Two Mosques in Pakistan of Minority Muslim Religion are Assaulted by Gunmen and Suicide Bombers in Coordinated Attacks

News Report with a GPN Editorial Blog

Two Mosques in Pakistan are Assaulted by Gunmen and Suicide Bombers
Gunmen and suicide bombers stormed two mosques belonging to a minority sect of Ahmadi believers during Friday prayer in Lahore, seizing hostages. The attack killed at least 70 worshipers and wounded 78, the city coordinating officer said. Ahmadi believers, a Muslim religion, is severely discriminated against under Pakistani law. Pakistan does not recognize the Ahmadi sect as part of Islam. At one mosque, dozens of men survived by hiding in the basement. The attacks, which took place within minutes of each other at the mosques are located a few kilometers apart.

Source: Perlez, Jane and Gillani, Waqar (May 28, 2010). Dozens die as 2 mosques in Pakistan are attacked. Global NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/29/world/asia/29pstan.html?ref=islam

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GPN Editorial Blog

On Contemporary Genocidal Terrorism against Two Muslim Mosques and on Man's Instincts for both Genocidal Killing and Goodness
The above story of suicide bombings in a way is nothing more than another of the endless reports coming out of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq; not long ago from Sri Lanka and Israel; periodically from the U.S. although many Americans do not realize that there were reports that 9/11 was a part of a grand series of coordinated multiple suicide bombing attacks; the UK, Moscow; Indonesia, and many other places. It was such endless suicide bombings on which I reported in my 2007 book, Fighting Suicide Bombing: A Worldwide Campaign for Life.

So why bother to report the present story if nothing is really new? We think for several reasons:

1. Periodically we need to stop to look at suicide bombing as the new methodology of transnational genocidal terrorism - one which has the greatest threat potential to the future of our puny civilization if and when the devouts will use Weapons of Mass Destruction – as many security agencies and many novelists very much and terrifyingly predict.

2. This is a story of the evolving methodology and skill of genocidal terrorists in coordinated attacks that combine gunmen and suicide bombers.

3. This story illustrates a point made so clearly by German scholar, Gunnar Heinsohn elsewhere in this issue: the overwhelming majority of Muslims are killed by Muslims.

4. For a long time now, attacks take place "anywhere" - one favorite site is places of worship like mosques, others are even hospitals and medical clinics, and of course schools, and there are always markets, public places, transportation vehicles on land, in the air and on the seas. Geneva Conventions regarding warfare against civilians? Our modern world has regressed and there are no conventions.

5. The Muslims who were attacked belong to a minority sect, the Ahmadi, who ‘only’ number some two million people. They are bitterly hated, disparaged and persecuted by establishment Muslims. The point is that if we go around the globe we can list hundreds of religions, sects, ethnicities, tribes, nationalities, language groups and more who are earmarked for being dehumanized in their surroundings as worthless, inferior, disgusting and diseased, even as they are also identified as a supreme danger to the continued existence of the community and people among whom they live.

In my work with Chanan Rappaport on the development of a Genocide Early Warning System, we identified this couplet of dehumanization and attribution of power to destroy and exterminate as the single most frequent and virulent synergy of dynamics which bring about and enable genocide to occur. I call this "universal antisemitism," in the larger sense that what is notoriously regarded as antisemitism against the Jews - today often disguised as or concealed within otherwise possibly legitimate critiques of Israel -- is in fact a special manifestation of a worldwide disease that, in my judgment, is built into human biology and nature: a need to hold another and others responsible for, or to make them the victims of, our wrongness, errors, limitations, moral failures, weaknesses and the oncoming death of our lives.

My sense is that this is the instinctual substrate of genocide and a major reason why so many beautiful human efforts to improve our human condition and society nonetheless fail so grandly. Predictably with weapons of mass destruction and a large population, the number of human beings who will die of genocide in the 21st century will be greater than the awful number Rummel gives for the 20th century.

Nonetheless, I add that the fact that projecting our weaknesses and inevitable deaths is instinctually built in to us does not mean human beings cannot overcome this loop quite creatively and successfully – owing also to other wonderful instinctual resources that are also built into our human nature of savoring life, fighting to stay alive, joy in nurturing other lives, and qualities of empathy, compassion, caring, love and justice.

So the above recent case history of contemporary genocidal murder needs for us not only to say 'tsk, tsk' but to fight back for life.

