THE SYAHID MINAR REMINDS ME OF CALVARY


Our God has His fingerprints in every nation that reminds people of Himself.



 It was a simple structure like this that I saw. To me, it looked like three gallows.



I whispered to my missionary friend, Walt White as we were walking in one of the villages in Bangladesh to visit one of his friends.

"What is this? Doesn't it look like Calvary? The pillar in the middle is taller than two other pillars one on each side?"

Walt, who was a missionary in Bangladesh, told me, "This is the Syahid Minar."

The story continues. The Syahid Minar is till today the monument to remind the people of Bangladesh about the Benggali Language Movement.

Bangladesh used to be known as East Pakistan. When the Government of Pakistan decided to declare Urdu as their national language, the Benggalis living in East Pakistan were angry because their language was neglected. This was how the Benggali Language Movement kickstarted around 1952.

The prime minister of Pakistan visited East Pakistan on what was supposed to be a peace mission. Immediately after he left East Pakistan, the army went in to arrest and slaughter a number of the people.

The people fought back and there was civil war. Soon, East Pakistan declared its independence and became known as Bangladesh. It is spelt as "Bangla-desh" -- "Bangla" being the race of the people living in the delta area and "desh" means land. The country means "The Land of the Banglas."

(It is wrong to pronounce the name as "Beng -ladesh." The word "beng" means frogs).

To commemorate the Benggali Language Movement, the three pillars were erected all over Bangladesh as a monument to commemorate the love of the Bengali language.

When I heard this story told to me, I immediately shared my thoughts with Walt. "Isn't this the greatest depiction of Calvary? If the Syahid Minar reminds the people of Bangladesh that their forefathers were willing to even lay down their lives for the love of the language, didn't Christ do the same for His love for all of us?"

Jesus' words resonated in my soul. "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13).

This happened at least 32 years ago, as I had just graduated from a university in Australia. Before returning home in 1987, I decided to spend two months in Bangladesh with the Australian Baptists Missionary Society and the then International Christian Fellowship (now, SIM).





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