Bangladesh says NYT report claiming rise in Islamist extremism 'misleading'

DHAKA: Bangladesh has dismissed as "misleading" an NYT report, which claimed that while the country works to rebuild its democracy and shape a new future for its 175 million people, a "streak of Islamist extremism" that had been hidden beneath its secular surface is now emerging.
Chief adviser Muhammad Yunus's press secretary Shafiqul Alam said the article, titled 'As Bangladesh Reinvents Itself, Islamist Hard-Liners See an Opening' paints a one-sided view of the country. Alam said this portrayal not only oversimplifies the political and social dynamics of the country but also risks unfairly smearing an entire nation. "It is crucial to acknowledge the progress Bangladesh has made over the last year and the complexity of the situation, rather than relying on selective, incendiary examples that paint an inaccurate picture."
In the vacuum that has emerged after the overthrow of "authoritarian leader (Sheikh Hasina)", fundamentalists in one town declared young women could no longer play soccer, says the NYT report. In another, they forced police to free a man who had harassed a woman for not covering her hair in public, the article said. "Demonstrators at a rally in Dhaka, the capital, warned that if the govt did not give the death penalty to anyone who disrespected Islam, they would carry out executions with their own hands. Days later, an outlawed group held a march demanding an Islamic caliphate." In interviews with NYT, members of Islamist parties and outfits - some of which had previously been banned - made clear they were working to push Bangladesh in a more fundamentalist direction. Alam said, "While there will always be hardliners... it is our responsibility to deny them the oxygen their anger requires."