“Jamaat-e-Islami threat not just to Bangladesh but entire West”: Turkish journalist

Dhaka [Bangladesh], November 23 (ANI): Jamaat-e-Islami, the Bangladesh-based political party with radical religious ideology and responsible for militancy and genocide, is not just a threat to Bangladesh but also to other countries including in the West, Turkish journalist Uze Bulut has said in his research article for think tank Gatestone Institute.

This comes while the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh is upholding the order to cancel the registration of Jamaat-e-Islami as a political party.

Notably, Turkey has been a staunch supporter for Jamaat-e-Islami of Bangladesh. When top Jamaat leaders were being sentenced to death one after another in Bangladesh in the trial of war crimes committed in 1971, the Turkish government not only protested strongly, but at one point also withdrew their ambassador from Dhaka, Bangladesh-based Bangla Tribune reported.

However, despite being a journalist from that Turkey, Uze Bulut has taken a completely different position in the context of Jamaat-e-Islami in Bangladesh.

Firstly, Bulut said that the the 1972 constitution of Bangladesh provided the legal basis for a “secular government” in the country. This secularism is a fundamental principle of the governance of the state of Bangladesh and that is why the use of religion in politics is prohibited there.

But, the author alleges that Jamaat-e-Islami in Bangladesh is doing exactly that – “they are using Islam to do politics”.

Secondly, he also claimed that the ideology of Jamaat-e-Islami in Bangladesh and Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt is “exactly the same”.

Both parties talk about establishing Islamic states in their respective countries, where strict Sharia law will be the supreme law of the land, not their own constitutions. The rights of religious minorities and women are also severely curtailed there.

Thirdly, just like the Muslim Brotherhood, Jamaat-e-Islami of Bangladesh has its ideological origin from the thought and philosophy of Islamic theoretical leader Abul Ala Al Maududi whose views have always been deemed controversial.

According to Bangla Tribune, Al Maududi’s statement that ‘no woman can be the head of state’ is particularly important in the context of Bangladesh, because if this is accepted, even the prime ministership of Sheikh Hasina or Khaleda Zia in Bangladesh is impossible.

Uje Bulut also reminded that Jamaat has a “stigmatized legacy” of militancy and genocide in Bangladesh, and opined that Jamaat’s activities should be stopped in Bangladesh.

To highlight the anti-Jamaat statement in the article, he has extracted information from various reports of the human rights organization ‘Human Rights Watch’ or the rights group ‘South Asia Democratic Forum’, as well as quoted from the writings of Ali Riaz, professor of politics at Illinois State University.

Finally, Bulut came to the conclusion that Jamaat-e-Islami in Bangladesh is a “security threat” not only to Bangladesh but to the entire region.

He also believes that if these ‘radical Islamists’ gain political power, violence, terrorism, instability and human rights violations of women and minorities will become the norm. Which will affect the whole world, according to Bangla Tribune.

As a result, to protect ‘freedom’ or independence in the western world, it is very important to immediately ‘confront’ this political ideology of Jamaat, Bulut wrote in Gatestone Institute article.