As Bangladesh continues to convulse with a violent spate of attacks against Hindu temples and minority Hindus, Islamists on Twitter recently descended on the timeline of Bangladeshi actor Rafiath Rashid Mithila for posting a tweet wishing Shubho Bijoya.
On the occasion of Vijay Dashami or Shubho Bijoya on October 15, Mithila had shared a picture of herself dressed in traditional Bengali attire. Along with the picture, Mithila wished Shubho Bijoya and said that there will be grand celebrations next year as well.
শুভ বিজয়া ❤️
— Rafiath Rashid Mithila (@rafiath_rashid) October 15, 2021
আসছে বছর আবার হবে! মহাসমারোহে হবে! pic.twitter.com/cV0Tiobo6n
But this did not sit well with radical Islamists on Twitter, who responded with abuses and insulting remarks for the actor for expressing her greetings on a Hindu festival. Many of the Islamists who could not fathom the fact that the actor had posted a picture wishing Hindus on a Hindu festival, proceeded to character assassinate her. She was called a prostitute by a majority of the radicals who believed in Islamic supremacism and considered greeting extended on festivals belonging to other communities as ‘haram’.
A Twitter user responded to the actor’s tweet by calling her a disgrace to Bangladesh and suggested her to stay in India “if she loved Hinduism so much”.
Some raised questions on her religiosity, asking her if she was indeed a Muslim.
Then there were others who hurled choicest of abuses against the actor for simply wishing on a Hindu festival.
Islamists in Bangladesh target Hindu temples, pandals and devotees after troublemongers place Quran at the knee of Goddess Durga
The online attack against actor Rafiath Rashid comes hot on the heels of a slew of attacks against Hindus and Hindu places of worship in Bangladesh. Earlier today, two Hindus were killed in the latest spate of violence that took place in the southern town of Begumganj as more than 200 protesters attacked a temple when Hindu devotees were performing the last rituals on the final day of Durga Puja.
The horrifying bout of attacks against Hindus in the Muslim-majority nation started over the alleged desecration of the Quran, the central religious text of Islam. After a video of a copy of the Quran placed on the knee of the goddess Durga’s idol at a puja pandal in Cumilla surfaced, Islamists attacked pandals and temples across the country. From temples in Chandpur’s Hajiganj to Chattogram’s Banshkhali, from Chapainawabganj’s Shibganj to Cox’s Bazar’s Pekua, Islamists ran riot, vandalising pandals and temples, and attacking Hindus devotees.
Shibu Prasad Dutta, the general secretary of Cumilla Mahanagar Puja Udjapon Committee, informed that someone placed a copy of the Quran at a Durga Puja pavilion in Nanua Dighir Par early in the morning when no one was watching, as a deliberate act to create a rumour.
However, it was not the first incidence of violence against the minority Hindus in the country, triggered by some stray social media posts. Similar to Pakistan, Hindus in Bangladesh have also witnessed unbridled attacks from the majority of Muslims. For decades, the Hindu community in Bangladesh have been facing systematic persecution at the hands of the radical Islamists in the country.
In March this year, over 80 houses of Hindus in the village of Sunamganj, Bangladesh were attacked and vandalized by the supporters of Islamist group Hefazat-e-Islam. The attack was planned after a young Hindu man criticized Joint-Secretary General Maulana Mufti Mamunul Haque in a Facebook post as reported by Dhaka Tribune.
Following the brutal attack in the northeastern Sylhet division, Bangladesh, OpIndia chronicled as many as 11 more tragic tales of Hindus facing systematic persecution at the hands of the radical Islamists in Bangladesh over the last decade
