 "'Bangladesh facing existential threat’: Trump’s ex-advisor Johnnie Moore on attacks on minorities")
Johnnie Moore, an advisor to US President-elect Donald Trump during his first term (2017-21), has said that Bangladesh is in “existential crisis”.
Moore said that Bangladesh interim ruler, Mohammed Yunus, has failed in his fundamental duties to protect safety to the country’s minorities.
The comments come amid ongoing nationwide violence against Hindus and other minorities in Bangladesh since the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after weekslong protests. After Hasina fled Bangladesh for her life, the agitating groups and the military propped an unelected regime of Yunus as an interim administration to the run the nation, which has since failed to contain the violence against religious minorities.
In an interview with ANI days after the arrest of Hindu monk Chinmoy Krishna Das, Moore said that the message that the Yunus regime is sending appears to be that if they can get him, they can get anyone in the nation.
“I think the perception is if they’ll go after him, they’ll go after any of us,” said Moore, who served as the US Commissioner for International Religious Freedom during the first Trump administration.
Moore further said, “When Muhammad Yunus came in as the interim leader of the country, he made promises related to democracy, the rule of law, and all of these values that are cherished by the West and our international institutions. This is a moment of existential threat not only for the minorities of Bangladesh but for the entire country. It is a call to advocate for human rights and religious freedom to speak up.”
Moore further said that he was “astonished” to see the response to the situation from Yunus, who he said has failed in his basic duty to provide security to people.
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More Shorts“This is unbelievable. I was astonished by the response of Mr Yunus in the Bangladeshi government. They are saying this is exaggerated. They’re saying that this isn’t as big a deal as it seems,” said Yunus.
Moore is the latest from Trump’s camp to comment on the current situation in Bangladesh. Previously, Trump himself had mentioned the situation in the country in his message to the Hindu community on Diwali and said such a situation would not have arisen if he were in office.
“I strongly condemn the barbaric violence against Hindus, Christians, and other minorities who are getting attacked and looted by mobs in Bangladesh, which remains in a total state of chaos. It would have never happened on my watch. Kamala and Joe have ignored Hindus across the world and in America,” said Trump at the time.
Moore asserted that Bangladesh is not just a nation for Muslims and there are several minority communities in the country and “there isn’t a minority in the country that doesn’t feel under threat right now”.
Moore also flagged the tendency among the human rights organisations and religious freedom groups to overlook the violence against Hindus.
“Human rights organisations and religious freedom organisations sought to raise their voices every second right. I think that a lot of times the Hindu community, when they are persecuted around the world, unfortunately, fewer people speak up about it. I’m committing to doing the exact opposite. I’m calling for the world’s human rights and religious freedom organisations to do the same,” said Moore.
Since Hasina’s ouster, the Yunus regime has sought to downplay the violence against Hindus and has said that accounts in media reports and social media posts are often exaggerated.
The violence against Hindus in Bangladesh along with the patronage of Islamists, which is seen in the prominence that pro-Pakistan Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Islamist Jamaat-i-Islami have found under Yunus, has also led to a unease between Bangladesh and India. Since being propped as the unelected leader of Bangladesh, Yunus has also released Islamist leaders and radicals from jail, such as terrorist leader Jashimuddin Rahmani Hafi of an Al-Qaeda affiliate.
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