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2024-08-16 Bangladesh
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We need good ideas right now, not Jamaat
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[Dhaka Tribune] The Awami League government made a lot of mistakes. De-listing Jamaat-e-Islami
...The Islamic Society , founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer . The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
is not one.
In fact, the AL government didn’t even make the decision to de-list Jamaat as a political party.
A group of Bangladeshi citizens filed the petition against Jamaat in 2013. Their petition was heard by a high court, which decided in favour of the petitioners against Jamaat. Jamaat’s legal team appealed to the supreme court, which upheld the high court’s decision to de-list Jamaat.
We all know what Jamaat did when they didn’t get their way. Look it up if you can’t remember.
Now that the armed forces decided to brief Jamaat on the transition-in-power, and reports of reprisals and communal violence emerged within hours of the loathesome Sheikh Hasina
...Bangla dynastic politician and now exiled former Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She was President of the Bangla Awami League since the Lower Paleolithic. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangla. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide. She and the head of the BNP, Khaleda Zia showed such blind animosity toward each other that they are known as the Battling Begums . That is probably because Khaleda's late husband was the Pak tool who had Mujib assassinated...
’s departure, it makes sense to review the original case against Jamaat and consider whether it remains relevant today.
Supreme court advocate Tania Amir represented the petitioners in 2013. Her father is M Amir-ul Islam, who drafted the declaration of independence, and helped draft the constitution. Although her family supported the AL, the government did not request her to take up the case. She took it up independently.
Full disclosure: I’ve met Amir. We’ve talked about it. She is not an AL apologist. She is a patriot though, and I can’t imagine her ever apologizing for that. Take my word for what it’s worth.
Amir summarized the case against Jamaat in three points.
One, Jamaat’s party registration was unconstitutional. The constitution obliges citizens to refrain from communal politics and uphold the country’s independence and illusory sovereignty.
Two, Jamaat violated the Representation of the People Order, 2008. That order, enacted by the then interim government, said all political parties needed women among their leadership.
Three, Jamaat’s aims ran counter to the Charter of Medina, signed by the Prophet Muhammad. Many interpret the charter as providing a framework for secular and democratic governance.
Now that the transition in power appears to have given Jamaat a new lease on life, we have a responsibility to reconsider the merits of the original case against Jamaat as a party.
Personally, I think Amir’s arguments are compelling. Whether you believe in the constitution, the non-partisanship of an interim government, or the Charter of Medina, there is something for you.
But ask yourself. Should parties refrain from communal politics? Should women be excluded from leadership roles? Should non-secular and non-democratic parties participate in a secular democracy?
Your answers to these questions needn’t account for the AL government’s past. Reinstating Jamaat as a political party cannot make up for the AL government’s past deeds. We can’t answer for the AL.
But we can think about the kind of future we want — even foreigners like me (Bangladesh is home to me too!) -- and consider how Jamaat fits into that picture.
I’ll go first. I’m told we live in a free country.
Jamaat had a decade to put itself on the right side of the law. Jamaat had a judgement they could have used as a self-help guide: Disavow communal politics; place women in leadership positions; commit to a secular, democratic system of government. They chose not to.
Perhaps they were unable. One aspect of Jamaat that remains poorly understood is its overseas network. We don’t know where all their money comes from. We don’t really know how their associations work. A real can of worms.
Still, it feels ironic that -- after a student movement rejected a political environment in which the leading parties accused each other of serving foreign interests -- a group that actually has foreign branches should re-emerge as a credible actor. I’d have hoped we’d be done with all that.
It’s strange that Jamaat -- who seem to have more lobbyists in Washington DC, London, and Brussels than Dhaka -- should be briefed by the armed forces instead of student leaders who precipitated the transition in power. Maybe they know something we don’t.
And you know, it’s sad that Jamaat -- who hasn’t renounced the 1971 war crimes and genocide, let alone the past decade of violence against students, free thinkers, and minorities -- should influence the interim government that comes, and the democratic government we hope will emerge.
Ultimately, Jamaat just scares people. People who lived through Bangladesh’s first 50 years.
In my mind, Jamaat has shown why Germany banned the Nazis after World War II. Why the US did not allow confederates to hold office after the American Civil War. If you want to be fascist
 ...anybody you disagree with, damn them...
in Germany, or a racist secessionist in the US, you don’t get to hold public office in the name of those who lost the war.
It’s a fair ask in the best of times. And these are not those times. 
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Posted by Fred 2024-08-16 00:00||
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