Monday, December 8, 2008

Is Bangladesh on the brink of freedom?

……..If sadness, Oh mother mine, casts a gloom on your face, my eyes are filled with tears………. (Tagore)

This was the month when our people as a nation took charge of their own lives.

Well, some folks just had to spoil it. We got betrayed. This time not by the invaders, but by our own. The people we chose to be our leader turned blind to our necessities. We were left orphans. The power we gave them to use in our favor, were abused against us.

As a young Bangladeshi Muslim I see & hear our leaders have become rulers, term dictators, oppressors and agents of the past invaders. And with my kind of job, which involves sharing views with all ages groups (especially the youths), I see one thing in them, they are aware of everything. And they want Bangladesh to be country they learned in their school days.

I thank Allah(swt) that He has opened the eyes of our brother & sisters. Say :"Can the blind be held equal to the seeing?" Will ye then consider not? (Sura An Anam Verse 50) The young Bangladeshis are willing to take the challenge to reflect on our lives and the forces that shape our values. We can see, hear and speak. The only think we lack is courage, a just leader and a good cause. And then nothing can stop us.

For years we waited, not a patient waiting, but an anticipation with enormous determination, an anticipation characterized by struggle, by martyrdom, by torture, by oppression and yes, also by deep laughter and joy.

In the past we were oppressed, in the present we are under oppression and will always be if we remain this way. Allah(swt) has given us order to fight.

Will ye not fight people who violated their oaths…. (Sura At Tauba Verse13)

And fight them on until there is no more tumult or oppression and there prevail justice and faith in Allah; but if they cease let there be no hostility except to those who practice oppression (Sura Al Baqara Verse193)

Prophet Muhammad (sm) was also a freedom fighter. He freed whole Arabia from the clutches of ignorance and oppression. And as a devout Muslim it is also our duty to be a freedom fighter. Taking up ammunition is not the only mode of fighting, we have got more superior weapons then that. We have knowledge, unity, and firmness and will to sacrifice.

Our seniors have forgotten to become truthful &to fight for what is fairness and justice. We are taught how to get adjust & learn the corrupt system. Learn to give gush, do chamchami & obey the boss order even it is wrong, don’t protest or get involved on other matters are few common advice. How it is possible to be neutral with regard to any social issue or problems. Washing one’s hand off or ignoring it simply means being a part of it

But isn’t that insane. The sane person is, then, not the person who adjust to these crazy system but the one who resists, who refuses to be molded, because the mould is rotten.

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world had not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls
Where words come from depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is lead forward by thee into ever widening thought and actionInto that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake!

(Tagore; Gitanjali)