Christian editor in Bangladesh flees to America for safety

Chiqui Guyjoco Saturday, August 13, 2016

A Bangladeshi Christian editor, who fled to the U.S. for safety, said she'd rather not go back to her home country while persecution among Christian minorities remains high.

Rosaline Costa, the 67-year-old Catholic editor of Hotline Bangladesh, left the predominantly Muslim country in July after threats of her safety became apparent.

People observe a sit-in protest around a national flag of Bangladesh with a map of the country on it, made by flowers, as they attend a mass demonstration at Shahbagh intersection, demanding capital punishment for Bangladesh's Jamaat-e-Islami senior leader Abdul QuaderMollah, after a war crimes tribunal sentenced him to life imprisonment, in Dhaka February 9, 2013. Thousands of protesters rallied in cities across Bangladesh to demand the execution of an Islamist leader sentenced to life in prison for war crimes committed during the 1971 independence conflict. Picture taken February 9, 2013. | Reuters/Andrew Biraj

The monthly newsletter exposed cases of corruption, terror, and religious persecution. As the publication's editor of 30 years, Costa said she "made several editorials in the newsletter" that denounced the country's cases of religious-driven violence.

"In the last two and a half months I could not go out of the house," she told Catholic News Service (CNS) Tuesday during her visit to Washington.

She revealed she couldn't even drive straight to the Hotline Bangladesh office or to her home and had to get into her car parked next to her house and then drive it to a garage connected to her office just to get to work.

Costa also received calls harassing her and went to the authorities to report them.

"I went to the police and they did not want to take a report," she said.

The editor also talked about a woman "beaten very badly."

"But she would not let me visit her in the hospital," Costa told CNS. "She did not want to be identified. Second, she feared for my safety."

Costa now lives in New York City with her two nephews and a niece, each of whom also left Bangladesh last year after suffering harassment. Her nephews left after Muslims forced them to convert to Islam while her niece fled after her Muslim uncle tried to force her into marrying him.

"I don't want to go back," said Costa, as she reflected on the current state of targeted violence.

According to the Christian Freedom International, a human rights organization, the country's religious violence may be brought about by the growing Christianity in the Muslim country.

"In the past six years, it is estimated that 91,000 Muslims from across the country have become Christians. This may account for the huge increase in persecution," it said.