Bangladesh mystic singers face Islamist backlash

In Bangladesh, several eminent civil society figures on Monday denounced the arrest of a 'baul' singer on charges of "hurting" the public's sentiments and subsequent Islamists attack on fellow mystic minstrels in the past few days.They claimed that religious strife had increased since the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina government.  "In the period following the July mass uprising (that toppled prime minister Sheikh Hasina's Awami League regime in 2024), religious extremism has surged," read a statement signed by 250 distinguished citizens.
It said a particular group has emerged as a 'sole agent' of Islam, embarking on a purge across the country. The "weapon of choice" has consistently been the ruse of blow to the public sentiment and thus creating a "suffocating situation," it read. "Demolishing more than 200 shrines, declaring countless individuals murtad-kafir-shatim, exhuming and burning body, forcibly cutting the hair of bauls and fakirs on the street, harassing women over movement and attire, and disrupting programmes involving dance, music, theatre, and even sports and fairs -- eradication of people of different opinions and practices appears to be their objective," the noted members of the public said.
The statement, signed mostly by academics who were opposed to the past regime, including economist Professor Anu Mohammad and Prof Salimullah Khan, said it was evident that those entrusted with maintaining law and order were not taking any effective steps to stop "mob terror or vigilantism." "Rather, from the outset they have encouraged it (mob violence) by maintaining silence -- trying to downplay incidents by calling them 'pressure groups', and even detaining victims or attacking survivors in fabricated cases," the statement read.
Rights group Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) in its statement expressed "deep concerns" over the attack on Sarkar's followers and admirers following his arrest. In another statement, the Bangladesh chapter of Berlin-based watchdog Transparency International said, the developments reflect a worrying rise in hostility toward religious harmony. Poet and activist Farhad Mazhar, warned that a new form of "religious fascism" was emerging in Bangladesh, as he joined a protest rally in the capital. "Arresting him (Sarkar) means arresting me. I will not accept this," said Mazhar, a staunch critic of the past Awami League regime. The poet happens to be the husband of one of advisory council members of interim government chief, Professor Muhammad Yunus.
According to academics and connoisseurs of culture, 'bauls', like Lalan Shah, with their syncretic, liberal worldview existed in what is now Bangladesh far longer than modern votaries of "puritan movements" which the Tawhidi Janata represents. Left-leaning student groups and cultural activists held separate torch marches in Dhaka and suburban Jahangirnagar University on Sunday evening to denounce attacks on singers.