Ambiguities regarding Saudi Coalition

We are quite taken aback by the news that Bangladesh has joined Saudi Arabia's new Islamic Coalition against terrorism. Ambiguities surrounding the nature of the coalition calls for greater scrutiny. Former diplomats, academicians and military experts have expressed their surprise at this decision which has been made rather suddenly, without any notice or discussion in any public forum.

There are reasons for such skepticism. What was initially thought to be a sharing of counter-terrorism expertise and intelligence appears to be a military alliance of sorts, which is a major commitment for Bangladesh requiring considerable thinking before becoming a part of it. Indonesia, a country with the largest Muslim population and which has been a target of religious terrorism, has decided not to join the coalition which raises questions regarding the objective of this alliance. Even Pakistan whose name has been included in the list of 34 countries of the coalition, has said it had no prior knowledge of this inclusion. The conspicuous absence of other Muslim countries like Iran and Iraq seems to be reinforcing the Shia-Sunni divide which has wreaked havoc in the region and which we should not be a part of.

It seems that Bangladesh has rushed into this decision without properly understanding its implications and working out the details of what it entails. The comment of the minister for expatriates' welfare and overseas employment that expatriates living in the Middle East will not be affected by Islamic State (IS) because of Bangladesh's joining this coalition is quite baffling, illogical, if not deliberately misleading. Why should he comment when it is the concern of our foreign ministry?

We urge our government to revisit this decision and assess Bangladesh's role after thorough analysis and understanding of what we are getting into.