It becomes ever more undeniable that our culture harbours and even encourages violence in the form of vigilante justice. This may seem farfetched but one need only recall how often we see skirmishes break out on the roadsides. It's quite common to see individuals squabbling on the roadside over petty issues like who should give way to whom at a traffic junction or if the rickshaw puller is asking for too much money. Invariably, there will be a threat of violence and some might come down to throwing fists while a crowd gathers to watch the spectacle.

Since the community has to be involved in the rooting out strategy, residents have to know about the doable on their part. Therefore, the visibility of men, women, and children in their usual course of activities, especially the recreational ones would be a definite indicator of normalcy.

Life can change at any moment. On July 1, 2016, life changed for us Bangladeshis. Security has become an even higher priority for the country.

Capitalism prioritses policies that promote efficiency in resource allocation, while democracy espouses ideas of equality and fairness.

The British voters' decision to leave the European Union (EU), or “Brexit”, has triggered a major reshuffling of global political and economic alignments.

ASEAN needed to show a semblance of unity more than ever now, and their common statement on the South China Sea raises some hopes that the group can still pull off an important stunt like this at a time when most observers had given up hope.

The Gulshan attack of July 1 was meant to strike terror in the hearts of foreigners and women who, according to the terrorists do not conform to their ideals.

I thought I was on a direct flight from Kuala Lumpur to Dhaka. But turns out there are two stops – the baggage claim area at Dhaka Airport and Azampur, Uttara.

The Holey Artisan Café victims in Dhaka were killed by the young assailants apparently because they were foreigners or non-Muslims though three Bangladeshi Muslims were also not spared. The attackers were particularly brutal towards the women victims.

Brawn, brain and tears sum up the tone, temper and texture of the Republican and Democrat national conventions in Cleveland and Philadelphia respectively.

As India prepares to commemorate 68 years of freedom from British imperial rule, it may be worth remembering a dusty town in Uttar Pradesh that suffered the consequences of declaring itself an independent country for a few days in 1942.

If national unity is an issue today, it also was an issue before. Our leaders didn't want to recognise it then, and they don't want to recognise it now. Meanwhile, a crack has grown into a giant hole.

For the next three months, likely much longer, it seems, with a civilian-run state of emergency, Erdogan will be the strongman in Ankara as Gulenist cells in the country are rooted out.

The challenge now before all of us is to determine how deep and wide the spread of extremist ideologies is, how entrenched is the threat and, more importantly, how we can effectively fight it.

There is a tendency for people from all walks of life, be it in the West or in Bangladesh, to opt for the easy answers – however erroneous those answers may be.

Terrorists sometimes commit their acts of destruction or murder in the name of religion, and as reported in the media, when the perpetrators burst into the Holey Artisan Bakery, they shouted “Allahu Akbar,” which means “God is Great.”

As expected, billionaire Donald Trump was formally nominated as the Republican Party presidential candidate at the Republican Party Convention held from July 18-21, 2016 at Cleveland, Ohio.

She initially thought that many of the team members might not be comfortable after knowing that a woman was accompanying them in disguise. But an elderly man came forward, and told Mitil, placing his hand on her head, "Mother, we are not afraid anymore; since our girls have taken up arms, no force can subdue us."

In recent times, there have been many reports, mainly in the West, of unhappiness with Erdogan's Islamism and authoritarian style of governing, but no one thought that this would translate into a coup.

Tajuddin Ahmad – the name is synonymous with courageous leadership. Under the leadership of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur