<DIV>Folks, A day or two ago, I forwarded a petiton to PSN and LBO-Talk about the human rights situtaion in Bangladesh.  A few people from both lists signed the petition.  We profoundly appreciate that sign of solidarity. What follows is a personal note that I wrote to Doug Henwood.  In the note, in rather sketchy and superficial form, I tried to explain the background of the petition to him.  After writing the note, I thought it would be a good idea to forward it to both of the lists with the hope that it may encourgage a few more people to sign. If you are willing to sign but can't find the petition, please write me.  I will be glad to forward a copy to you.  We can definitely use your support.   Doug, Thanks for your signature.  No, we have no illusion about making any difference in the Government policy. This is more of a public mobilization campaign more than anything else.  The law and order situation in Bangladesh has more or less collapsed.  The primary reason is a weak, ineffective state representing a segment of a kleptomaniac bourgeoisie totally subservient to global capitalism.  The law and order crisis is indeed a manifestation of a distorted, peripheral capitalism. Unlike the criminal justice polemics in the United States, law and order is not a conservative agenda over there.  The working class and other poor people are disproportionately victimized by the gang lords as well as by the state (which is actually the most organized gang lord institution).  The struggle over law and order in today's Bangladesh is actually a form of class struggle.  Law and order is also a struggle over religion and ethnicity, because the religious minorities, primarily the Hindus, and the Ahmediyas, a heretic Muslim sect, are more likely to be targeted by the violence.  It is also a site of gender struggle because women are the victims of a broad range of crimes including rape, and sexual assault. While the violent criminal elements are patronized by the ruling party as well as by the major bourgeois opposition party, widespread breakdown of law and order also creates a legitimation crisis for the state.  One way the state is trying to deal with it is to create legally sanctioned death squads to assassinate the most unmanageable violent elements who either don't have enough connection with the establishment or who have become political liabilities.  An elite force called Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) is created for that purpose.  What RAB does is that they arrest a criminal.  The next day the newspaper publishes a news to the effect that the associates of that criminal were trying to snatch him away from the RAB, there was a cross fire between the criminal associate and the RAB , and the person accidentally killed in that crossfire. The same story, identical almost to the last details, appear in the newspapers several times a week.  Of course, every one knows what happened.  RAB, instead of going through the trouble of the usual legal process, just killed that person.  The whole affair is such an open secret that the newspaper put the word crossfire within quotation mark. The government ministers brag about the killings by openly declaring that criminals have no legal right. The United Slates, promoter of "democracy" in "moderate" Muslim countries like Bangladesh, does not say a word about this gross violation of basic bourgeois legal procedure.  But it is not only the common criminals who are being killed. In recent months quite a few Maoist militants, including the leader of a major Maoist group "The Communist Party of East Bengal (Marxist-Leninist) " were killed by RAB in the "crossfire."      What makes the situation more complicated is the rise of militant Islamic Fundamentalism.  There are several of those groups in the country who target women and ethnic minorities and progressive political activists. One of the most powerful of them is led by a man commonly referred to as "Bangla Bhai."  He was trained in Taliban camps in Afghanistan and his group targets Maoist activists for torture and killing.  Harry K. Thomas,the U.S. ambassador to Bangladesh (a neo-colonial viceroy, more powerful than the prime minister of the country) requested the government to arrest Bangla Bhai not obviously because of his anti-Maoist activities but because of his connection with global Islamic militancy.  The prime minister personally ordered his arrest but he is so powerful in the local areas where he operates, has so much influence in the local administration and police that no one is arresting him (the official line is that he is in hiding).  As a sociologist, I understand the nature of the social constituencies of these groups. They usually appeal to the poor, dispossessed elements of the society- groups that could have been attracted by the Left.  To a significant extent, the mainstream Left has to bear the responsibility for failing to mobilize the most oppressed segments of the society. Islamic Fundamentalism, to a large extent, is a response to the discontents created by a failed, underdeveloped capitalism.  But the fact that part of the fringe elements in Germany and Italy were attracted to Nazism and Fascism is not a justification for those ideologies.  The whole situation also poses an interesting dilemma for the Leftists in Diaspora like me.  On the one hand, we struggle against the Orientalist othering of Islam by cultural imperialism, but on the other hand, we also have to struggle against Islamic Fundamentalism inside the country. The recent bomb attacks described in the petition refers to the activities of these fundamentalist groups.  The petition, mobilized by an alliance of women's rights organizations, needs to be seen in that context.  The specific references to attacks against cultural celebrations and sports events where women participate also need to be seen against that backdrop. Solidarity Manjur </DIV> <hr size=1>Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! 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