Religion at the Margins: Resistance to Secular Humanitarianism at the Rohingya Refugee Camps in Bangladesh

Abstract

This paper joins the growing body of work on Human Rights and Religion and examines the impacts of religious practices in protecting the socioeconomic and cultural rights of Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh. Based on an empirical study at eight different camps in Kutupalong, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, this article documents how the refugees, through different Islamic religious activities and practices, protect their cultural identities, negotiate with the local governing agents, and maintain solidarity with the host communities in their camp lives. This article also describes how, in these camps, many secular humanitarian projects often get challenged, resisted, or rejected by the refugees since those fail to address their networked relations with religion. Drawing from a rich body of literature in forced migrations, socioeconomic human rights, and religious studies in the Global South, this article investigates how religion and religious activities cushion the refugees from different forms of marginalization that are often engendered by secular development agencies. This article further offers several insights for practitioners and policymakers to ensure socioeconomic and cultural integration in human rights activities in refugee camps in the Global South.

Gender-based violence in a complex humanitarian context: Unpacking the human sufferings among stateless Rohingya women

“…In late 2017, when the mass exodus of Rohingya happened to Bangladesh, they were primarily well received. Initially, the generous acceptance of Rohingya refugees by the host communities in southeast Bangladesh was shaped primarily by the sympathetic response and perception of belonging, such as brothers and sisters in need (Mim, 2020) and the idea of the Ummah (Muslim brotherhood) (Ansar and Khaled, 2021). Also, because of the geographical proximity and cultural and linguistic similarities with the Chittagonian’s Bangladesh culture, there were no major visual checkpoints of differences between Rohingya and people in southeast Bangladesh.…”

Solidarity Actions Based on Religious Plurality

“…In the same vein, Kyriakidou (2021) confronts the European humanitarian crisis concerning refuges in Greece, and stresses the value of hospitality that different religious traditions share, as a driver for increasing the acceptance of receiving refugees and migrants. Mim (2020) examines the impacts of religious practices on protecting the socioeconomic and cultural rights of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh through an empirical study carried out in eight different camps. She documents how refugees, through different religious activities and practices, in this case Islamic, protect their cultural identities, negotiate with local government agents and maintain solidarity with the host communities in their camp.…”

“…Religion provides them with a source of identity and becomes an engine of action towards the community. Indeed, Mim (2020) describes how many secular humanitarian projects are often challenged, resisted or even rejected by the refugees in these refugee camps. Moreover, projects developed by religious entities gain a higher degree of trust, despite not being of Islamic tradition as most of the refugees in the camps are.…”

“…Moreover, projects developed by religious entities gain a higher degree of trust, despite not being of Islamic tradition as most of the refugees in the camps are. Mim states that secular projects do not manage to address their network relationships and the community identification offered by religious traditions (Mim 2020), and concludes that religious entities are more effective in preventing and reducing exclusion than secular development agencies. Even in today's secular societies, the principle of hospitality has a close connection with and origin in religious traditions.…”

Sacred Welcomes

“…Moreover, the spontaneous charity of Bangladeshis living near the camps-even from those whose land has been rendered economically useless due to the camps-and the mediation work of local imams have given Rohingya refugees a sense of selfesteem and optimism about the possibility of forging social bonds in their places of refuge. Th is charity has been conceived and received in religious terms (Mim 2020;Palmer 2011). In turn, it is our hope that the articles in this special section will contribute to a productive conversation about Christian, Jewish, and Muslim conceptions of migration and refuge in contemporary national and transnational contexts.…”