A section of Dhaka University sociology department students on Monday protested against labelling the university’s associate professor Samina Luthfa as ‘Islamophobic’.
They also protested against the government decision of cancelling the textbook review committee after different Islamic groups demanded exclusion of two members of the committee — Dhaka University physics department professor Md Kamrul Hassan and sociology department associate professor Samina Luthfa.
Transparency International Bangladesh in a statement on Monday said that the decision contradicted the vision of a non-discriminatory new Bangladesh and its non-communal spirit.
This, TIB asserts, is indicative of the interim government’s compromising stance.
An office order, issued by the education ministry on September 28, read that it cancelled the committee formed on September 15 to review and amend all textbooks of the National Curriculum and Textbook Board.
Soon after the formation, Islamist political parties Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and Bangladesh Khelafat Majlis demanded inclusion of Islamic scholars in the committee.
On social media, As Sunnah Foundation chairman Sheikh Ahmadullah in a post alleged that professor Kamrul Hassan and associate professor Samina Luthfa were religion-haters while Samina was supporter of homosexuality and Islamophobia and demanded their removal.
¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· correspondent of Dhaka University reported that, behind the banner of general students of DU sociology department, the students issued a petition on Sunday protesting against the tagging of associate professor Samina Luthfa ‘Islamophobic’.
A group of sociology department students on Monday noon held a protest march on the campus and organised a rally at Anti-Violence Raju Memorial Sculpture area protesting against the tagging.
Tasnim Afroz Emi, a former student of the department, said at the rally that they may have ousted a fascist government, but the elements of fascism were still strongly present.
‘Our two teachers are being targeted and hatred is being spread against them. Why do these individuals always suffer oppression, regardless of the people in power,’ she asked.
Another former student of the department, Arunima Tahsin, said the teachers had been working on education for a long time.
Sociology department student Abdul Ahad said that the tagging of Samina Luthfa as Islamophobic and cancellation of the committee were done deliberately.
‘She has never made any anti-religious statements in her classes or imposed her beliefs on others,’ he said, adding, ‘wherever political tagging occurs, we will resist it.’
Transparency International Bangladesh in a statement on Monday said that the interim government has set a worrisome and risky precedent by compromising policy decisions in response to self-interested radical threats.
TIB executive director Iftekharuzzaman said that the interim government was compromising by succumbing to the propaganda and threats posed by self-interested factions.
A troubling example of this is the cancellation of the textbook review committee, which not only represents a concession to fundamentalism and communalism but also betrays the very aspirations of new Bangladesh for a non-discriminatory, non-communal, and democratic future, he said.
Zaman further said, ‘the strength of the interim government lies in the core values of the anti-discrimination movement — pluralism, inclusiveness, equality, and non-communalism,’ he added.
TIB expresses hope that the government will continue to uphold its responsibility to reform the state and steadfastly avoid compromising with all forms of malign forces, especially communal and fundamentalist factions.