Sawt Falasteen - Bangladesh monastery a beacon of harmony after unrest

For more than a decade, the Dharmarajika Buddhist Monastery in Dhaka has provided free meals for hundreds of the capital's poorest residents to break their fast each evening during the Muslim holy month.

Its work has assumed a new resonance this year after political upheaval that last summer ousted autocratic leader Sheikh Hasina, leaving many religious minorities in the Muslim-majority nation fearful of persecution.

"I live nearby and earn very little from my job. This meal is a relief," said Moushumi Begum, who joined around 200 others at the fast-breaking meal known as iftar.

"I am grateful for their kindness and pray to God for their wellbeing."

The monastery's abbot, Buddha Priya Mahathero, said the annual tradition began in 2013 with the simple principle that no one fasting should be turned away hungry.

"We have fostered a culture of harmony," he told AFP.

"We saw people struggling for food during Ramadan. That's when we decided to step in," he added.

"What began as a small effort has continued, and we hope to keep doing our part."

The monastery was founded in 1960, more than a decade before Bangladesh became an independent nation, and has long been known as a paragon of interfaith philosophy.

One of its biggest early initiatives was the establishment of an interfaith orphanage for children whose parents were killed during the country's 1971 liberation war.

Buddhists make up around three percent of Bangladesh's population of 170 million, the second-largest religious minority after its substantial Hindu community.

- 'Pledged to protect us' -

Hasina's ouster in last year's student-led revolution saw several reprisal attacks against Hindu households.

The interim administration that took office after her toppling came down strongly on such attacks, arresting dozens of people in the months that followed.

It has also insisted that some of those attacks were motivated by political vengeance rather than religious animosity, and blamed organised disinformation from neighbouring India for exaggerating the magnitude of the problem.

Non-Muslim Bangladeshis have nonetheless voiced unease at developments since the fall of Hasina's government, which despite a litany of rights abuses was seen as a steadfast protector of minority religious communities.

Numerous shrines to Sufi saints were vandalised after Hasina's overthrow, with suspicion falling on Islamist hardliners who consider that branch of the Muslim faith heretical.

Several attacks on Hindu temples were also reported in the chaotic hours after Hasina went into exile in India.

The Dharmarajika Buddhist Monastery has not suffered a similar fate, and its custodians say that leaders from several political parties had paid visits to offer their respect and support.

"All of them pledged to protect us," Swarupananda Bhikkhu, a monk at the monastery, told AFP.

"Our gates have always been open, regardless of religious identity."

M.AlAhmad--SF-PST