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Iraq war fallout

Islamist parties eye common platform

NAZRUL ISLAM
With the commencement of Iraq war, fragmented Islamist organisations greatly increased their activities in Dhaka and they have called upon each other to unite under a common platform against the non-Islamic Western forces.
"We are hopeful about formation of the new platform, narrowing the existing gap among the Islamic organisations," Mufti Fazlul Haq Amini, an MP of the ruling coalition and leader of the Islami Oikya Jote, told The Daily Star. He said the Khatib of Baitul Mukarram National Mosque, Moulna Obaidul Haq, has been requested to initiate the move to form United Islamic Front. Moulana Nurul Islam of Ahle Hadith Andolon made the request to the Khatib recently.
Obaidul Haq, when contacted on Thursday night, said he would consult his colleagues and discuss the issue at a National Shariah Council meeting on April 7. "I'm still thinking about the method of unification of Islamist parties," he said.
Over six dozen Islamic organisa-
tions exist in Bangladesh, a few are in the ruling coalition. According to their respective constitutions, the aim of all these parties is to establish Shariah law in Bangladesh. Capitalising on the antiwar sentiment in the country, these parties have become active and are gaining a new legitimacy and public support.
After formation of the proposed front, it would announce fresh programmes, according to insiders of the Islamist parties.
The organisations which are
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active at the moment include Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, Ahle Hadith Andolon, Khelafat Andolon, Hizb-ut-Tahrir Bangladesh, Islami Biplobi Manch, Hezbul Mujahideen, Islami Shasantantra Andolon, Khelafat Majlish, Jamiat-e-Bangladesh, Koran Majid Bangladesh, Bangladesh Islamic Party, Jatiya Imam Samaj, Islami Buddhijibi Front, Islami Ain Bastabayan Committee, Ittehadul Olama, Al- Hikma, Jagroto Tauhidi Janata, Bangladesh Ummah Parishad, Qaomi Foundation, Sanee Resalat, Islamic Party, Muslim Jubo Sangha, Jamiah Islamia, Islami Ummah Corporation Ltd., Islami Chhatra Shibir, Chhatra Shakti and Sammilito Islami Sangram Parishad.
It is learnt through Internet that most of these organisations are linked with their international chapters located mostly in the Middle East, Europe, Pakistan, Indonesia, India and Central Asia, and work worldwide in the same direction to establish Islam.
Of these organisations, some believe in steady social change through intellectual persuasion while many others, patronised by international groups, believe in Islamic revolution through political conflict. Some of them even believe in armed conflict to achieve their aims. Some others want to promote their cause through sharing sate power and using it to consolidate their position.
Meanwhile, these Islamist groups have announced programmes like stoppage of export-import trade with the western countries like the US and Britain, branding them as enemies of Islam.
Some parties have announced boycott of 'Jewish commodities' in Bangladesh and threatened to launch search parties comprising activists of their student and youth fronts to seize western goods from shops and markets.
Analysts say taking advantage of the war, many religious groups, including some extremist ones with strong international connections, are organising themselves to establish Islamic laws and to fight against the West and their local cronies.
People in general in Bangladesh have been expressing their rising opposition to the US and the UK-led unjust war against Iraq. They have hung effigies of George W. Bush and Tony Blair, the two masterminds of the war, at various city points to show their anger against them.
The long running consequences of the war in Iraq would be the rise in public support for Islamic organisations. Analysts predict that Islamic militancy will rise and demands for greater islamisation will become widespread.
Professor Sirajul Islam Chowdhury of Dhaka University sees the anti-war protest as protest worldwide against capitalism and imperialism, mostly in two forms -- democratic and religious.
In Bangladesh, he said, the democratic
groups, particularly the ruling and the main opposition parties, have failed to mobilise the protest, ceding the field for whatever reason to the religious groups. And these elements are visible now. Chowdhury, however, does not believe a fundamentalist upsurge might take place in the country since the people are fundamentally secular.
Rokeya Kabir of Bangladesh Nari Progoti Sangha observed that the programmes the Islamic organisations have taken up are mostly in the name of Muslim Ummah, without exposing the actual reason, which is garbbing of Iraqi oil by the US.
"Islamist fundamentalists are taking benefit of the Iraq war and trying to unite to implement their party agenda," she said.