-- Israel W. Charny


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Kuwaiti Sheikh Criticizes Scholars and Preachers Who Entice Youth to Terrorism

On February 22 and March 1, 2010, the Kuwaiti daily Al-Watan published a two-part article by Kuwaiti Sheikh Salem bin Sa'd Al-Tawil, which also appeared on the sheikh's website (www.saltaweel.com), discussing the phenomenon of young Muslims who are recruited for jihadi activities during road trips and summer camps. Al-Tawil cautioned that extremist religious scholars target naive young Muslims who wish to strengthen their faith, and entice them to join social and religious activities at which militant jihad is preached. Some of these youth are eventually persuaded to carry out jihad operations, at the cost of their lives.

To view the MEMRI page on Indoctrination of Children, visit http://www.memri.org/subject/en/814.htm.

Following are excerpts from the articles, as they appeared on Al-Tawil's website:

Youth are recruited at mosques, schools, and colleges

In the first part of the article, Al-Tawil wrote: "...Many fathers and mothers are pleased that their children strengthen their faith, cling to their religion, and go to mosque... They hope [that getting close to] Allah will improve their children, and that their children will demonstrate good religious conduct. However, at mosques, schools, and colleges, there are people who 'kidnap' their children and corrupt their beliefs and their character in the name of religion and strengthening the faith! These people might start by [teaching] our sons to read and memorize the Koran, [but later] they take them on long summer trips or winter camps, during which they strongly influence them with the aim of convincing them of what they call a 'jihad program.' Later, parents are surprised [to find] that their child has gone to some unknown place, and subsequently they receive the painful news that he has been arrested. [Sometimes] the worst tragedy of all befalls them: [they find out that] their child was killed in a suicide operation, or was somehow used as a human shield, or that he sacrificed himself by stepping on a buried mine, or [suffered] some other similar tragedy like those we hear about every so often.

"[Here is] a painful and heart-wrenching story: I received a letter from a young woman not yet 20. She said that a young man, two years her elder, had proposed to her when he was still just beginning to strengthen his faith. After he married her, but before the marriage was consummated, he met some young men at the mosque and went with them to see a professor at a shari'a college in Kuwait. [The professor] persuaded him to join them on a summer trip to Al-Medina, during which he would memorize the Koran, in part or in its entirety. [The young man] agreed, and it appears that at this time they all rallied to the task of convincing him [to join] the jihad program. Ultimately, the young woman was amazed [to discover] that her husband had gone to Afghanistan or Iraq. He was never heard from again, and she does not know whether [to hope] he is alive and await his return, or [to consider him] dead and weep for him. She said his mother is elderly and has a heart condition, and that her own father has been pressuring her to divorce [the man] in light of his behavior. The young woman is confused and helpless, and only Allah can give her strength.

"Another tragic story: I received a call from a father who asked to meet with me. When he came to see me at the mosque, I noticed he showed signs of sorrow. And when he began to speak and I heard the story of his son, I understood the reason for the pain on his face. He said his 19-year-old son... had met several young men at the mosque, and was influenced by what they said. He would come home and speak at length about jihad, expressing his desire [to join it]. He said some sheikhs had ruled that he must [go forth and wage] jihad. [His parents] were later bewildered when he disappeared. And several days after that, they received a phone call from Iraq informing them that their son had been martyred..."

The methods of recruitment

"Dear fathers and mothers, do you know how they persuade your children, how they play with their minds and lead them to rebel against you? Many perhaps do not know. Therefore, I will tell you their methods, so that you may be vigilant and may [protect] your children before you lose them...:

1. "Some lecturer, or theoretician, puts on a pleasant air and a permanent smile, and earns several academic degrees in order to draw students to him.

2. "He invites students and [other] young men to visit him at the mosque, outside of official office hours.

3. "He focuses on a [limited] number of students in order to handpick those he believes are suited to the jihad program.

4. "He refers to them by names that prepare them for [self-]sacrifice, such as 'God's beloved,' 'the chosen ones,' 'memorizers of the Koran,' 'jihad fighters,' and so on.

5. "He explains to them the merits of jihad, its power and importance, quoting relevant [Koranic] verses and hadiths...

6. "He frequently explains the ummah's situation, how neglect of jihad or its relinquishment have led to its weaknesses and loss of honor.

7. "He frequently discusses the deeds of ummah's enemies... how they have acted in violence, caused bloodshed, conquered, desecrated, degraded the Muslims, and plundered the riches of their lands.

8. "[These lecturers and theoretician] use powerfully persuasive pictures and videos showing severed limbs and the defilement of things holy to Muslims.

