A New Dawn For Islamist Forces In Bangladesh

With the fall of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government in Bangladesh on August 5, 2024, the Islamist Urdu daily Roznama Ummat of Pakistan featured on August 7, a headline on its front page: "Hundreds of opposition leaders freed, offices of Jamaat-e-Islami opened."[1]

Sensing the immediate rise of Islamist forces, the Roznama Ummat of August 8 also blamed, in an editorial, "a Satanic project aided by the Zionist and Western powers" for propping up Sheikh Hasina and wrote: "All praise be to Allah, the Two Nation Theory is proving its truth even today, and Allah willing, will remain alive till the Day of Judgment."[2] The Two Nation Theory is the idea that Muslims and non-Muslims cannot live together under a mixed political system, a religious principle that gave birth to Pakistan as an Islamic state in 1947 and failed when the state broke up in 1971, creating Bangladesh on a linguistic basis.

Jamaat-e-Islami, the largest religious organization in South Asia with branches abroad, has several ideologically connected branches: Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Jamaat-e-Islami Azad Kashmir (in Pakistani control), and Jamaat-e-Islami Jammu and Kashmir (in Indian Kashmir). While all of them claim organizational independence from each other, their ideological commitment is shared, and they are known to have sheltered jihadi fighters, except perhaps for Jamaat-e-Islami Hind which, alone among them representing a minority, displays some degree of moderation under Indian pluralism.[3]

Bangladeshi protesters attacked with shoes and demolished the statues of Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, the founder of Bangladesh and father of Sheikh Hasina (image: Roznama Ummat)

In Bangladesh, the right-wing pro-Islamist Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami are two major immediate beneficiaries of the student protests led by the Students Against Discrimination (SAD), which engineered the fall of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, a secular leader who tilted toward China rather than the U.S., and had banned the Jamaat-e-Islami and hanged its top leaders for aiding the Pakistani army in the 1971 Liberation War that led to Bangladesh breaking away from Pakistan.[4]

After the independence of Bangladesh, Jamaat-e-Islami split and its branch in Bangladesh was formed, at the end of an initial ban, following the 1975 coup. According to a media report, Jamaat-e-Islami joined a multi-party alliance in the 1980s aimed at restoring democracy and later allied with the BNP, holding ministerial positions in BNP-led governments of 1991-1996 and 2001-2006.[5] The Awami League of Sheikh Hasina also partnered with Jamaat-e-Islami in 1996 and by 2008, Jamaat-e-Islami had won two seats in Parliament.[6]

Sheikh Hasina, in power during 1996-2001 and since 2019, had turned autocratic, convicting or imprisoning critics, including Muhammad Yunus, the respected Nobel Laureate who has now replaced her as head of the interim government. On August 1, just four days before the collapse of her government, it placed Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir, already banned from political activity, under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2009.[7]

Now, Sheikh Hasina's fall has unleashed the right-wing Islamist forces in Bangladesh, though they cannot be expected to be in their ideological elements in these early days of transition. On August 6, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami (BJI) reopened its central office in Boro Moghbazar area of Dhaka, which had remained closed for 13 years. Dr. Shafiqur Rahman, the emir, said upon entering the office along with other BJI leaders: "We left here (central office) on September 19, 2011. We've entered (the office) now."[8]

Dr. Shafiqur Rahman, the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami emir, called for the protection of Hindus

While not all the protesters, who opposed the quota policy in jobs for the kin of the 1971 war veterans, can be classed as right-wing Islamist forces, a large section of them do belong to Jamaat-e-Islami and the BNP. The BNP had boycotted the 2024 parliamentary elections after BNP leader and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia was imprisoned for various reasons, including corruption, for more than a decade.[9] Videos show that the protesters urinated on the statue of Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, Hasina's father and the founder of Bangladesh who stood for a secular and democratic republic.[10]

Loved by those who fought for creating Bangladesh for Bangla-speaking people in eastern Pakistan, Sheikh Mujibur Rehman articulated a democratic idea of Bangladesh, stating: "This country does not belong to Hindus. This country does not belong to Muslims. Whoever thinks this country is theirs, this country will be theirs. Whoever feels happiness seeing this country prosper, this country will be theirs. Whoever will cry seeing this country sad, this country will be theirs. This country will also belong to those who have given away everything for this country's freedom."[11]

