António Vieira da Cruz

 (publicado originalmente no Observador ) Os nomes das guerras costumam remeter para o sítio onde se combate, e aqueles que participam na guerra costumavam ser aqueles que estão no terreno e lutam nos campos de batalha. No entanto, tem havido guerras com outros tipos de nomes. Em 1945 George Orwell cunhou o nome “guerra fria” para descrever o tipo de relação que os EUA teriam com os países vizinhos por serem o único país com a bomba atómica. Como sabemos, a URSS e outros Estados rapidamente ganharam a sua capacidade nuclear e o mundo evoluiu para uma situação de tensão entre dois blocos concorrentes que recebeu precisamente esse nome – Guerra Fria – até à queda do Muro de Berlim e consequente esboroar do bloco soviético. Também o Presidente Lyndon Johnson chamou em 1964 às suas políticas públicas de “Guerra contra a Pobreza” ( War on Poverty ), George W. Bush declarou a “Guerra contra o Terrorismo” ( Global War on Terrorism ) em 2001 e, mais recentemente, temos ouvido vários lídere...

International Crimes Tribunal of Dhaka Yesterday, one of the worse criminals of the XXI century was condemned to life imprisonment. His name is Delwar Hossain Sayedee , he is 74 years old and he was one of the leaders of the extremist party Jamaat-e-Islami in Bangladesh. During the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971, he committed brutal crimes against humanity. Being now accused of at least 20 crimes, the case went to Supreme Court and there he was proven guilty of:     torture a leader of the Awami League, Mr Nurul Islam, and arson attack on his house;     killing one and torching house in the village of Chitholia;     killing one and torching 25 houses in the village of Umedpur;     abduction and rape of 3 sisters of Parerhat Bazar;      forcing 100 to 150 Hindus to convert to Islam in Parerhat and other villages. Delwar Hossain Sayedee, a Razakar Besides that, he was accused of many other crimes, as killing m...

O artigo em baixo foi inicialmente publicado na revista Think South Asia nº11, número de Dezembro, disponível aqui:  http://sadf.eu/home/2013/12/15/think-south-asia-11/ . Entretanto as eleições deram-se no dia 5 de Janeiro, com o boicote do principal partido da oposição (BNP), que apelou à não-participação nas eleições. O partido do governo (Awami League) ganhou assim as eleições, elegendo dois terços dos deputados. Os extremistas do Jamaat-e-Islami, aliados eleitorais do BNP, preferiram influenciar as eleições através do terror, provocando mais de 20 mortes no dia das eleições e continuando os atentados até hoje, principalmente perseguindo as minorias religiosas (em especial os hindus, os cristãos e os budistas) e muçulmanos moderados. No fundo, os alvos do costume. The Situation in Bangladesh – November/December 2013 I could have been killed last time I was in Dhaka. Anyone could. In fact, around 30 innocent people died in street bombings and shootings during the 3 rd ...

Hizb ut-Tahrir poster inciting to violence in Dhaka, Bangladesh The streets of Dhaka are filled with orange and black posters from Hizb ut-Tahrir . The main purpose of this poster is to call Military to take the power in Bangladesh and establish "Khilafat" (the caliphate). This pan-Islamic political organisation is legally banned in Bangladesh since 2009, yet they continue to spend fortunes in promoting extremism throughout propaganda and schemes to take over the elected powers, as it occurred for example in 2011 . In their most recent press release, Hizb ut-Tahrir states that during current strike 25 people were killed and then they conclude that "Democracy = Death to People". Of course what they do not understand is that democracy is not causing these deaths: extremism is. With their hate speeches and incite to violence, Hizb ut-Tharir and other powerful extremist organisations like Jamaat-e-Islami are contributing to the confrontational climate in Bangl...