9. "They show compile[d] video clips of jihad operations – rocket launchings, or [attacks with] small arms and heavy weapons, accompanied by fervent jihadi hymns and cries of 'Allah is great!' and 'There is no God but Allah!'

10. "They target a specific age group, between 15 and 20, with a preference for single young men who have no obligations to wives or children.

11. "They set conditions that enable them to reject anyone they suspect has come to investigate them or spy on them, or to leak information. For example, they require a personal interview before [a candidate] can travel with them or join a military [training] camp or a summer camp, and require [candidates] to memorize five portions of the Koran, and [set] other similar conditions. [These conditions] serve them as pretexts to reject unsuitable candidates: they explain that [the person] did not pass the personal interview or memorize five portions of the Koran.

12. "They cause [these students] to look down upon scholars and preachers who disagree with their path or ideology.

13. "They convince them that the religious scholars are out of touch with reality, that they [choose to] keep silent or are silenced [by others], or that [because] it is not in their interest to talk about jihad they insinuate to others to speak in their name.

14. "They persuade them that the leaders and governments have given up on jihad and withdrawn from it, or that they do not believe in it in the first place and do not recognize it or its merits, but rather denounce it and regard it as worthless, and fight against it and its people, being satisfied with jihad against their own people and with the exploitation of [their own people].

15. "[They tell their disciples that although] they are [officially] obligated to request their parents' or guardians' approval, it is not a condition for carrying out jihad – for anyone who wages jihad, his jihad is irreproachable. Failure to [get parents' or guardians' approval] may at the very worst be considered a sin. But it is well known that a shahid is pardoned from [the moment he sheds] the first drop of his blood – [so] if he has not asked his parents' permission, or if they have forbidden him [to wage jihad], it does him no harm.

16. "They collect donations in amazing and various ways, competing to the point where some of them say, implicitly or explicitly, that the crises facing the ummah are of great avail, since people donate more in times of crisis than they do before or after a crisis.

17. "They post their notices and posters in the mosques without asking permission. And no one supervises [this], despite the fact that their activity is not connected with the Ministry of Religious Endowments, which, if it wanted to, could file a complaint against their charity work.

18. "They hold sports and horseback-riding activities in their camps, as well as military drills and guard duty, in order to prepare the young men for the fateful hour.

19. "They spread out in various locations, splitting up into cells and squads, so as to be harder to track.

20. "They invite famous people to the opening [ceremonies] of their camps, in order to attract as many young people as possible.

21. "They incorporate religious activities, shari'a studies, and memorization of the Koran and the Prophetic hadiths into their activity, in order to draw as many young people as possible.

"Dear reader, my brother, I have told you their methods so you will know to be wary of them, before they steal your son or brother or [some other] family member – for then you will no longer be able to get him back..."

Recruiters posing as saints are the greatest danger

In the second part of the article, Al-Tawil wrote: "...[Previously, I expressed] my sense of obligation to elucidate to Muslims the danger posed by those [who recruit for jihad], even if they [do this] in the guise of strengthening the faith. Moreover, there may be some among them who [genuinely] consider themselves to be doing nothing but good. And this is where the danger lies and what makes the tragedy worse. For these people are not undisciplined heathens; rather, they pray and fast and read the Koran. But theirs are deviant methods and crooked ways. There are fanatics among them who would not follow the truth even if they saw it with their own eyes... [On the other hand,] some of them may [simply] be eccentrics or opportunists, while others join in order to collect donations."

Jihad – A supreme commandment that has been distorted

"No Muslim with even the slightest knowledge of shari'a doubts the fact that jihad is one of the greatest virtues and the pinnacle of Islam, and that its merits and ideals are better known than those of many other Islamic customs... However, our argument with the proponents of false jihad is over the meaning of the term 'jihad'...:

"Against whom should jihad be waged?... Who is obligated to carry out jihad?... Is jihad a means or an end?... What is the law regarding jihad against a Muslim country that has attacked another Muslim country?... Is a jihad fighter allowed to commit suicide?... Are Muslims obligated to wage jihad against infidels who are significantly superior to [them] in strength, numbers, and equipment?...

"Dear reader, my brother, after these questions have been raised, you [surely] understand that war is no joke, but a grave and serious matter. It [can] involve loss of life, the squandering of money, the collapse of countries, the loss of honor, the dispersing of nations, and the spread of corruption – especially today, when weapons are made to destroy mountains and oceans, to wipe out everything. Unlike some people think, jihad is not [just] horseback riding, martial arts, morning sports, jihadi plays, a Palestinian headdress and a pair of Afghani pants. [Nor is it] disobeying one's parents, [practicing] takfir against leaders, blowing up Muslims, considering scholars fools, [joining] clandestine organizations and the secret Emirate, or collecting donations."

