Demand Islamists at mammoth Ctg rally
Ahle Sunnat Wal Jama’at yesterday demanded capital punishment to “atheist bloggers” and leaders of Hefajat-e Islam.
“Atheist bloggers” are encouraging atheism through their write-ups in blogs and Hefajat leaders are demeaning Islam and the Prophet (pbuh) in their publications, it said.
At a massive rally at Laldighi Maidan in the port city, the organisation also announced it would hold a grand rally in the capital on May 25.
Thousands of people from different upazilas of Chittagong and adjacent districts gathered at the rally venue since afternoon. Some were holding placards bearing the slogan “Ban Jamaat-e-Islami”. The area stretching from Anderkilla to Kotwali and Jail Gate to the Shaheed Minar turned into a human sea.
Speakers at the rally said Hafajat is practising extremism. It was inciting militancy at the Qawmi madrasas it runs to project the country to the international community as a militant one like Afghanistan.
The children from poor families there are being trained in militant activities, they said.
Unveiling a 12-point demand at the rally, Ahle Sunnat asked the government to bring all Qawmi madrasas under its authority and run them under a single madrasa education policy.
The speakers condemned the violence perpetrated by the Jamaat-e-Islami and Hefajat across the country.
Some supporters with placards reading, “Transform Qawmi madrasas, strongholds of militants, into hospitals” and “Ban Jamaat-e-Islami”. Photo: Star
They said Hefajat’s attacks on people and their property proved it does not stand for Islam. Hefajat leaders have been misleading people by wrongly interpreting Islam.
The rally was chaired by Moulana MA Matin, chief coordinator of Ahle Sunnat.
Addressing the rally, Tarikat Federation President Syed Najibul Basar Maijbandari urged the government to stop the “militant activities by Qawmis, Wahabis and followers of Moududi”.
Sunni Muslims constitute the majority of the Muslims in the country and they all love peace, he added.
Principal Moulana Abul Farah Md Farid Uddin read out the 12-point demand and announced grand rallies also in Narayanganj and Habiganj on May 11 and April 27.
Claiming themselves to be non-political, Moulana Matin urged the government to stop activities of the organisations involved in terrorism in the name of Islam.
Referring to different publications, Moulana Jalauddin Al Kadri said that like Abul Ala Moududi, leaders of Hefajat, including Moulana Ahmed Shafi, had defamed the Prophet (pbuh) in their write-ups, for which they should be punished.
The other demands of the Ahle Sunnat include restoring the phrase “Absolute trust and faith in Almighty Allah” in the constitution, bailing the country out of the present crisis through dialogue among political parties, enacting a law to ban hartal, dropping the National Women Policy provisions that contradict the Quran and Sunnah, and bringing the Tabligh Jamaat movement under government watch.
Others who spoke at the rally included Moulana Nurul Islam Hashemi, Mufti Idris Rajbhi, Obaedul Haque Noimi, Peyar Mohammad, chairman of Gawsia Committee Bangladesh, and Mosaheb Uddin Bakhtiar, member-secretary of Ahle Sunnat.
Source: The Daily Star
