as the main international reasons.Chapter 4 identifies the bad impacts of religious extremism on Bangladesh security and beyond under five different dimensions like worsening the domestic security situation;national,institutional and religious image crisis;Family suffering;Economic instability;and strengthening the violent extremism networks within the region.And at the end,Chapter 5 draws conclusion and recommendations.