The preachers of jihad are the first to shirk it

"How dreadful is the jihad they preach! [As a matter of fact,] the preachers and ideologues of jihad are the first to shirk it. They sacrifice others, while distancing themselves and their children from it! [How dreadful is] their jihad, which is nothing but fantasies of the [morally] bankrupt. They have ruined the image of [our] religion and those who follow it, and never stop slandering others... They fear God the least and curse and slander the most. And what is more, there are those among them who beat and kill [people], and others who, if they could, would not hesitate for an instant to deal out death to anyone who disagrees with them over the jihad program...

"I know, dear reader, my brother, that many of the mosque [imams] and the lecturers in the colleges and universities do not adhere to these bad ideologies and deviant ways, and that we must not indiscriminately lay blame on all preachers. On the contrary, there are respectable people – preachers, lecturers, and teachers – who urge the youth to cling to the true faith and the Sunna, [and preach values of] respect for one's parents, the quest for knowledge, moral behavior and good manners, respect for religious scholars, and obedience to one's guardians. There is still good to be found in this ummah, and thank Allah that by his grace good deeds are done."

Jihad must not be left to the ignorant or to fervent youth

At the end of the article, Al-Tawil answers some questions that may arise regarding his criticism of the jihad preachers and their followers:

"Regarding the question: Why do you condemn [these preachers] for [urging] jihad for Allah's sake? [My answer is that] I am not, Heaven forbid, condemning jihad as it is commanded by [our] faith. But jihad is a program subject to shari'a laws that cannot be definitively and comprehensively understood unless a consensus has been reached by all the leaders, religious scholars, and men of influence. [It must not be] left to the management of ignorant people or fervent youths, lest we be made to suffer for the tragedies caused by their poor policies and administration...

"Regarding the question: Do you have no compassion in your heart for them? My answer is: Of course, there is compassion in the heart of every Muslim for all [other] Muslims. And it is because of this compassion that we do not wish for their souls to be lost in vain. There is also compassion in our heart for the fathers and mothers who may lose their children at any moment in the name of the jihad program. Moreover, it is only fitting that we ask [the jihadist preachers] the same question: Do you have no compassion in your hearts for these young people and for their fathers and mothers?

"Regarding the question: Why do you ignore the contemptible things going on in all the other [summer] camps, focusing on [those belonging to] the brotherhood for the sake of Allah? Why do you not condemn those who go to commit adultery and drink wine? Why do you not condemn the camps [where there is] wine, drugs, and prostitution? Why do you not condemn the reckless young men who show off their cars and kill themselves and others? My answer is: 1) Who says we do not condemn immorality and licentiousness? Do you think we support [these sinners] and encourage them to sin, or that we are pleased with their deeds?... 3) Is disobeying one's parents not one of the most egregious sins of all? Certainly [it is], and therefore we are justified in cautioning against [the jihadists], as they call the youth to Iraq, and so on, without their parents' permission – with the excuse that parents' permission is an obligation but not a condition, and that [even jihad] waged without the parents' permission is irreproachable. But this, without question, constitutes disobeying [one's parents]. 4) Sins such as adultery, drinking wine, and frequenting prostitutes – everyone knows they are forbidden, even the sinners themselves. [But] this is not the case with those who preach false jihad, [who do not necessarily realize their deeds are forbidden]. 5) Many proselytizers, preachers, and fathers counsel sinners and rebuke them, while it is almost impossible to find anyone who reproaches those who support false jihad.

"Regarding the question: What is our children's alternative, so that we will have no need for those you have warned us against? My answer is: An alternative exists and is well known, thank God, as there are many young people who strengthen their faith, and [attend] activities, lessons, and lectures which leave them with no need to turn [to jihadi propaganda]..."

