Bangladeshi minorities seek scripture readings in state programs
Recitations from four major religions seen as a symbolic gesture to promote pluralism
Christian leaders join the national council of Bangladesh Christian Association in this 2016 file photo. (Photo: Robin Bhabuk)
Bangladeshi religious minority groups have urged the government to introduce the reading of scriptures of all four major religions at the beginning of parliamentary sessions and state ceremonies.
Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council (BHBCUC), the country s largest minority group, made the call during a virtual conference this week.
Parliamentary sessions and state programs in Muslim-majority Bangladesh now begin with a recitation from the Quran.
By Stephan Uttom Rozario
Uncertainty has gripped Bangladesh’s most popular Catholic pilgrimage as church leaders hesitate to hold the annual feast of St. Anthony of Padua amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
The St. Anthony of Padua shrine in Panjora village of Gazipur district in the Archdiocese of Dhaka holds the pilgrimage in the first week of February each year, attracting up to 50,000 people in the largest annual Christian gathering in Muslim-majority Bangladesh.
The feast of the miraculous Portuguese saint falls on June 13 but in Panjora it is celebrated during February’s favorable weather to encourage pilgrims.
However, the fate of this year’s pilgrimage still hangs in the balance, while rumors have spread the feast will be suspended altogether.
Bangladeshi Christians brace for a subdued Christmas Churches in Bangladesh have decided to drop cultural programs, carol competitions and common meals due to the pandemic
Young Bangladeshi Catholics decorate St. Rita’s Church in Mothurapur of Pabna district ahead of Christmas. (Photo: Stephan Uttom/UCA News)
Kamol Biswas Christmas season has come with a very different experience from last year. When my first child was born shortly after Christmas last year, I was extremely happy and believed the year 2020 was going to be full of blessings and successes, Biswas, 31, told UCA News.
But his high hopes hit stony ground in March when Covid-19 fell upon Bangladesh.
A Pakistan apology could heal Bangladesh s war wounds
Bloody 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War was a crucial defining chapter in the history of the subcontinent
Pakistan s military was accused of killing three million people in what was then East Pakistan in one of the worst genocides of the 20th century. (Photo: YouTube)
Dec. 16 is Victory Day in Bangladesh. On this day in 1971, some 93,000 Pakistani soldiers settled for an unconditional surrender to India-Bangladesh joint forces in Dhaka that led to the emergence of a new nation state in South Asia.
The bloody nine-month Bangladesh Liberation War from March 25 to Dec. 16 was a crucial defining chapter in the history of the Indian subcontinent and a pointer to the historic blunder of the partition of India and Pakistan along religious lines in 1947.