Although Assad's dethroning process started with the Arab Spring in 2011, thanks to the solid backing of his powerful allies in Moscow and Tehran, the motley groups of Syrian rebels…
After Bangladesh's independence, India played a crucial role as the new nation's so-called "patron-protector" until the violent overthrow of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in August 1975. Although this event was a…
“If there were not an Israel, we’d have to invent one.” --Joe Biden (Senate Speech, 1986) We are all Palestinians today. Especially in the wake of Israel's genocidal invasion of…
Tarek Fatah was born in Pakistan and recently passed away in Toronto, Canada. I knew him since my arrival in Canada as an immigrant in 2002. He was the mentor,…
Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Abdul Momen in Washington on Monday, April 10th (Blinken had asked Momen to meet him) to discuss the current state…
Since the end of World War II, the US and its allies have been directly responsible for 81 percent of all unjust wars, illegal occupations of countries, civilian deaths, violations…
The frustration of those who lost hope of any retaliatory action against human rights violators in Bangladesh has finally been eased, at least partially, by the recent US Treasury Department's…
I got this on WhatsApp this morning: “If you ever feel useless, just remember … USA took 4 Presidents, thousands of lives, trillions of dollar and 20 years to replace…
We know it’s fashionable to hypothesize that democracy is “dying” in the post-Cold War world. It’s true not only for some of the postcolonial democracies in the Third World, and…
This is an appraisal of Islamophobia, mainly in the West, and the so-called Westophobia among Muslims from a different viewpoint. I believe that since all wars are “trade wars”, the…
In view of the prevalent political deadlock, growth-oriented economic development, or growth-without-development – which is simultaneously stagnating and misleading due to inflated GDP growth estimate by the Government – and…
At the end of the Cold War in 1990, we all heaved a big sigh of relief, as the two superpowers didn’t destroy themselves and the world! What was seemingly…
Although neither the puppet and illegitimate government of Sheikh Hasina nor the pro-Indian Deep State, which has been running Bangladesh for the last twelve years, gathered enough courage to broadcast…
Bangladesh since its birth has gone through too many intra-military and intra-civilian conflicts to mention in one breath. As on 14th July, Bangladeshi Lt General (ret) Chowdhury Hasan Sarwardy revealed…
We know things are not going well in regards to India’s relationship with China. On 5th/6th May, China captured around sixty square kilometre of Indian territory in the Galwan…
Dear Dr. Momen: I write this to draw your attention to your recent interview with an Indian weekly The Week , published on May 31, 2020, which all of our…
Dear Mr. Shringla: I write this open letter to question you most respectfully why you told a seminar in Dhaka on 2nd March that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) passed…
This is my eyewitness account of events, which took place in erstwhile East Pakistan, exactly 51 years back in January-February 1969. Although not fully comparable with what 1789 signifies for…
As late as the 16th century, the Chinese indigenised “mandarin”, a variant of Sanskrit “mantri”, Malay “mantiri” via Portuguese “mandarim”, which stands for minister, counsellor, or a very high government…
This is a review of an academic article by Ali Gowher (aka Gowher Rizvi), who is the International affairs Adviser to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh. I strongly believe…
One may or may not like cricket – not the worm, but the game – or even, could be someone like a typical Frenchman or woman who doesn’t understand…
“Civilizations as yet have only been created and directed by a small intellectual aristocracy, never by crowds. Crowds are only powerful for destruction.” — Gustave Le Bon “Mass politics occurs…
This article is a sequel to my last piece “Blaming Muslims Again! Terror Attacks in Sri Lanka” (Countercurrents, April 23, 2019). As so many absurd and conflicting stories and claims…
I am very disappointed at countries and individuals who have not verified the truth about who was behind the latest rounds of terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka before finger pointing…
Within hours of Australian White Supremacist Brenton Tarrant's gunning down of forty-nine Muslims at two mosques at Christchurch during Juma prayer on 15th March, tens of thousands of short and…
The Oxford Dictionary defines shame as “a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behaviour”. It could be self-inflicted, or an act committed…
Education has almost everything to do with changing, modifying, and improving the levels of people's culture (although "improving the cultural level" is a loaded and controversial expression). To remain politically…
Dear Gowher: In hindsight, I think I should have written this letter ten years back, days after you became the International Affairs Adviser to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh. I…
As the Jamaat-e-Islami's founder Maulana Abul A'la Maududi (1903-1979) despised democracy, so do all his adherents. Soon after establishing the Jamaat in 1941, he admired Mussolini and considered him to…
The "Language Movement" of erstwhile East Bengal/East Pakistan and Bangladesh today was more than a language movement, it was a cultural-political movement for Bangladesh. No wonder, even after the Pakistan…
