They have also made a lot of compromises with the fundamentalist forces. We have seen how the so-called secular political parties of Bangladesh use the religious sentiments of the people to get votes. But similar instances of rank opportunism have been seen in India and elsewhere. We have also seen how the powerful western states have declared protecting human rights to be one of their supreme objectives and then patronized fundamentalism, overtly or covertly. Democratic governments recognize military dictatorships for short run political interests.
Secular states make friends with autocracies as well as theocracies.
They tolerate even completely inhuman behavior of fundamentalists. Such double standards practiced by so-called democratic and secular states at home and abroad give the fundamentalists a sort of legitimacy. Some authors in the West are coming forward in support of the fundamentalists. They are trying to argue that not all the customs in vogue in the third world countries are harmful for women. They find a sort of stability and social peace in the oriental world.