Source: MEMRI, Middle East Research Institute (May 5, 2010). Kuwaiti Sheikh: Scholars and preachers entice naive youth to join illegitimate jihad. Special Dispatch 2937.
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Ethnic Butchery and Genocidal Massacres: Perpetrators and Bystanders to the Islamist Campaign to Get Rid of Bangladesh’s Hindus

Bangladesh’s Hindu population is dying. That is an irrefutable fact, supported by decades of data. A consistent torrent of reports documenting anti-Hindu incidents in Bangladesh has bombarded anyone who had an interest in what is happening in the world’s seventh largest country. Those “incidents” included murder, gang rape, assault, forced conversion (to Islam), child abduction, land grabs, and religious desecration -- with government culpability.
Richard Benkin

Bangladesh’s Hindu population is dying. That is an irrefutable fact, supported by decades of data. At the time of India’s partition in 1948, they made up a little less than a third of East Pakistan’s population. When East Pakistan became Bangladesh in 1971, Hindus were less than a fifth of the new nation’s people. Thirty years later, they were less than one in ten; and while current statistics do not yet exist, several estimates put the Hindu population at less than eight percent. Using demographic and other calculations, Professor Sachi Dastidar of the State University of New York estimates that about 40 million Hindus are missing from the Bangladeshi census.

During the same period of time, a consistent torrent of reports documenting anti-Hindu incidents in Bangladesh has bombarded anyone who had an interest in what is happening in the world’s seventh largest country. Those “incidents” included murder, gang rape, assault, forced conversion (to Islam), child abduction, land grabs, and religious desecration. And while Bangladeshi officials might assert—with only some justification—that the perpetrators were non-state actors, government culpability rests, at the very least, in the fact that it pursues very few of these cases and punishes even fewer perpetrators of these atrocities. Successive Bangladeshi governments appear to have been passive bystanders, failing to exercise their sovereign responsibility to protect the life and security of all their citizens; and thus they have sent radical Islamists and common citizens alike a clear message that these acts can be undertaken with impunity.

Additionally, I have interviewed dozens of Bangladeshi Hindu refugees living in largely illicit colonies throughout North and Northeast India. In describing the attacks that forced them to leave their ancestral homes, they made it very clear that their attackers were not necessarily members of radical Islamist groups. Instead, most were neighbors or otherwise everyday Muslims. They also reported with near unanimity that when they went to the police and other local officials for help, they were advised to drop the subject and “get out of Bangladesh.” Last February, I interviewed a family that just crossed in to India only 22 days before. They told me about an uncle being killed, the father being beaten, and their small farm invaded by a large number of Muslims. Local Muslims also raped their 14-year-old daughter. The perpetrators were simply Muslims who lived in the area and knew they could have their way with the family and seize their land.

Often the most “successful” cases of genocide and genocidal massacres accompanied by mass expulsions occur when a small cadre of true believers incite average citizens to engage in heinous acts against a targeted minority that they otherwise would not dream of committing. At a 1996 public rally, for instance, former and future Prime Minister Khaleda Zia fanned anti-Hindu flames by warning Bangladeshis that Hindus threatened to take over the country; saying that the traditional Hindu wail, “uludhhwani,” would soon replace the traditional Muslim call to prayer. There might be no Janjaweed in Bangladesh, but its Hindu community is facing a slow motion and process of destruction at the hands of the Bangladeshi majority little known to the western world.

This is the fatal flaw in US and western policy in this region that provides an ideological basis for ignoring the ethnic massacres and expulsions of Bangladesh’s Hindus. The investment of outside actors, notably the United States, in the success of the current Awami League government in Dhaka rests on uncritically accepting its claim to be “pro-minority” and different from previous military-backed and BNP-led governments. Yet, fifteen months after taking office, the Awami League government has not been able to move Bangladesh away from its previous abuses. Anti-Hindu actions and the government’s complicity have continued unabated.

During the first two months of Awami rule, serious anti-Hindu occurred on the average off one and a half per week. They included religious desecration, land grabs, beatings, kidnapping, rape and murder. The crimes were religiously based; that is, the victims were targeted because they were Hindu; and the government did not prosecute them. This passive role appears to signal that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her party would not interfere with the Hindu community’s destruction. The onslaught has continued throughout 2009, and last spring saw what can be described only as an anti-Hindu pogrom in the nation’s capital. Its western supporters in government, NGOs, and the media were champions in making sure that these abuses were not publicized. The Bangladesh Hindu, Buddhist, Christian Unity Council, for instance, reports a total of 13 similar incidents in March and April. Other NGOs, including Bangladesh Minority Watch and Global Human Rights Defence, as well as both vernacular and English-language newspapers, concur. Yet, media outside of Bangladesh did not pick up any of them.

