No Blasphemy law is needed in Bangladesh: PM Sheikh Hasina

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday firmly rejected the Islamists’ demand for a blasphemy law to punish those who defame Islam and Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).

In an interview with the BBC World, she said that there are already laws and ways to protect the religious rights of people.
“They have demanded it. Actually, we don’t have any plan [to bring in the law]. We don’t need it. They should know that existing laws are enough,” Hasina said.
“This country is a secular democracy. So each and every religion has the right to be practised freely and fairly. But it is not fair to hurt anybody’s religious feelings. We always try to protect every religious sentiment.”
The prime minister’s remarks came barely two days after Hefajat-e Islam, a Chittagong-based Islamist group, held a huge rally in the capital’s Motijheel and called for the death penalty for those “guilty of blasphemy”.
The Islamists also claimed the government declare the Ahmadiyyas non-Muslim, demolish all sculptures in the capital, ban free mixing of men and women, and tussle women policy and education policy.
PM said, “We will go through all the demands and then we will see. If there is any reasonable one, we will fulfil. If it is not reasonable or not suitable for our country or society we will not accept it.”
Commenting on the criticism that her government is talking about secularism, and yet at the same time it’s showing a softer attitude towards the Islamists, she told BBC Bangla, “Secularism doesn’t mean religionlessness.
“Secularism means equal rights and dignity of every religion. However, it doesn’t mean someone can write anything about any religion. The critics are not doing the right thing.”
Talking about the fear of Jamaat-Shibir involvement in Hefajat’s long march on Saturday, Hasina noted that a delegation of BNP-Jamaat-led 18-party alliance took the stage and extended its support. “The fear was not baseless.”
She, however, thanked Hefajat for going back after the rally. “They did not walk into the trap of Jamaat.”

Hefajat-e Islam has taken centre stage in recent days as an opposite force to the Shahbagh Gonojagoron Mancha, which has been demanding capital punishment to 1971 war criminals.
Hefajat’s Motijheel rally was the culmination of a Jamaat-orchestrated propaganda that organisers of the Shahbagh movement were atheists.
Talking to the BBC, the prime minister also defended the arrest of four bloggers on suspicion of harming religious sentiments through their work. She said if anybody tries to hurt the sentiments of the followers of any religion or its venerable figures, there was a law to deal with it.
The arrests drew sharp reactions from the liberals who accused the government of yielding to Islamist pressure.
Asked why the arrests came in the run-up to the long march, she said, “It has no relation with the long march.”
She added, “A committee is going through all electronic media, blogs, Facebook and others. If they find anyone guilty, they must be brought to book.”
PM termed not true the claim that the government was not doing enough to protect the minority communities. She blamed the Jamaat for unleashing the recent communal attacks.
She dismissed any possibility of declaring a state of emergency in the wake of escalating political violence. “Why should I declare emergency? We have enough laws to protect our people,” she said, adding that some people were trying to spread such rumours.