Senator Durbin cites Mistreatment of Professor Yunus as a Threat to U.S.-Bangladesh Relations

Posted on by Protect Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus

Despite many overlapping interests and cultural ties, relations between Bangladesh and the United States continue to be negatively impacted by the persecution of Professor Yunus and his colleagues by his own government, led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Many of the tensions remain below the surface and are expressed only in private diplomatic interactions. But occasionally they surface in public. One recent example was the announcement by Senator Dick Durbin, the second ranking Democrat in the U.S. Senate, that he had met the Bangladesh Ambassador to the United States and emphasized the importance of justice for Professor Yunus.

His office issued a strong statement, which included this direct quote from Senator Durbin after the meeting: “The United States values its longstanding relationship with Bangladesh, and I appreciate its early help to Rohingya refugees fleeing violence in Burma. But a failure to end this seemingly personal vendetta against Muhammad Yunus will negatively impact that partnership.  As such, in today’s meeting with Mr. Imran, I again called for an end to the harassment of Professor Yunus.”

This statement also appeared with a photo on Twitter.

It is interesting to contemplate how easy it would be for the Prime Minister to improve relations with America by taking the simple step of treating Professor Yunus respectfully and justly. Based on the growing number of people in her government who quietly express their embarrassment about her treatment of Professor Yunus to us, it might also help the PM stabilize support within her own party.

Liars and Their Lies, Continued: The Case of Nayeemul Islam Khan

Posted on by Protect Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus

When your position is indefensible, there are basically two options: concede, or lie. As we wrote earlier, apologists for the Prime Minister have consistently taken the second option. For example, they claimed that the Washington Post ad in support of Professor Yunus placed almost exactly one year ago cost $2 million when public documents prove that it could have cost no more than $84,000. (In fact, it cost much less than at, as we explained in this blog post.)

Now, Nayeemul Islam Khan, one of the Prime Minister’s top attack dogs, claims without a shred of evidence that most of the Nobel laureates who signed the open letter to the PM about her persecution of Professor Yunus did so unwittingly. On a television program, he claimed that they were sent messages that said unless they responded otherwise, their names would be added to the letter. This is absolutely false. Those of us who waited anxiously to hear who agreed to sign and who did not, this absurd charge is somewhere between infuriating and laughable.

Mr. Khan, let us ask you this: If we added scores of Nobel laureates without their permission, wouldn’t at least one of them publicly disassociated themselves from the effort and have asked that their names be removed? Of course. But not a single one has. While you are at it, Mr. Khan, please produce one of those messages to a Nobel laureate that told them that their name would be added unless to responded otherwise — just one, please!

And how do you explain the fact that the Protect Yunus Campaign added names of Nobel laureates and other global leaders after the original publication of the letters? If we included everyone who didn’t decline to sign in the original letter, there would be no one to add later on. In fact, we only added people who agreed to sign, and those who agreed after publication of the letter were added after that fact.

If the government and its allies won’t stop persecuting Professor Yunus, perhaps they can at least agree to stop lying about their efforts to do so.