Let’s take as an example that anti-Hindu pogrom in Dhaka. In March and twice in April, a community of approximately 400 Hindus was reportedly going about its business when “hundreds of Muslims” suddenly descended on them and demanded they quit the homes where they and their families had lived for the past 150 years. Witnesses also report that police watched passively while attackers beat residents and destroyed a Hindu temple. The Bangladeshi Government said no anti-Hindu pogrom occurred, and the cover up moved from local police to the Dhaka police chief to an Awami League MP. Several human rights groups, as well as my own network, conducted extensive investigations and confirmed the attacks. Many residents remain homeless; and the Bangladeshi Government has not even bothered to deny that Hindus were beaten, some religious desecration occurred, or that police were present during the attacks. We also confirmed that the area attacked was located directly behind a police station and the Temple only about 18 m from it; yet, the police did nothing to stop its destruction. Police also justified the land grab under Bangladesh’s Vested Property Act, which has fueled the seizure of Hindu lands for over 35 years. Yet, except for some local Bangladeshi papers, The Daily Pioneer of India, and some blogs; the media ignored it.

This is not about one terrible event, but about a system of legalized ethnic cleansing that has proceeded non-stop for decades and which places every one of Bangladesh’s 13,000,000-15,000,000 Hindus at risk. For despite Government protestations to the contrary, normal legal protections are suspended for Hindus and other minorities in Bangladesh who are often subject to arbitrary actions by the Muslim majority. Moreover, the nominal law enforcers have become enforcers of lawlessness, abetting crimes against minorities and sending a message that Bangladesh is a country where the law gives Muslims preferential treatment even if it means ignoring elementary standards of justice. (The Eighth Amendment to Bangladesh’s constitution declared Islam the official state religion and gave rise to numerous preferential policies and actions that has made Hindus and other minorities second class citizens.)

One would expect that the onus would fall on Bangladesh to convince the rest of the world that it is not guilty of ethnic cleansing and tolerating bigotry. Yet, the opposite seems to be the case. For no major human rights body has acknowledged the seriousness or even the existence of this quiet case of ethnic cleansing (as I have termed it because of the world’s silence). Whether it is Amnesty International or the United Nations Human Rights Commission, they have devoted far more energy and resources to criticizing the US detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, than they have to the plight of Hindus—whether in Bangladesh; Pakistan, where they have been reduced from almost a fifth in 1965 to one percent today; Malaysia, which is engaging in a particular vicious attack on Hindus and Hinduism; or even the smaller nations of Trinidad and Tobago, Fiji, or Bhutan. The latter has been expelling Hindus to refugee camps in neighboring Nepal since the 1980s. It is no wonder that several have suggested an anti-Hindu bias on the part of these rights groups.

There is no internal dynamic in successive Bangladeshi governments to put an end to the atrocities or even the Nuremburg-like laws of discrimination. University’s Professor Abul Barkat has demonstrated both major parties have benefited materially from them and used the spoils to strengthen their patronage base. The only way things will change is when some outside force makes it clear that the negative consequences from continued ethnic cleansing are more painful than the political cowardice that keeps it going. So far, no one—not India, the United States, the United Nations, or anyone else—has stepped up to take a principled stand.

Conclusion
Genocidal scenarios result from human choice and bystander indifference. What we have in Bangladesh are genocidal massacres and expulsions resulting from incitement and actions of non-governmental perpetrators and inaction by governmental bystanders, and the indifference of the outside world. This essay states the case for setting in motion actions to hold the Bangladesh Government accountable for its Responsibility to Prevent and Protect, in accordance with international humanitarian law.

Richard Benkin PhD is a human rights activist, author, and speaker. Over the past five years, he has among other things freed a journalist from imprisonment and torture in Bangladesh, forced Bangladesh's notorious RAD to release an abductee unharmed, halted an anti-Israel conference in Australia, and raised the issue of Bangladesh's ethnic massacres and expulsions of Hindus in Washington and other capitals. His many publications on abuse of human rights in Bangladesh are listed on the website of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East. He recently returned from a trip to India where he won verbal support from several political and Lok Sabha officials, addressed universities and large public gatherings, and established a communication conduit with the highest echelons of the Bangladeshi government. Dr. Benkin has also received verbal support for US Congressional hearings about the Bangladeshi Hindus. In 2005, Benkin received a meritorious award from the US Congress for his work.

According to Benkin, after a trip to Bangladesh which capped his successful effort to free a political prisoner, a group of Bangladeshi Hindus contacted him and asked for his help. Although he knew something about their persecution, Benkin immersed himself in research about the subject and vowed to stop it. Since then, he has met with victims and victimizers, gathering information and getting it to US leaders, and working for action.

Benkin is President and a founder of Forcefield, a human rights NGO, described as "non-agenda driven," in contrast with other human rights organizations. Its first human rights case is that of Bangladesh’s Hindus.

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