Jamaat Ameer’s stance on long march and Parliament speech is contradictory: Charmonai Pir

Ameer of Islami Andolan Bangladesh and Charmonai Pir,  Mufti Syed Muhammad Rezaul Karim, has remarked that he sees double standards in the Jamaat Ameer’s long march demands versus his statement in parliament.

He made these comments while speaking to journalists on Tuesday (September 8) afternoon after a workers’ rally at Fazlul Ulom Madrasa in Kushtia town.

Referring to the Home Minister’s statement in parliament, Charmonai Pir said that Jamaat-e-Islami had removed the phrase “Akimuddin” (establishment of religion) from its party logo, which means the word “Islam” no longer remains there, so it can no longer be called an Islamic party. He said that in its manifesto for the last election, Jamaat nowhere stated that it would run the country according to Islam. He added that at the time, the Jamaat Ameer had also said they would not run the country according to Sharia, but according to the prevailing law. Taking all this together, he said, it could be said that Jamaat is no longer an Islamic party.

He questioned why, after Jamaat-e-Islami carried out a long march over demands including electricity, its Ameer then said in parliament that the electricity problem was not created by the current government — asking why they had burned so much fuel and gas for a long march over an issue they themselves said wasn’t the current government’s fault, and why such double standards.

He further said that before the election, BNP had promised that if it came to power, it would not pass any law contrary to Sharia, but that it was not keeping that promise, alleging that the parliament had already approved a law contrary to Sharia.

Mufti  Rezaul Karim issued a warning, saying that if they did not withdraw from laws contrary to Sharia, they would be forced to take to protest.

The Ameer of Islami Andolan Bangladesh also said that although there had been many questions about the last election, they had nonetheless accepted it. However, he said, the current government was taking the country in a worse direction than even the interim government period, the main reason being that corruption had now seeped into every pore of the system. He remarked that it felt as if they had handed over the chicken coop to the fox to guard.