Bangladesh Welcomes US Recognition Of Its Religious Tolerance

May 2, 2009

Author: Staff Writer

Source: Thaindian News

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/politics/bangladesh-welcomes-us-recognition-of-its-religious-tolerance_100187256.html

The Bangladesh government has welcomed a US Congressional panel’s move to drop it from a list of countries deemed to violate the religious freedom of minorities.

The decision is a vindication of the Sheikh Hasina-led new government’s determination to protect minorities, a spokesman for the prime minister’s office said here Friday.

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom report said Bangladesh’s elections in December were “relatively free of violence”.

It said that the victorious party in Bangladesh’s Dec 28, 2008 elections, the Awami League, was “more favourably disposed towards minority rights protection”.

Drawing a contrast with the earlier parliamentary poll, it said: “The 2008 elections allowed for minorities to exercise their voting rights and proceeded without the anti-minority violence that followed the national elections of 2001.”