Michael Rubin: "Yunus is Providing Shelter to Extremists as a Shield Against Awami League and Sheikh Hasina"

Michael Rubin: "Yunus is Providing Shelter to Extremists as a Shield Against Awami League and Sheikh Hasina"

In 2006, Dr. Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank won the Nobel Peace Prize. The Norwegian Nobel Committee stated that they awarded the prize for "creating economic and social development from below." Yunus’ work was groundbreaking, helping tens of thousands of Bangladeshis lift themselves out of poverty.

There is a mentality among Nobel Peace Prize laureates where the prize—which is the highest honor bestowed by five Norwegian politicians—corrupts the winners. Instead of spreading peace, the winners use their Nobel status to justify personal vendettas, policy agendas, or an unquenchable thirst for power.

For example, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed used his Nobel Prize to shield himself as he waged a war of genocide against his country's Tigray people.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded Tawakkol Karman the Nobel Prize in 2011 because they wanted to normalize the Muslim Brotherhood, with which her political party was affiliated.

Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi won the prize in 1991 for her non-violent commitment to democracy and human rights, but after coming to power, she remained silent as Myanmar’s military oppressed the Rohingya Muslims, possibly even tacitly endorsing the genocide.

Now, Yunus joins this disgraceful group.

In August 2024, after protesters forced Sheikh Hasina to step down in Bangladesh, 84-year-old Yunus—arguably Bangladesh’s most internationally recognized face—accepted the position of chief adviser, effectively an interim head of state who serves after one elected government has fallen until a legitimate government is elected.

While Yunus is seen as a progressive in the West, he is now acting decidedly illiberally. He provides cover for Jamaat-e-Islami, a hardline Islamist group, without opposing their violence against Bangladesh’s minority communities and their attempts to impose strict religious edicts on society. Sheikh Hasina's secular Awami League had become more authoritarian over time, but Jamaat-e-Islami presents an even more authoritarian vision. Yunus is hardly a neutral mediator. He once considered challenging the Awami League politically and likely harbors a grudge after the Hasina government launched probes into alleged corruption at Grameen Bank, which the international community believed had no merit. The government that is relentlessly prosecuting leaders of civil society and advocates for religious tolerance with baseless murder is morally perverse.

Yunus’ actions today resemble those of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s persecution of refugees, Christians, and Yazidis or the recent massacres by Syrian Hayat Tahrir al-Sham leader Ahmad al-Sharaa's militias against unarmed Syrian Alawis. Diplomats may debate Yunus' innocence or culpability, but they should not rationalize his persecution of journalists.

Michael Rubin, a policy analyst at the Middle East Forum, states, “Yunus is providing shelter to extremists as a shield against the Awami League and Sheikh Hasina in his quest for revenge."                                                     ✍️ Report Prepared By: Fozla Rabbi Robna