A/55/280/Add.2 remain very active in terms of educating or attempting to provide guidance to Muslims, especially through the mosques and madrasahs and the Islamic nongovernmental organizations providing assistance to the most destitute members of society. There is clearly intolerance — especially on the part of religious officials, and sometimes even on the part of local authorities. This is glaringly evident from the fatwas and the restrictions imposed upon Muslim women in their practising of religion (such as the ban on women in mosques). These public-sector actors do, and can exert a real and harmful influence over the Muslim majority, which is easily manipulated. This is shown by the absence of a popular reaction against the fatwas and the social boycotting of the fatwa victims, as well as the manipulation of the crowds in the attacks against minorities. These actions threaten to undermine an entire process of evolution achieved within society as a whole — a process marked by progressive and enlightened thinking. In particular, these actions threaten to undermine the emancipation of marginalized groups, such as women, promoted by the Government, notably through various related legislative initiatives and action programmes. 100. While recalling that, in general, State policy respects freedom of religion or belief and their manifestations, and is not opposed to religious and ethnic communities or designed to oppress women, the Special Rapporteur has formulated the following recommendations with regard to the problems described above. 101. First of all, the Special Rapporteur recommends that religion be protected from all forms of political exploitation, since such exploitation is detrimental to both the political and religious spheres, and hence to the State, society, and, more especially, to religious and ethnic communities and to women. 102. The Special Rapporteur therefore recommends that the State combat extremism, which is essentially simplistic and obscurantist. 103. In this regard, it is important that any direct or indirect involvement of extremists in attacks against Ahmadis, minorities, ethnic communities, and women be systematically pursued in the courts and combated, notably through education. 104. It is also vitally important that the State take the necessary measures to protect the mosques and madrasahs from all efforts at indoctrination on the part 24 of extremists, so that places of prayer, contemplation and religious education do not become instruments of intolerance, discrimination, or hatred. 105. The Special Rapporteur also recommends that the State implement a policy of prevention, and especially to pursue its efforts in the area of education and to broaden those efforts into a genuine culture of human rights. This education policy must in particular address religious officials, who must receive more rigorous training. This means it must teach a perfect understanding of Islam, its diversity, and its values of tolerance, and train religious officials to respect other religions and faiths, as well as in the principles of human rights, non-discrimination, and tolerance, especially with regard to women. This education policy must also address the rest of society, and especially Bangladesh’s future citizens (its pupils and students). In this respect, it is recommended that the State revise its primary-school textbooks and curricula, in order to ensure that the religious and ethnic diversity of Bangladesh are reflected in such a way that each religion is presented in an objective manner, and in order to promote the values of tolerance and nondiscrimination. This education policy should help ensure that the values of tolerance and nondiscrimination become fixed in the people’s minds, and remove socio-religious interdicts and taboos such as those affecting women and the mixing of religions (for example, marriages between people of different religions, and conversions — especially conversions from Islam to another faith). It is also important that the Government pay particular attention to what is actually being taught in the madrasahs, and to what is being practised in the madrasahs on a day-to-day basis. 106. The Special Rapporteur recommends that the State take appropriate measures to ensure that the media are open to the religious and ethnic pluralism of Bangladesh, and that it therefore educate the population in the virtues of celebrating diversity. 107. The measures recommended above with respect to suppression and prevention must make it possible to confront the development of extremism and, notably, to protect Bangladesh from the consequences of this scourge, which is rampant around the world, including in Asia. In particular, they must also make it possible to combat political exploitation of religion by extremists, and the tendency for this practice to be taken up by other, non-extremist (and especially secular) parties.