Those who disgraced and demolished his statutes despise these ideals and belong, broadly speaking, to the Islamist forces led by Jamaat-e-Islami and the BNP. On August 6, amid the political pressure unleashed by the student movement, President Mohammed Shahabuddin, exercising his power of clemency under Article 49 of the constitution, issued orders to release BNP leader Khaleda Zia, who had been confined to house arrest, instead of prison, for five years for medical reasons.[12] The courts also freed more than 2,000 student protesters on bail.[13]

The Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami leaders were aware that their workers would target temples and the property of religious minorities such as Hindus. Right through these tumultuous events, in an attempt not to squander the unexpected political dividend at their door, the BJI leaders began issuing calls to their members to protect Hindus and their religious places and there are indeed cases of Jamaat-e-Islami workers guarding Hindu temples and property.

On August 7, addressing the central executive committee of BJI, its emir Dr. Shafiqur Rahman said: "The dictator has fallen in exchange for the blood of the students and the general people. Almighty Allah has freed this nation from oppression and torture. That is why I express Almighty Allah a million times. Alhamdulillah [Praise be to Allah]. Now we have to start building the country. The process of forming the interim government is not over yet. In this situation, miscreants are trying to worsen the law and order situation.

"We have repeatedly appealed to the students and the fellow countrymen to be vigilant at all times so that no miscreant can deteriorate the law and order situation. In this regard, Jamaat-e-Islami, Islami Chhatra Shibir, and all political parties should play the role of a watchman to resist attacks on people belonging to different religions."[14]

In an August 9 meeting of the political committee of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, former lawmaker and BJI Secretary General Professor Mia Golam Parwar stated: "The interim government was sworn in on August 8. The portfolios have been distributed among the advisors of the interim government already. We would like to congratulate the Chief Advisor Dr. Muhammad Yunus and all the advisors. They should ensure justice by bringing the terrorists and the miscreants to the book and also by establishing the rule of law, justice, and human rights in the country. They also should prosecute the people who were involved with various misdeeds including corruption, looting, money laundering, and genocide under the fascist regime."[15]

August 8, 2024: Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus (right) is sworn in as Chief Advisor to the interim government by President Mohammed Shahabuddin

Notwithstanding appeals by BNP as well as Jamaat-e-Islami leaders, there were attacks on the temples and property of the minority Hindus in Bangladesh. On August 6, the day after Sheikh Hasina fled to India, The Daily Star newspaper reported: "Hindu houses and business establishments were attacked by mobs while their valuables were also looted in at least 27 districts yesterday."[16]

The newspaper quoted Hindu community leader Monindra Kumar Nath, senior joint general secretary of the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Oikya Parishad, as saying: "There are no areas or districts left where communal attacks have not taken place. We are continuously getting reports from different parts of the country about attacks on houses and business establishments... They are crying, saying they are being beaten up, and their houses and businesses are being looted."[17]

A report published in the August 7 issue of The Daily Star, two days after the collapse of Sheikh Hasina's government, indicates that the attackers were motivated by religion, not just the desire to loot and destroy the property of the minority Hindus. The report noted that the Dhanuka Manasa Bari temple in Shariatpur was ransacked by an angry mob who crushed the idols of Radha-Krishna and razed the temple to the ground; the Dinajpur Centre Cremation yard was vandalised; and a Hindu temple in Kuakata area of Patuakhali was set ablaze.[18]

On August 9, the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Oikya Parishad, an organization representing religious minorities, reported 205 incidents of persecution of members of minority communities across 52 districts since Sheikh Hasina's resignation on August 5.[19] Releasing an open letter to Muhammad Yunus, chief advisor (executive head) of the interim government, the community leaders said: "We seek protection because our lives are in a disastrous state. We are staying up at night guarding our homes and temples. I have never seen such incidents in my life. We demand that the government restore communal harmony in the country."[20]

Khaleda Zia (right) is the leader of the right-wing Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), while the ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina represented the leftwing secular forces

