Bangladesh (MNN) — What do you do when your nation or community threatens to turn against you? In the case of former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, you go into exile. For minorities in Bangladesh, you might feel pressure to keep your head down.
Leor Sarkar with A3 explains that after violent clashes with student-led protests this summer, the once brutal police force can no longer preserve civil order.
“Almost 90 percent of the police stations were burned and vandalized, and many of the police forces were killed,” he says, “because before that, they (the police) also attacked the students and the common people.”
(Photo of 2024 quota reform movement courtesy of Rayhan9d/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)
Christians make up less than half of a percent of Bangladesh’s 168 million plus population. Sarkar says that believers want to avoid mob violence yet they also want to speak of Christ.
“Legally we are free to preach the gospel, and even people can change their religion. But the problem is the practical reality,” he says. “If anything goes wrong, people may get angry and come and attack the church, and legally we cannot [expect] support or help from the police. That’s why we are trying to go ‘low profile.’”
The uprisings this summer were prompted by dissatisfaction on a job quota policy that the government eventually struck down. Another factor was food insecurity, which remains a daily issue for many Bangladeshis. Continued unrest is a real threat.
You can be a part of this story by praying for faithfulness for these brothers and sisters in Christ in a tough situation.
“Please pray for [Gen Z] in our churches, that they can come forward and have more responsibility. They are also very much impacted by the [student-led protest] movement countrywide, so we need to pray for them and engage them more and more in the churches,” says Sarkar.
Header photo of Bangladeshi protestors cheering after the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Photo courtesy of Nahid Sultan, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
