Following Saudi Arabia blindly

Published on Wednesday, 5 August 2015

[Disclaimer: When I write Bangladeshi, I mean Islamist Bangladeshi & not common Bangladeshi]

I wonder at the speed with which Bangladesh is becoming an Islamic country. I wonder at the increasing number of Bangladeshi males who put on kurta of elder brothers and paijama of younger brothers. The women folks are not legging behind. They are aggressively becoming burqa clad more and more in number. There is a revival of true Islam. In other words, Bangladesh is fast becoming another Pakistan or Afghanistan or poor Muslims' Saudi Arabia.

Hefajot, Jamaat and Tablighis etc. are making smooth way for Bangladeshis to enter Bahist straight away. A few days back a mutilated body of human bomb in Pakistan surprisingly showed intact 'male part' as it was protected by an iron vast during explosion. Obviously this was an effort to reach Bahist with the main organ of interest. If one offers prayer in Macca during Hajj, it is equal to 100,000 prayers in any other place. So the Arab tourism industry has been flourishing.

People of Saudi Arabia, particularly its ruling class, thank Allah for their petro dollar affluence. Allah is there in every sphere of their lives. They publicly decapitate certain offenders but ban corporal punishment in schools. They have taken all the facilities of modern and rich life style from West but blame West at the drop of hat and for every evil thing on earth. They live within contradictions. They are proud followers of Sharia, the laws of Allah.

The Al Saud family has been in power not only by practicing Islam but also sharing power with Ulema in socio-religious aspect of Saudi Arabia. This understanding and mutual trust between Al Saud family and Ulema of the kingdom have kept different divergent and mutually hostile clans and tribes of Arabia together since more than 100 years. Ruthless Wahhabism gave them coherence, Ikhawan assistance gave them muscle to capture Macca and petro dollar has given them biggest financial advantage to share the profits with influencial clan or tribal leaders. Petro dollar has been the biggest cementing force in Saudi Arabia. With out it Arabia would have remained as the old desert of poor and trouble shooter Bedouins. Members of Al Saud family are really lucky.

Possibly Allah's General Zia ul-haq of Pakistan tried to develop a ruling system like Saudi Arabia but failed because in spite of followers of same religion, Pakistan was not Saudi Arabia. The same efforts were made by Bangladeshi Zia also. But Bangladesh was also not Saudi Arabia. Petro dollar of Saudi Arabia has changed Islam permanently for average Muslims of Bangladesh. Even Jihad (both spiritual and physical) can not be fought with out money and Saudis have been sending plenty of money for both types of Jihad in Bangladesh. If Allah can give so much of prosperity to Saudi Arabia, why can't Muslims of Bangladesh aspire to be like Saudis by the grace of Allah? To Bangladeshis it is possibly a question of time before they become as rich as Saudis by the grace of Allah.

Abdul Aziz, the first king of 20th century Saudi Arabia has permanently trained us to cry for Muslims of Palestine. But on the other hand, our religion has taught us to kill and drive away Hindus from Bangladesh. We repeat "Alhamdulillah" dozens of time a day and don't use any more Shia Iran's "Khuda Hafez" but use Arabic "Allah Hafez".

Was there any reference in Quran or Hadish that petro dollar richness would come for Arabs in twentieth century? Ask any Bangladeshi Alim and he will zealously produce many references to that effect from Islamic scriptures and if you challenge any, you may be killed.

Bangladeshi Muslims think of Saudi Arabia, dream of Saudi Arabia and are staunch followers of Saudi Arabia. Anything Saudi is venerable. They think that being followers of same religion (Islam) will give them same socio-religious identity. But the bitter fact is known to all. The more the Arabs think us as second class Muslims, the more we try to be like them. Bangladeshis think that if they are poor in this world, they will be equal partners of Saudis in Bahist. It is highly doubtful if any Saudi will allow a fair skinned hoor to Bangladeshi even in Bahist.

US is debating over which one is worse: ISIS or Al Qaida? Pakistan is shuttling between Good Taliban and Bad Taliban. We in Bangladesh don't have any such problem. We judge ourselves how far 'Arab' we have become.