The community leaders also noted that the oath taken by Muhammad Yunus and his council of advisors included Quranic verses but did not refer to the religious texts of Hindus and other minorities. "The exclusion of readings from other religious texts contradicts our constitution, the spirit of the Liberation War, and anti-discrimination values. We hope that in the future state functions, readings from all major religious texts will be included," remarked Kajal Devnath, one of the Hindu community leaders.[21]

For most of the history of Bangladesh, barring military coups, two women have ruled the country as prime ministers: Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League party and Khaleda Zia of BNP, with the latter, along with the Jamaat-e-Islami, representing the religious right-wing forces on the ground. While Sheikh Hasina is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, the secular founder of Bangladesh who was assassinated, Khaleda Zia is the widow of former President Ziaur Rahman who was also assassinated.

In a recent article, Indian journalist Poorva Joshi summed up the ideological camps represented by the two camps in the politics of Bangladesh: "Sheikh Mujib and Ziaur Rahman, despite fighting for Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan in 1971, had polarising views. Mujib's ideology was deeply rooted in Bengali nationalism, secularism, and socialism. He championed secularism as one of the four pillars of the 1972 Constitution of Bangladesh and believed in the separation of religion from politics.

"Ziaur Rahman's ideology was also centred around Bangladeshi nationalism, but it also emphasised the Islamic identity of the nation, distancing itself from the secularism promoted by Mujib. He amended the Constitution to replace the term 'secularism' with 'absolute trust and faith in the Almighty Allah,' signalling a move toward incorporating Islamic principles into state affairs. This is important to highlight as both Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia inherited these ideological patterns and continue to follow them."[22]

Islamic students name an expressway after Abraham, the prophet of monotheism (image: TheDailyStar.net)

With Sheikh Hasina removed from the political scene, the secular forces in Bangladesh represented by her Awami League party will take a backseat. Even though Muhammad Yunus and the student leaders who are part of his interim government also represent secular and liberal forces, the floodgates have opened for the right-wing Islamist forces represented by the BNP of Khaleda Zia and her ideological ally Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami. This is especially true because Muhammad Yunus and the student leaders do not have the organizational network and muscle required to counter the right-wing Islamist forces in Bangladesh.

Sheikh Hasina was known for taking a pro-China stance in her country's geostrategic foreign policy, while Russia in December 2023 accused the United States of plotting an uprising like the Arab Spring in Bangladesh to unseat her government.[23] After fleeing to India, the ousted leader blamed the U.S. for triggering the student protests, saying: "I could have remained in power if I had surrendered the sovereignty of Saint Martin Island [a small island forming the southernmost part of Bangladesh] and allowed America to hold sway over the Bay of Bengal. I beseech to the people of my land, please do not be manipulated by radicals."[24] In April 2024, Hizb-ut-Tahrir Bangladesh, a global Islamist organization, accused Sheikh Hasina of shedding crocodile tears for Palestinians, stating: "The Hasina government shamelessly wants to normalize relations with the Jewish entity [Israel] according to the U.S.'s 'Two-State Policy.'"[25]

The day after Sheikh Hasina left on August 5, major Bangladeshi newspapers described the event as the "victory of the students."[26] But sometimes, victors are those who simply wait you out. The following incident reveals what is at stake in the coming weeks and months for Bangladesh. On August 10, a group of local students from the Jamia Islamia Halimia Madhupur Madrassa, an Islamic religious seminary, removed a street sign reading "Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Expressway" at the Dhaleshwari toll plaza in the town of Munshiganj, replacing it with a banner that reads: "Father of the Nation Hazrat Ibrahim (AS) Expressway," referring to Abraham, the prophet of monotheism who is viewed as the destroyer of idols and polytheism.[27]

Following are some images of protests after August 5 by Bangladeshi Hindus seeking protection for their lives, property, and temples:

In a protest at the Shahbagh intersection of Dhaka, a Hindu woman holds a placard seeking protection against attacks (image: PTI/IndianExpress.com).

 

Hindu protesters at Shahbagh intersection of Dhaka (image: PTI/IndianExpress.com)

In the capital Dhaka, Hindus families demand protection (image: PTI/IndianExpress.com).

* Tufail Ahmad is Senior Fellow for the MEMRI Islamism and Counter-Radicalization Initiative.