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Jamaat’s rejoinder

Central Publicity Secretary of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh Prof Tasneem Alam yesterday protested part of two reports published in The Daily Star on April 20 and 21 under the headlines “Khulna bigots threaten to attack Ahmadiyyas” and “Satkhira Ahmadiyyas under renewed threat“. The reports linked local Jamaat leaders to International Khatme Nabuwat Movement, Bangladesh (IKNMB), which was allegedly responsible for attacks on Ahmadiyyas at Jyotindranagar in Shyamnagar upazila of Satkhira for three days since April 17.

Denying Jamaat’s involvement in the Khatme Nabuwat’s anti-Ahmadiyya campaign, Prof Tasneem described those as ‘false in toto’ and said his party ‘has no relations with the organisation like Khatme Nabuwat Movement’. The Jamaat leader described the party’s ‘relation with the alleged attacks and looting of Ahmadiyya houses’ as a hypothesis and said ‘the information has been published to tarnish the image of Jamaat-e-Islami’.

The Jamaat leader urged The Daily Star ‘to refrain from creating confusion among the people [by] publishing such type of news’.

Ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami and Industries Minister Motiur Rahman Nizami issued a statement yesterday affirming his party’s belief that despite being a religious minority Ahmadiyyas are citizens of Bangladesh and entitled to all protection guaranteed to a citizen by the constitution and other laws.

“About the status of the Ahmadiyyas as to whether they are Muslim or non-Muslim, our position is very clear and it is exactly the same as the position of the religious scholars of this country and other countries. In the light of the Holy Quran and the Sunnah this is a settled issue,” Nizami said in the statement.

He said that Jamaat would protect the rights of the Ahmadiyyas to live peacefully.

Referring to a Daily Star report of April 25 that quoted the Nayeb-e-Ameer of the Ahmadiyyas as saying that Moulana Moudoodi, the founder of the Jamaat-e-Islami, launched the anti-Ahmadiyya campaign under the banner of the Aharar Movement in 1934, the Jamaat Ameer said Jamaat-e-Islami in fact was formed in 1941.

“Before that Moulana Moududi was not a member of any political or religious organisation. He had no relationship whatsoever with the Aharars, whose leader was one Shah Ataullah Bukhari. In 1953 neither Jamaat-e-Islami nor Moulana Moudoodi was involved in any movement that led to violence against Ahmadiyyas,” the statement reads. **

To divert public opinion, certain vested quarters started a violent campaign against Ahmadiyyas, alleged Nizami adding that Jamaat had no relationship with that movement then, as it has no relationship with the violent movement now.

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Shyamnagar Jamaat leaders including Moulana Abdul Gafur, imam of local Munsiganj Mosque, Mufty Abdus Saleq, imam of Bangshipur Shahi Mosque, and Mohaddes Yunus Ali, muazzin of the mosque, held several meetings in the area on April 15 and 16 to mobilise locals in laying siege to the Ahmadiyya complex in Jyotindranagar on April 17.

Addressing the meetings, the Jamaat leaders called the Ahmadiyyas non-Muslim and urged the locals to join the April 17 programme of Khatme Nabuwat.

They also took part in the April 17 IKNMB procession to the Ahmadiyya complex.

It may be mentioned that Jamaat represents three of the five Satkhira constituencies while BNP and Bangladesh Jatiya Party the rest.

Local Khatme Nabuwat chief Moulana Nur Hossain campaigned for Jamaat during the last general election.

Local lawmaker Nazrul Islam, who was elected on the Jamaat ticket, has been learnt to have asked the officer-in-charge of Harinagar Police Station not to record any case when injured Ahmadiyyas went to file case for attacks and looting of their houses on April 17. Local journalists were present at the police station when the OC was talking to the lawmaker over phone.

Meanwhile, Rabiul Islam, local Jamaat leader and son of Munsiganj Union unit Amir of Jamaat-e-Islami Abdur Razzak, allegedly took part in looting Ahmadiyya houses in Chhotobhetkhali on April 18 and 19. He along with other Khatme Nabuwat operatives took away furniture, gold ornaments, cash, documents of land, electronic goods, cattle and poultry from the houses of several Ahmadiyya sect members including Ahmed Ali Mollah, Abdul Alim, Abu Waseq, Sheikh Alam, Sheikh Wadud, Faruq Ahmed, Ensar Ali Gazi and GM Ataur Rahman.

Islam later reportedly returned the looted property of Ahmed Ali Mollah and Abdul Wadud to local Ahmadiyya leader Abdul Majid in front of the villagers on April 21.

**	This is contrary to Court of Inquiry report which states “It is not disputed either by the Jama’at-i-Islami or by Maulana Abul Ala Maudoodi that the resolution relating to direct action was passed in Karachi on 18th January in a meeting of the Convention in which the Maulana was himself present.” Read about “role of Jamaat-e-Islami” in full report.

Source: http://www.thedailystar.net/2005/04/26/d5042601119.htm