Stopping the Destruction of Bangladeshi Hindus and other Minorities
Bangladesh’s Hindu population is dying. At the time of India’s partition in 1948, they made up a little less than a third of East Pakistan’s population. When East Pakistan became Bangladesh in 1971, Hindus were less than a fifth; thirty years later, less than one in ten; and several estimates put the Hindu population at less than eight percent today with at least one credible estimate that about 40 million Hindus are missing from the Bangladeshi census. In Pakistan Hindus are down to one percent and in Kashmir they are almost gone. Take a look at the future of Bangladesh’s Hindus if we do not act. A consistent torrent of reports documents anti-Hindu incidents there including murder, gang rape, assault, forced conversion to Islam, child abduction, land grabs, and religious desecration. And while Bangladeshi officials might object that the perpetrators were non-state actors, government culpability rests, at the very least, on the fact that it pursues very few of these cases and punishes even fewer perpetrators. Their excuses have not stopped the killing, as Bangladeshi governments regardless of party have been passive bystanders, refusing—to exercise their sovereign responsibility to protect the life and security of all their citizens. Thus, they have sent radical Islamists and common citizens alike a clear message that these acts can be undertaken with impunity. Yet, in this topsy-turvy world, it is WE who have to prove that there is something wrong. No more. Forcefield demands that the Bangladeshi government explain why it should not be charged with complicity in eliminating an entire people numbering in the tens of millions.
It is hard for us to believe that no one knows about this. Are our sources really that much better than everyone else's? It seems that no one cares. At the very least, no one is forcing the issue, even though millions of lives are at stake. Forcefield is engaged in gathering information, vetting and verifying it, and ultimately bringing it to the attention of government, media, and international bodies. It is clear that there is no internal dynamic among the Bangladeshi leadership to stop it. If we do want to witness another holocaust, Rwanda, or Darfur; we have to stop it.
Getting effective aid for South Asian refugees
While the world seems to shower its largesse on the Palestinians, and sometimes on others, there is a group of forgotten refugees that has been eeking out an existence without the benefit of assistance or even the slightest recognition of their plight by groups from Amnesty International to the UN High Commission on Refugees. These refugees from oppression in places like Bangladesh and Kashmir live in conditions compared to which the Palestinian Arabs live in luxury. Yet, even while audits and other studies provide information that the largesse going to that Middle Eastern population often ends up in the coffers of terrorists, money continues to flow like a waterfall; and these refugees do not even receive an acknowledgement of their plight--and certainly no recognition of the persecution that forced them from their ancestral homes. In fact, several of them told Forcefield Board Members that they never even heard of the United Nations. Forcefield is committed to change that and to bring justice to these forgotten refugees.
Supporting India's First Jewish Studies Library
Professor Navras Jaat Aafreedi of Gautum Buddha University is attempting to gather India's first Jewish Studies Library for Indian college students. Dr. Aafreedi has been accepting donations of books and other media from all over the world to form the beginnings of this library. Forcefield has been a major supporter of his and encourages people all over to send Dr. Aafreedi new and used books about Judaism, Jewish history and religion, Israel, and so forth. If you would like to send a donation of books, contact Forcefield through its President, Dr. Richard L. Benkin.
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