International Criminal Court Authorizes Investigation Into Persecution of Rohingya By Myanmar

Yesterday, in a 58-page decision (full text), a 3-judge Pre-Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court sitting at The Hague authorized an investigation into alleged crimes against humanity committed against the Rohingya Muslims by Myanmar. The Court's press release summarizes the decision:

The Chamber concluded that the Court may exercise jurisdiction over crimes when part of the criminal conduct takes place on the territory of a State Party. While Myanmar is not a State Party, Bangladesh ratified the ICC Rome statute in 2010. Upon review of the available information, the Chamber accepted that there exists a reasonable basis to believe widespread and/or systematic acts of violence may have been committed that could qualify as the crimes against humanity of deportation across the Myanmar-Bangladesh border and persecution on grounds of ethnicity and/or religion against the Rohingya population..... 

Noting the scale of the alleged crimes and the number of victims allegedly involved, the Chamber considered that the situation clearly reaches the gravity threshold. According to the supporting material, an estimated 600,000 to one million Rohingya were forcibly displaced from Myanmar to neighbouring Bangladesh as a result of the alleged coercive acts. Noting the victims' views, the Chamber agreed with the Prosecutor that there are no substantial reasons to believe that an investigation into the situation would not be in the interests of justice.

Bangladesh Court Throws Out Petition Seeking To End Islam As State Religion

As reported by Voice of America, yesterday a 3-judge panel of Bangladesh's High Court rejected on procedural grounds a controversial petition filed 28-years ago seeking to eliminate the designation of Islam as the country's state religion.  Petitioners argued that recognition of Islam-- practiced by 90% of the population-- as the state religion is inconsistent with the country's secular constitution and discriminates against religious minorities. As soon as the case opened in court yesterday, the judges ruled that because the secular group filing it never registered with authorities, it has no right to file a petition.

More Stabbings In Bangladesh Of Those Involved In Criticizing Islam

Last February in Bangladesh, the Bangladeshi-American blogger Avijit Roy was hacked to death in an attack by an Islamist group that objected to his secularist postings on science, religion and LGBT issues on his blog. (See prior posting.) Now, according to the New York Times, earlier today in Dhaka assailants entered the offices of Jagriti Publications which had published Avjit Roy's book"The Virus of Faith" and stabbed to death publisher Faisal Arefin Dipan.  Around the same time, several men entered the Shuddhashar publishing house and attacked Ahmed Rahim Tutul who had previously received death threats over books he had published, including one of Roy's. Tutul is in critical condition.  They also attacked two other men who were in the office with Tutul. One of those is Sudip Kumar Barman, a blogger who (under the name Ranadipam Basu) had posted on Roy's website. According to CNN, Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) claimed responsibility for the assaults, saying that the victims had made derogatory remarks about Islam. In Bangladesh, "hit lists" of secular writers have been circulating on the Internet.

Bangladesh Arrests Facebook Critic of Hajj Deaths On Charges Of Insulting Islam

Last week, the free speech advocacy group Article 19 called attention to the September 26 arrest in Bangladesh of Mohon Kumar Mondal, the leader of a Bangladeshi environmental organization, on charges of offending religious sentiments of Muslims.  After the death of hundreds in a crush and resulting stampede during the Hajj (see prior posting), Mohon published a Facebook posting criticizing Saudi Arabia's security arrangements at Mina, Saudi negligence in dumping dead bodies from the stampede, and questioning the rationality of the Hajj ritual of stoning the devil at Mina. Police arrested Mohon after a local political leader filed charges against him under Section 57 of the Information Communication and Technology Act.  That section prohibits the deliberate publication or transmission online of material which hurts or is likely to hurt religious sentiments.  Article 19 called for Mohon's release.

Secularist Blogger Hacked To Death By Islamists In Bangladesh

In Dhaka, Bangladesh on Thursday night, the Bangladeshi-American blogger Avijit Roy was hacked to death by machetes and meat cleavers in an attack by an Islamist group that objects to his secularist postings on science, religion and LGBT issues on his blog Mukto-Mona (Free-mind).  Roy's wife, Rafida Ahmed, was also attacked and lost a finger.  The Guardian reports that Roy, a Hindu and a strong voice against religious fanaticism, had been receiving threats for some time and that a Facebook posting warned that he would be killed once he arrived in Bangladesh from the United States. After the attack, a group identifying itself as Ansar Bangla 7 Tweeted: "Anti-Islamic blogger US-Bengali citizen Avijit Roy is assassinated in capital #Dhaka due to his crime against #Islam." Several hundred people joined a rally yesterday near the site of the attack carrying banners reading: "We want justice" and "Down with fundamentalism."

Bangladeshi Cabinet Minister Fired Over Anti-Hajj Remarks

In Bangladesh last week, the ruling Awami League party dismissed Post and Telecommunication Minister Abdul Latif Siddique from the cabinet after he made unusually critical remarks about the tradition of the hajj. Yesterday's International Policy Digest reports that while in New York, exchanging views with expatriates, Siddique said:

I am dead against hajj. Hajj costs a substantial amount of manpower. About two million people are now in Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj. These people have no work, no production. [They are] only causing reduction [in wealth]. [They are] only having meals [inside the country] and spending money [abroad].

Siddique's remarks led to 19 court cases being quickly filed against him for hurting religious sentiment.