Free Republic

Wherever one looks, socialism leaves behind a legacy of suffering and death on a mass scale, and Bangladesh’s socialist experiment was no exception. In 1971, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman led his country, Bangladesh, to independence from Pakistan. Afterward, he ruled as a brutal tyrant, turned to communist economics, and starved to death over one million people. Then he was assassinated. However, his surviving daughter, Sheikh Hasina, later rose to power in Bangladesh, establishing a cronyist, leftist dictatorship. Her regime never reinstated her father’s communist economic policies, but it did create a personality cult of Mujibur Rahman, commonly known in the region...

Though Bangladesh's incumbent Awami League Government is taking strong action, Sheikh Hasina has a very serious challenge on her hands On the face of it, any talk of Islamist terrorism posing a threat to Bangladesh or the latter becoming a global staging ground for it appears absurd. Things have been improving since the savage terrorist strike at the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka on July 1, 2016, which left 20 persons (guests at the eatery), all five of the terrorists, two police officers and two members of the bakery’s staff, dead. According to South Asia Terrorist Portal’s Datasheet Bangladesh, from...

WATCH | An update on Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's conversation with Hillary Clinton over Dr. Muhammad Yunus' removal from Grameen Bank. While secretary of state, Hillary Clinton made a personal call to pressure Bangladesh’s prime minister to aid a donor to her husband’s charitable foundation despite federal ethics laws that require government officials to recuse themselves from matters that could impact their spouse’s business.

...Bangladesh has a reputation for moderate Islam, for democracy, and for promoting the rights of women. Indeed, women lead both major political parties, the governing Bangladesh National Party of prime minister Khaleda Zia and the opposition Awami League. Mainstream parties accept that they can only assume power through elections. Bangladesh is home to the Grameen Bank, cited as a model of development for the way that it empowers poor women through small scale loans, or "micro-credit." But the Islamist current, once marginal, appears to be growing. In 1998, when Osama bin Laden declared "Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders," few took...