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For publication in our regular online newspaper op-ed/ Editorial pages, we accept submissions on timely, well-researched opinion pieces and essays.
– Your article must be below 1200 words and be emailed to us as an attachment (.doc or .docx file).
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– After submission, please allow us up to 5 days to respond. If your piece is selected, we will certainly get back to you. We try to respond to each submission, but if you do not hear back from us within 5 days, feel free to submit your article elsewhere.

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Debate on Bangladesh in UK Parliament

Bangladesh has been a focus of attention of the international community for some time. On 30 April 2015 the US Congressional Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific held a hearing on ‘Bangladesh’s Fracture: Political and Religious Extremism. Less than two months later a parliamentary debate was held in the House of Commons where a number of common themes were once against addressed. On 17 June 2015, the Parliamentary debate, chaired by Sir Alan Meale and led by Anne Main MP, was held on the issue of Bangladesh and the country’s volatile future. Members of Parliament attended the debate from the Labour Party, the Labour and Co-operative Party, the Conservative Party and the Scottish National Party. Speakers focused on the positive aspects of Bangladesh’s recent development, but issued...

India embraces Bangladesh to keep China in check

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s two-day state visit to Bangladesh ended with renewed hopes both in Dhaka and New Delhi for an improved relationship between the two neighbors. Although the long-awaited water share treaty over the common river Teesta saw little progress, Modi gave Dhaka hope for a future peaceful resolution. Sheikh Hasina’s government is keeping the faith in Modi, as evidenced by the Bangladeshi prime minister only vaguely mentioning the issue during a joint press conference so as to avoid embarrassing her Indian counterpart. And for the time being, Dhaka can still afford to be patient, thanks to Modi’s apparent willingness to build a meaningful partnership with Bangladesh. For it was no small feat in getting India’s parliament to finally pass the Land Border Agreem...

Religion and rights in Bangladesh: maintaining a delicate balance

The recent spate of gruesome killings of bloggers critical of Islam—Bangladesh’s state religion—is a timely reminder of the potential perils that rights and development activists face in this country as they navigate an increasingly intolerant and more hazardous landscape. In just over a month, two bloggers were hacked to death in public places, following three similar attacks in 2013, in which one blogger died. A decade back, a famous author also fell victim to a similar attack for his critical views on Islam. Indeed, over the last decade, Bangladesh saw a rise in the number of large and small militant Islamist organizations, who

Bangladesh, India now settled with maritime, land boundary

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi set to sign a land boundary agreement with his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina and also set to announce a number of sops soon after his arrival in Dhaka on Saturday, India said a positive outlook and a dramatically changed political atmosphere was a lesson for other neighbours as well. Amidst growing bonhomie, last year India having already accepted bd-indiathe UN Tribunal awaring 19,467 sq kms of 25,602 sq tk sea area of Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh will be the only country having settled land and maritime boundaries wi...

A boost for India-Bangladesh relations

May 7, 2015 was a historic day in India-Bangladesh relations. That was the day when Indian parliament passed a Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) Bill. The amendment ensures a settlement of the long-running land boundary dispute with Bangladesh. It will contribute to stability and better economic activities at the border points. The bill has now to be ratified and signed, which may happen in June when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is due to visit Bangladesh. Indian PN with BD PresidentThe arbitrary divis...

Islamic Banking and Conscious Capitalism

The nature of money

At the January 2010 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, the erudite and prolific Sharia scholar, Muhammad Taqi Usmani, was invited to present a paper with a somewhat radical theme: reforming the world’s post-crisis financial landscape through the lens of religion. The paper generated little interest from the world’s media, which preferred instead to focus on the forum’s lack of reform plans and the predictably defensive stance taken by bankers. Had they read the 37-page document, though, they might have concluded that “caring capitalism” had the potential to be more than a mere romantic notion.