School of Education, Beaconhouse National University, under the auspices of Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), organized a seminar featuring distinguished international scholars; Dr. Anne Aly from Australia and Mr. Shahab Enam Khan from Bangladesh. The seminar was held on October 23, 2014. The session was chaired by Dr. Mehdi Hassan who is the Dean School of Media and Mass Communication (SMC) at the Beaconhouse National University. The Registrar Ms. Farzana Shahid welcomed the guests on behalf of the institution and the Vice Chancellor BNU, Mr. Shahid Hafiz Kardar.

Dr. Anne Aly, shared the Australian experience of dealing with the multicultural diverse societies. Mr. Shahab Enam Khan, shared Bangladesh's perspective of state, religion separation. Dr. Ann Aly, a research fellow in the Department of Social Science and International Relations at Curtin University, Western Australia said that we might think of secularism and democracy as a form of government, a way of life, a system of organization, a set of values or beliefs, western way of life or losing Islam but in reality, secularism and democracy were not about any of these perceptions. “They are about equality, provision of basic human rights to all indiscriminately, freedom of belief, and guarantees of justice and welfare,” she said.

Mr. Shahab Enam Khan, Research Director at the Bangladesh Enterprise Institute, and Chair of the Department of International Relations, Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh said that the cases of Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan showed that the radicalization was a dynamic process that varies for each individual and groups, but shared some underlying commonalities.

He said that the process of violent radicalization intended to ensure transformations of society, state and class structures, based on religion and violence. “It is accompanied and carried through by class-based and belief-based revolts from below with supports from external actors”, he said while adding that radicalization involved intermingled political and religious ideologies not at par with Islam and secularism. He further added that radicalization misinterpreted pluralism, secularism, or perhaps “co-existence”.