''Minority Islam" in Muslim Majority Bangladesh: The Violent Road to a New Brand of Secularism

More than 85% of Bangladesh's 150 million people are Muslims. Bangladesh earns its title as "the third largest Muslim country of the world" following Indonesia and Pakistan because of its enormous size of Muslim population. Their religion, Islam, is however becoming a "minority" day by day. WhileMuslims in the West-in spite of being a minority-are enjoying their basic religious freedom, this basic right is increasingly being denied to the Muslims in Bangladesh while it continues to aspire to become a "uniquely secular" society. Based on a robust content analysis and interviews, the study shows that the current regime in Bangladesh has taken on a comprehensive policy of secularization with an aim to emasculate Islamic influence from political and social landscape of Bangladesh. Apart from undermining basic religious freedom of Muslims, the policy-which turns out to be both aggressive and violent-is increasingly becoming hostile to democratic principles, rule of law, freedom of movement, and political pluralism.