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The position of the Arabic language in Bangladesh has undergone a dramatic change over the last three decades, influenced by domestic political changes and the country's evolving relationship with Arabic-speaking nations. Bangladesh came into existence in 1971 after a lengthy nationalist movement which emphasized the linguistic identity of the Bengali population of the eastern part of Pakistan. The ethnic homogeneity of the population (about 98 percent of the people are Bengalis and speak Bengali), the low level of literacy, and the linguistic nation…