Jamaat-e-Islami in Bangladesh

An Islamic group is one of the largest political parties in Bangladesh, and the eighth famous group that has emerged in the Islamic world in the modern era.

The Islamic Group in Bangladesh

Pakistan

India

Establishment

On August 26, 1941, 75 men from different parts of the Indian subcontinent, led by Abu Al-Ala Mawdudi, gathered in Lahore (the capital of the Punjab province in Pakistan) and established the Islamic Community, and elected Mawdudi as its emir.

The starting

point of the literature of the Islamic group finds a close rapprochement between it and the thought and approach of the Muslim Brotherhood, as these literature confirm that “God alone is the legislator, and only the Qur’an and the Sunnah are the platform for human life, and the Prophet Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace, is the ideal leader to be followed in all areas of life. ".

As for its mission, it is "building qualified people to establish an Islamic society through appropriate training and making the people well-organized to establish the movement of Islam." It is also concerned with social reform, "the development and care of society and rebuilding morale and social services on the basis of Islamic values."

With regard to the political issue, the Islamic Group says that it aims to reform governance and government, and "seeks through democratic means that the leadership fears God and be honest and effective in all areas of the ruling system instead of the ineffective and dishonest leadership."

Means

and means of achieving these goals, the group’s literature enumerated “publishing books and letters, issuing newspapers, conveying the da’wah and clarifying its purpose through talks, meetings, speeches, lectures, establishing reading houses in villages and neighborhoods, holding weekly parties and making them a means of scientific and practical education for those affected by the da’wah and those who work for it.”

She adds to the above, "Doing public service and taking it as a means to their moral reform, awakening religious and political feelings in them, and paying attention to the reform of mosques and mosques. Working to save the public from the oppression of rulers, government employees, landowners, factory and factory owners, and evil people."

The group's literature also pays attention to education and devotion of role models, and declares that one of its means is "establishing primary and secondary schools to be concerned with moral education of students along with education, as well as establishing centers for the education of the illiterate."

The group also relies on political action and "running elections and preparing voters to elect their representatives and representatives from among the righteous and qualified. Striving to reform the system of government," as well as working to reform the country's laws to rely on Islamic law instead of non-Islamic laws.

Renouncing violence

: The Islamic Group believes that "the state and social change cannot be built through violence, terrorism and chaos. Therefore, the group wants to transfer power and take over the administration of the government in an orderly and democratic manner" and also asserts that "the Islamic faith is not an issue that is imposed on the people by force."

Publicity

stated in its constitution “that the group should take the Book of God and the Sunnah of His Messenger as sources of reference in every aspect of life, and the group’s struggle to reach its goal is not based on clandestine activity similar to secret movements in the world, but rather it works openly and in broad daylight.”

And that "the group practices the constitutional and legal methods to carry out the reform it seeks and the change it aims for, and it is also trying to gain public opinion for the change that it has set its sights on."

Structuring

The group has set many rules for joining its ranks, including filling out the participant's membership form, regular attendance at the weekly meeting, the rest of the educational programs, reading the interpretation of the Noble Qur’an and the Noble Hadith, manners, and so on.

The group has an emir who is directly elected by its members from among a number of candidates, and whoever obtains the majority is the emir. The group also has a central shura council to assist the emir, and the emir must carry out his duties and always implement his rulings by shura.

As for the community’s evaluator, i.e. its general secretary, the emir shall appoint him from among the members of the community with the advice of the Shura Council.

The spread of

the Islamic group has more than 120 branches spread in most of the cities and villages of Bangladesh, and each branch has a local emir and trustee, a shura council, a library for distributing da’wah books, and a financial institution (Bait al-Mal).

The group has more than six million supportive members, more than 25,000 active members, and owns and operates many institutions, including the Workers’ Association, the Peasants’ Association, the Islamic Education Association, a daily publication, a weekly, and a third monthly, as well as the management of many schools, and its students register a strong presence in three public universities. 

Secession

The Islamic Group did not support Bangladesh's war of independence from Pakistan in 1971 "to preserve Pakistan and its Islamic entity, support the Islamic world, and expand its territory in the face of Hindu hostility" and tried to persuade all other parties to join dialogue and reconciliation instead of war, and after nine months of bloody war, East Pakistan gained its independence from West Pakistan on December 16, 1971.

After the secession of Bangladesh (East Pakistan) from Pakistan, Sheikh Ghulam Azam was elected the first emir of the group in the country after independence, and Sheikh Muti'ur Rahman Nizami came after him.

But the state imposed a ban on parties that were established on a religious basis.

In 1977, the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution was made, which lifted the ban on parties established on a religious basis, paving the way for the group to re-emerge and form an Islamic political party, and the group held a conference for this purpose in the capital, Dhaka, from 25 to 27 May 1979, in which Declaration of the Islamic group as an Islamic political movement.

From participation to execution

, Jamaat-e-Islami, through its party, the Jamaat-e-Islami party, participated in the various parliamentary elections that took place in Bangladesh since the separation from Pakistan. of ministers in the government.

Four of the group's women were elected to the women's quota in parliament, and the Jamaat-e-Islami party allied itself with four parties to rule the country for five years, and the group participated in the government through the ministries of industry and social affairs. 

In 2010, the government of Bangladesh, led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajid, accused the most prominent leaders of the Islamic group of committing war crimes in 1971, and a court was established for this purpose.

Those included in the accusations are Sheikh Muti` al-Rahman Nizami (the emir of the group, the former minister of agriculture and then industry), Ghulam Azam, the former emir of the group, Sheikh Muhammad Abd al-Subhan, the deputy emir of the group and a former member of parliament, and the group’s secretary general, Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid.

The accusations also include Muhammad Qamar al-Zaman, the group's first assistant secretary general and editor-in-chief of "Sonar Bangla" magazine, Abdul Qadir Mulla, the second assistant general secretary, Azhar Islam, the third assistant secretary general, and Mir Qasim Ali, a member of the group's executive council and former director of the Muslim World League office in Bangladesh.

On May 10, 2016, the authorities in Bangladesh executed Sheikh Nizami in a prison in the capital, Dhaka.