Note: there are over half a dozen extremist Islamic organisations in Bangladesh, namely Shibir, Hefajat-e-Islam, JMB, Huji B, and much recently, ISIS. There is high mobility of extremists between these groups, and when carrying out an attack or a long-term plan such as sending people abroad, they will often coordinate with each other, setting aside any minor differences they have and will operate as one alliance, e.g, as it happened with the ISIS attack at Holey Artisan Bakery in 2016 where members across different Islamic terror groups (JMB, Shibir) worked together as one.

The Islami Chattrashibir is the student wing of the Bangladesh’s Islamist political party Jamaat-e-Islami (now at risk of being banned due to its terror-related activities) that “considers principles of secularism and democracy to be haram”. Jamaat-e-Islami was formed by extremist preachers or what many pro-liberation Bangladeshis would refer as ‘’war criminals’’ of the 1971 liberation war who not only aided the then Pakistani army but themselves engaged in identifying and mapping areas to carry out torture, rape and murder of innocent civilians and expose intellectuals who supported secular or the least of extreme Sunni Islamic values.

Pakistani Army, with the help of Jamaat-e-Islami, killed as as many as 3 million people according to Bangladesh’s claim. Pakistan claims only 26,000 were killed. As you can see, they at least admit massacring people in the thousands to spread Islamism. Source: http://www.genocidebangladesh.org/photographs-and-images/

Fast forward to 21st century. The International Crime Tribunal brought many of these Islamic senior Islamists to justice with Bangladesh government executing them under its own law, much to the heartache of Western human rights organisations and corporate media where elite global members of Jamaat-e-Islami lobbied heavily. Oh also, by the time Bangladesh was winning the Liberation War in the 70s, many of the Islamists fled to Western countries such UK and USA as immigration laws and surveillance were slack during that time. Little would these Western countries know in 40 years’ time they will see a revival of Wahhabi and Sunni Islamism as this first generation Islamists masquerading as harmless immigrants were breeding and organising new generations of young followers to take Islamism forward, quite efficiently, marrying themselves with the Left by singing songs of ethnic minority rights and multiculturalism.

A former leader of Twitter-verified Islami Chhatrashibir on Interpol’s wanted list, now arrested. He fled to Malaysia after his pro-Islamist BNP party’s tenure ended in 2006. Source: http://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2016/09/24/ak-47-seller-akash-lands-in-feni-jail-after-deportation-from-malaysia

The Islami Chattrashibir, or popularly known as only ‘Shibir’ in Bangladesh, sets up student societies in Bangladeshi universities nationwide. The underlying purpose of this group is to recruit students and depending on their responsiveness to the various subtle or non-subtle (jihadi) materials the students are exposed to, the students are sorted at different levels of recruiting the next batch of potential students (or in other areas, such as scoring a career in influential companies, student society bodies, professorship at home or abroad). For example, if you are an agnostic, its leaders will politely approach you with charismatic vigour. They will try to ‘change your mind’. If they are successful, you are progressively taken into their inner circles where you are further radicalised on violent and non-violent jihad. If you are already a visibly traditional Muslim, donning a hijab or 1-foot long beard, the next stage for you is to engulf you with a sense of victimhood using examples of conflicts such as Syria or the Iraq war and convincing you where your role is to spread Islamism either within Bangladesh or if you want to pursue a PhD or masters abroad, the West. If you are genuinely agnostic, atheist or even a Muslim who is visibly critical about radical Islam, isolation and a lack of popularity will eventually find you for the rest of your university life because somehow being a youth freely mixing with the opposite gender, smoking weed, going to infidel musical concerts is cool but only with a passport that you love Islam and vow to fight for it.

Members of Shibir are not idiots. Jihad is not just about boarding on an US flight in August on a student visa and attempting to blow the Federal Bank at the next available opportunity. It’s about long-term vision. For example, it’s about taking advantage of shortage of skills that countries like United States, United Kingdom or Germany have for which they offer scholarship funding to South Asian students with the potential for long term residency and citizenship. To retain these legal rights, some members of Shibir must “signal” to immigration authorities, local council or university departments that they are not affiliated with extremism in any way, or are “moderate Muslims”. Untying themselves from violent extremism is important because it enables them to strengthen the root of non-violent extremism — e.g. setting up non-profits/charities (which you can only do if you have strong immigration standing, a record of good character to bluff security clearing agencies or the Department for Homeland Security). Once you have successfully “signalled” you are not an Islamist who will cause material damage as a violent jihadist but some variation of a follower of Islam, you can use the language of ethnic minority rights with a dash of victimhood from the history of Western colonialism, Iraq invasion or drone dropping in Syria and Pakistan to validate elements of Islamism, such as hijab, female genital mutilation, or polygamy.

Student members of Shibir oriented to promote any variation of Sunni (or Wahhabi) version of Islam even its women members donning denim jeans and without a hijab are then gradually groomed towards obtaining student visa. Shibir tends to select students known for good academic performance in computer programming, medical science, engineering — because Western countries tend to have a relatively liberal enforcement of immigration rules in these categories for its own economic interests.

Shibir’s members spread themselves across academic networks including US, UK embassies to gather information on GRE, SAT testing, English language training, leadership programmes organised by Commonwealth, Full Bright etc. for the recruits they want to send to Western countries. This is because these initial academic requirements are core to obtaining student visa. Being extrovert and engaging in a number of leadership opportunities to tackle social issues not only helps them maintain a clean résumé evading any serious screening for visa application, but they are also able to build reputation and trust with international contacts as well as identify people within the same network who may not be very conducive to promoting their Islamism agenda in the long run.

[the images here are removed because it is censored by Medium for its corporate policy to not offend Islamist hardliners]

One of the masterminds behind terrorist attack by ISIS at Dhaka’s Holey Artisan Bakery were an associate of Chittagong unit of Islami Chhatrashibir. Source: http://www.thedailystar.net/country/dhaka-attack-marzan-associate-cu-islami-chhatra-shibir-1270687

Among the three men arrested in connection with the murder of atheist blogger Niloy Neel included Islami Chhatra Shibir leader Mortuza Sabbir Faisal. Source: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/11/bangladesh-arrests-men-murder-blogger-151118140032685.html