Bangladesh, March 22 -- History has a way of lingering in the margins before it returns, often inconveniently, to the center of political life. The passage of H. Res. 1130 in the United States Congress is one such moment—less a sudden revelation than a long overdue acknowledgment. For Bangladesh, it reopens wounds that never fully healed. For Washington, it quietly corrects a moral failure that dates back more than half a century. And for political actors within Bangladesh—especially Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami—it raises uncomfortable questions about responsibility, memory, and redemption.

Lets begin where the discomfort lies.

No serious account of 1971 can avoid the role played by Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami. During the...