Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat strongly protests appointment of ‘La-Madhhabi’ MP as religious affairs state minister

Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat has strongly protested the appointment of MP Mohammad Shamim Kaisar Lincoln as State Minister for Religious Affairs and urged the government to reconsider the decision.

The demand was made in a press statement issued by the organisation’s central council on Friday, signed by its office secretary SM Tarek Hossain.

Chairman Mufti Maulana Kazi Mueen Uddin Ashrafi said it was regrettable that a person identified as an Ahl-e-Hadith and Salafi follower had been appointed State Minister for Religious Affairs in a country where around 90% of Muslims follow the Hanafi school.

Joint Secretaries General Khwaja Arifur Rahman Taheri, Mufti Maulana Abul Kashem Fazlul Haque and ANM Masud Hossain Al-Qaderi, among other leaders, strongly condemned the decision.

They said most Muslims worldwide follow the Hanafi school and claimed that religious Muslims in Bangladesh would not accept a person who does not follow a particular madhhab or follows Ahl-e-Hadith as head of the Religious Affairs Ministry.