Renowned British economist and a Labour Party member of the House of Lords, Lord Meghnad Desai on January 23rd wrote a letter to the Guardian, as a rebuttal to Simon…
Since his recent Gestapo-style abduction, rather than arrest, Shahidul Alam of Bangladesh is no longer a stranger to people, well-beyond the boundaries of his country. Twenty-odd Bangladeshi law-enforcers – all…
Since terrorists mostly outsmart law-enforcers and their victims, counterterrorism (CT) is an arduous tightrope walking. Effective CT requires governments, law-enforcers, and all potential victims of terrorism to understand what terrorism…
Extrajudicial killings of dissidents and outlaws by states is as old as civilization. The recent world history is replete with such killings. As Hitler had his Waffen-SS and Gestapo, so…
Another school shooting by a 17-year-old White student at Santa Fe yesterday (18th May 2018), and another round of “prayer” by Republican Senator Ted Cruz, Republican Governor of Texas, and…
As there are multiple narratives about the Partition of 1947, so are there multiple theories about the emergence of Bangladesh. One school of thought tells us there was nothing…
Dear Iqbal: You, and I, and all our common friends know we are very close and good friends since our Dhaka College days (1964-1966). You also met my parents,…
Thomas Friedman is a big name in the realm of journalism and the study of Globalization. He’s known for his anti-Republican liberal views, and for his pro-Israeli sympathies, especially…
India’s immediate past President Pranab Mukherjee (82) in his The Coalition Years, 1996-2012 – his twelfth book – tells his own tale about the last 16 years of his…
While democracy has become problematic in several countries, on 5th January 2014, Bangladesh crossed the threshold of “illiberal democracy” to enter the domain of “authoritarian dynastic democracy” under Indian…
To some, the title of my column today might be utterly ridiculous, as it suggests it’s time for Bangladesh to have a foreign policy. They might raise eyebrows at…
I believe “genocide” is the right word to describe the ongoing mass killing, rape, and expropriation of Rohingyas in Mayanmar. Polish Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin (1900-1959) first used the…
Since almost all US presidents from Truman to Obama – with the exceptions of Ford, Carter and Clinton – had blood on their hands, one possibly can’t single out…
North Korea has remained a pain in the neck for the “Free World” since the beginning of the Korean Crisis in 1945. The Cold War is over, but the…
It’s an important question if the removal of Nawaz Sharif from office is just another Pakistani Prime Minister’s meeting his nemesis, or it’s another unceremonious removal of a head…
Consecutively on 13th and 14th June, major disasters hit Bangladesh and the United Kingdom. On the morning of 13th, landslides killed more than 150 people, and four army personnel, in…
Although there’s no reason to take Donald Trump’s erratic behaviour, and his ambivalent and nasty assertions seriously, yet we can’t ignore his latest gimmick, the circus he staged in…
Interestingly, “interesting” is an English expression, which may hide one’s actual opinion about something one considers “interesting”. What I read in Bangladesh media in the last one month is very…
Every society has certain taboos – cultural/religious, social, and political – set apart and designated as restricted or forbidden to associate with, or even to bring in ordinary discussion.…
There are contradictory opinions about who on last Tuesday April 4th used chemical weapons, which killed more than 80 civilians including children in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhun in…
It has happened again! In the wake of the latest rounds of ISIS terror attacks in Bangladesh, authorities in the country have again started denying the existence of any ISIS…
A recent move by the Government to allow child marriage is tantamount to excluding many Bangladeshis from the benefits of growth and development. Women are likely to become the…
Corruption became so integral to Bangladesh that consecutively for five years (2001-2005) it remained the most corrupt country in the world. However, we hear things have changed for the better.…
As there’re multiple causes and factors behind most events, so is Donald Trump’s election victory not attributable to any single factor. However, there is always the “most important factor” behind…
Recently, Muslim mob attacks on Hindu houses and temples in Nasirnagar (Brahmanbaria) and elsewhere in Goplaganj, Chittagong, and Sunamganj districts in Bangladesh have drawn wide media attention, within and…
It’s absurd! It’s preposterous to suggest that around 40 per cent of Bangladeshis favour suicide terrorism. Yet this is what some American think tanks and “expert analysts” have recently…
Signs are ominous! On Thursday Oct 13, US Tomahawk cruise missiles destroyed pro-Iranian / anti-Saudi Houthi rebels’ radar sites in Yemen, “retaliating after failed missile attacks this week on a…
Americans since the founding of the United States seem to be in a perennial state of narcissist obsession. Narcissism is all about excessive self-love, extreme interest in oneself, arrogance, selfishness,…
“Is America Any Safer” is the cover story of this September’s Atlantic magazine. CNN and other media outlets are also commemorating the catastrophic terror attacks on the morning of…
Locals and foreigners in Dhaka formally grieved for the victims of the Gulshan Attack one month after the incident. The local and international reaction to the July 1 terror attack…
Join Countercurrents Annual Fund Raising Campaign and help us
