He becomes blogger for Bangladesh

He becomes blogger for Bangladesh

Hugo Swire

       

Hugo Swire, minister of state at the foreign and commonwealth office, UK, said Bangladesh's rich tradition of freedom and religious tolerance should be protected.
"Bangladesh is a secular country. It has a rich tradition of freedom and religious tolerance. That should be commended, and protected. And no one should have to be afraid to say so," he said in his first own blog on Friday.
In the blog titled “Freedom of speech is a right to be defended,” the UK junior minister also said a stable and democratic Bangladesh was an important international partner for the UK.
A week ago, a blogger called Niloy Neel was hacked to death in Bangladesh. He was the fourth blogger to be murdered in the country this year.
 "I've been meaning to start my own blog for some time: last week's events made me determined that I shouldn't put it off any longer. Freedom of speech is a right to be defended.
“Not everyone agrees. A group called Ansar Al Islam claimed responsibility [for the murder of Niloy] and said: 'If your 'freedom of speech' maintains no limits, then widen your chests for the 'freedom of our machetes'.
“This is extremism above all because it shows both extreme cowardice and extreme ignorance. Cowardice because five men with machetes put a single unarmed man to death. And ignorance because if you have good enough arguments, you really don't need to resort to murder,” Swire wrote.

 

He said freedom of speech was only a threat to false and misleading ideas.
"In that sense, the four bloggers -- Niloy Neel, Avijit Roy, Oyasiqur Rahman and Ananta Bijoy Das -- are already vindicated in what they stood for."
Swire said it was very much in Britain's interests that “the rotten seeds of this type of extremism are not allowed to take root in Bangladesh.”
"We've an important shared history -- we were the first European country to recognise Bangladesh's independence and the first country to receive its first Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman -- and there are still very close links between our peoples today,” he added.
He said half a million people of Bangladeshi origin were living in the UK and had enriched its society in many ways. “In my own world of politics, I'm delighted that there are now members with Bangladeshi heritage in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
 “… I said in my statement last week, it's important for us too that these pernicious issues are dealt with urgently: that the perpetrators of these horrific crimes are brought to justice and that the flawed and cowardly ideas behind them are exposed for what they are."
 Swire also welcomed the arrest of two suspects in the murder (of Niloy).