In April 1928, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk of modern Turkey amended the nation’s constitution by abolishing Islam as the state religion, thus establishing Turkey as a secular nation-state. Had Atatürk not made this momentous decision and refused to declare Turkey a secular state, the country would have faced even more catastrophic circumstances than those that plague Iran today. Had Turkey not banned the burqa and hijab in 1980, it would have become a second Syria, or perhaps a second Afghanistan. Today’s modern Turkey is regarded as the most developed, industrialized, and militarily powerful upper-middle-income nation in the Muslim world. Contemporary Turkey ranks among the world’s top ten defense equipment manufacturers. Turkey is a NATO member. Modern Turkey serves as a balancing force between the Middle East and Europe. The Turkish people abandoned state religion Islam and rejected religious fanaticism, fundamentalism, and terrorism—which is precisely why Turkey did not become another Pakistan.
Had the 1979 Islamic Revolution not established a Shia government in Iran, modern Iran might well be far more developed than Turkey itself. It was religious fanaticism that embroiled Iran in an eight-year war with Iraq beginning in 1980. Since then, Iran has faced relentless sanctions, one after another. By creating various terrorist organizations to establish Shia rule throughout the Middle East, Iran has made enemies of all its neighboring Muslim states—Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan—all predominantly Sunni nations. Iran has maintained poor economic, social, and political relations with each of them. Following the latest Israel-Iran conflict, Iran has increasingly resembled a desert like Gaza. If the Iran-America war continues for just a few more months, Iran will transform into the world’s largest Gaza City.
In 1952, following the Egyptian Revolution, Gamal Abdel Nasser came to power and abolished Islam as the state religion, establishing Egypt as a secular nation-state. This is precisely why Egypt has not become a charity case like Pakistan. Despite being a neighboring state to Israel, Egypt stands today as a developed nation in the world. Egypt is called the second-largest economy in Africa. While maintaining one of the Arab world’s most powerful militaries, it continues to hold its head high on the world stage. Though Pakistan is twice the size of Egypt in land area, it lags far behind Egypt in many respects.
Among the world’s 57 Muslim-majority nations, 23 to 25 have no state religion. The world’s largest Muslim nation, Indonesia, abolished Islam as the state religion after 1945 and developed itself as a secular, secular nation-state—which is precisely why it stands today as one of the world’s most developed countries. Malaysia incorporated secularism into its constitution starting in 1957. Yet when Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the Father of the Bengali Nation, included secularism in Bangladesh’s constitution in 1972, a group of religious hardliners raised their voices in protest, crying that if the state became secular, Islam would disappear! But these very same people sing the praises of secular states like Turkey, Egypt, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Do they have no shame whatsoever?
In Ankara, the capital of so-called Muslim Turkey, there stands an eight-lane major road named ‘Bangabandhu Road’ (Bangabandhu Street). At a roundabout along this road stands a towering statue of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the Father of the Bengali Nation. Has this caused Muslims in Turkey to lose their faith? Turkish Muslims have been able to honor Bangabandhu, yet Bangladesh has failed to do so. A group of fools in Bangladesh vandalized Bangabandhu’s statue and raised slogans of ‘Long Live Pakistan.’ They have learned to compose grand poems as ‘Shao Mao Hadi,’ but in reality, none of them have become true human beings. Just because Bangabandhu’s statue stands in Kolkata, India, does that mean all Hindus in Kolkata have become Muslim? Or have all Muslims in Kolkata become Hindu?
A statue of Bangabandhu has been erected in front of the University of Western Sydney in Australia. Has Professor Bernie Glober become Muslim because of it? In the city of Le Mans, 400 kilometers from Paris, the capital of France, Bangabandhu Square and a Bangabandhu statue exist. There is a Bangabandhu statue in Michigan in the United States. The definitions of halal and haram are taught only in Bangladesh. This is because this country has more religious businessmen than actual human beings. Those who smashed Bangabandhu’s statue, those who vandalized the statues of the war heroes and martyrs of independence, those who set fire to 32 Dhanmondi (Bangabandhu’s residence)—the only achievement of the 1971 war criminals and hyenas is the Jamaat-e-Islami and its butchers like Kader Molla and Golam Azam, who chant ‘Long Live Pakistan.’ Beyond this, these people have achieved nothing for Bangladesh in the past 55 years, and they will have nothing to show in the future—merely three zeros. This is why they have deceived the people of Bangladesh with Yunus’s eighteen-month triple-zero theory.
For this reason, there is a popular saying in English: ‘You can’t erase history.’—meaning history cannot be erased. Over the past four decades, these people have tried to make Zia, the so-called father of independence, equal to Bangabandhu by making him the declarer of independence as well, but they have failed. They have failed repeatedly in trying to make Golam Azam and Jinnah equal to Bangabandhu. Failing in that, they have attempted to elevate Sher-e-Bangla, Suhrawardy, and Vasani to the level of Bangabandhu, but they have been defeated time and again. Even by banning Bangabandhu’s name for 21 long years in independent Bangladesh, they could not erase his name from people’s hearts. This is why William Faulkner said, ‘History is not was, it is.’
Those who set fire to 32 Dhanmondi—the residence of Bangabandhu—in the belief that they have erased Bangabandhu from people’s hearts are living in a fool’s paradise. In 2004, during the BNP and Jamaat rule, Bangabandhu was voted the greatest Bengali of all time in a BBC survey. The speech of Bangabandhu—which anti-independence forces have tried for 55 years to erase—received recognition from UNESCO in 2017 as part of the ‘Memory of the World Register.’ This is why it is said: ‘True honour once earned, can never be erased.’ The people of Bangladesh love Bangabandhu with all their hearts. Therefore, in order to build a modern Bangladesh, Bangabandhu sought to establish a secular Bangladesh to ensure the civil rights of people of all religions.
Bangabandhu has earned such honor in the hearts of the people of Bangladesh and in the hearts of people around the world.
“Bangabandhu is a martyr in the struggle to establish secularism.”
