It is a new twist in Bangladesh politics. All the envoy of Middle-eastern countries in Dhaka met Begum Khaleda Zia and discussed mainly the current situation of bd with her. Next they are meeting Sheikh Hasina, the Prime Minister. Some political observers commented that the envoys wanted to meet the prime minister first.

Perhaps they were advised that they should meet the opposition leader first so that they could know her mind and inform the Prime minister what were the demands of the opposition. This was the first time the middle- eastern envoys wanted to take role unitedly and openly to mediate between the opposition and the government.

I would say that this is a new twist in Bangladesh politics. Before or after the independence of Bangladesh, though Bangladesh is a Muslim majority country the other Muslim countries did not take much interest on the internal politics of the country. Though from the British period the Indian Muslims especially the Bengali Muslims wanted to remain very close with other Muslim countries and always declared their solidarity with middle- eastern Muslims in their various crisis.

In British period we have seen that after the First World War when the Turkish empire was destroyed by the Western forces and the Caliph was overthrown by them Muslims of undivided India joined Gandhi's noncooperation movement under a separate banner of Khilafat movement to restore that medieval system. But when Indian Muslims were in distress and in crisis the Middle-Eastern countries did not come forward to help them to resolve the crisis for the sake of Muslim brotherhood.

On the other hand, some of them helped the British invaders to divide the Ottoman Empire and to create new colonies for them. The new rulers or the kings of these colonies were nothing but British stooges for a long time. Now some of them are American protégés. Middle-eastern countries are still under the hegemony of western powers. Those who wanted to stand against western interest and dominance were crushed .The recent examples are Saddam Hussain and Gaddafi. The remaining Middle-eastern countries except Syria and Iran did not take a joint stand against American-Israeli conspiracy to subjugate the entire Middle-east and plunder their oil and other resources. The western world especially America are openly helping Israel to occupy Arab lands and turn Palestine into a killing field. But the Middle-eastern countries especially Saudi Arabia or even the Arab League has no effective role in thwarting this western invasion; instead their policy is helping America and Israel to keep their dominance over Arab lands. Saudi Arabia could try to influence America not to help Israel to grab the Arab lands in Palestine, but surprisingly, Saudi Kingdom repeatedly requested American administration to bomb another Muslim country, Iran. The power and influence that Saudi Arabia and other Middle-eastern countries could use to save the Arab people from Israeli expansion and aggression that power are being used to destroy another Muslim country. Even Saudi Arabia along with three Muslim countries took part in western aggression against Saddam Hussain of Iraq.

Now the question is where is the unity of Muslim states and Islamic world? In this regard I remember a discussion between Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib and King Faisal of Saudi Arabia who was also assassinated in 1975, the same year Sheikh Mujib was killed. Both the leaders met in Algeria in 1973 in the conference of the non aligned countries. King Faisal was not very happy about the independence of Bangladesh. He indirectly expressed his view to Sheikh Mujib that breaking of Pakistan was harmful for Muslim and Islamic unity. Sheikh Mujib very politely asked if the Muslims are one nation then why there were so many countries in the Middle-east with different nationalities. Why did they not take united stand against Israel but were fighting against each other? He told the King that Bengali Muslims were killed mercilessly by Pakistani soldiers. Their women were dishonoured. They also killed and tortured religious minorities. In that national calamity Bengali Muslims expected that the King and his government as the custodian of Islamic faith and guardian of the Muslim world would prevent Pakistan's military from committing genocide in Bangladesh. Instead they saw that the Saudis were silent about the massacre and supported the Pakistani atrocities. King Faisal could not properly answer the question of the Bangladeshi leader. After two years King Faisal himself was assassinated by his nephew and the suspicion was that the killer Prince was an agent of Mosad and CIA. Because King Faisal declared that he will go to Al Aqsa Mosque to offer his prayer next year which meant that he intended to free the Mosque from Israeli occupation; so he was removed from the power by western conspiracy and the Crown Prince Fahad became the king with the patronization of America.


Now the political scene in Middle-east has changed. The Taliban force which was created by America to combat communism has became a Frankenstein for the western world. It was American policy especially of the Bush Administration to destroy the few secular governments in the Middle-east like Turkey, Egypt and Iraq. Western influence also misguided the Arab springs which did not help secularism to stay in power. Instead Egypt got a President from Islamic brotherhood. Turkey lost its secular tradition and is now putting pressure on Bangladesh not to try the war criminals of 71 and taking the side of fundamentalists in Bangladesh. Where is now Kemal Ataturk's secular Turkey? After destroying Saddam western powers have opened the doors of Iraq for Al-Queda. The secular government in Syria is fighting for its life against the combined western aggression.

Against this backdrop suddenly the Middle-eastern countriesincluding Saudi Arabia has become interested in Bangladesh politics. The envoys of these countries met Begum Khaleda Zia and are going to meet the prime minister. What is the basis of their mediation? Saudi's connection with Bangladesh Jamaat is an open secret. Now Turkey has joined the league. My assumption is they might try to pursue the government not to go for capital punishment for the 71 war criminals and to make peace with BNP on the question of forming Caretaker government. For a long time Jamaat with their huge money and publicity tried to influence the Middle-eastern countries in their favour and to engage them to pressurize Bangladesh government to accept those above mentioned demands of BNP and Jamaat. This is a sign of weakness not strength for the BNP and Jamaat camp. They could not force the government with terrorist activities to halt the trial or to agree to form caretaker government. Perhaps their last resort is now to mobilize international support especially from Middle-eastern Muslim countries to achieve their goal.

Though Bangladesh has a secular democratic government but the country has an overwhelming Muslim population. So we need the support and cooperation of all the Muslim countries including Saudi Arabia. They are one of the main providers of our man-power and the source of various help. So Bangladesh needs their friendship and help. But if my assumption is correct that their main concern is the trial of war criminals and to persuade the government to accept BNP's unjust demand for caretaker government, then Hasina government should take a strong stand to politely but clearly inform the envoys that Bangladesh is ready for dialogue with the opposition but they will not surrender on the question of the trial of war criminals and to form a care taker government of BNP's liking. A commentator of a newspaper of a Middle-eastern country sarcastically wrote in his column that when Muslims are slaughtered in Kashmir and Palestine, when holy mosque Al- Aqsa is being defiled by Israelis Islam is not in danger and the Middle-eastern countries are very passive about saving Islam in these parts of the world.

But when a country like Bangladesh is determined to punish the enemies of humanity in their country there is a cry that Islam is in danger. We welcome and appreciate the peace venture of Middle-eastern envoy between the two political camps in Bangladesh but the venture should accept and honour the democratic will of Bangladesh government and its people.