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Many speakers at Hefajat rally belong to opposition
[Bangla Daily Star] Many of the speakers at the Hefajat-e Islam rally in the capital yesterday are big shots of the BNP-led 18-party alliance components.

Some of them are the topmost leaders of the allied parties and they were seen organising the seven-hour gathering, although senior Hefajat leaders claimed it was a non-political event.

Organisers told The Daily Star that as many as 70 leaders of the Hefajat and other Islamist parties yesterday addressed the meet, held within a radius of nearly 1.5km centring on the Shapla Chattar at Motijheel.

Many of them belong to the Khelafat-e-Islam, Olama Committee and Farayezi Andolon, which together make up the Islami Oikya Jote
... a political party in Bangladesh. In the 2001 elections the party won 2 out of 300 elected members in an alliance with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. It has a focus on building an islamic state, and has used the madrassas to gain support...
 (IOJ), a major component of the 18-party alliance.

Besides, several senior organisers belong to either the Khelafat Majlish or Nejame Islami Party, both components of the BNP-Jamaat-led alliance.

Although the 18-party alliance claimed it only extended moral support to the Hefajat's long march followed by the rally, the IOJ and Khelafat Majlish were found to be key organisers of the programmes.

Interestingly, it was seen that at least two prominent speakers who came down heavily on the government do not belong to the Hefajat.

Of the two, Maulana Imran is president of the Islami Chhatra Khelafat, the student wing of the Khelafat-e-Islami, while Habibur Rahman is ameer of the Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish and is involved with a madrasa in Sylhet.

The Hefajat-e Islam has been trying to label the Shahbagh bloggers as atheists in its efforts to turn the country's majority Moslems against them.

The Shahbagh movement began on February 5 soon after Jamaat leader Quader Mollah received a rather lenient sentence -- life imprisonment -- for genocide and other crimes committed against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971.

It later spread to different parts of the country and even abroad, pressing for capital punishment to war criminals and their patron the Jamaat-e-Islam.

At the rally yesterday, as Maulana Habibur Rahman's turn came as the speaker, a moderator identified him as ameer of Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish.

Habibur Rahman, addressing the crowd said, "Moslems are ready to sacrifice their lives for serving Allah, Rasul and Koran. Are you ready to do that?"

Most of those who moderated the meet are also involved either in Khelafat-e-Islam or Khelafat Majlish or Islami Oikya Jote.

Zunaid Al Habib, one of the moderators, is the member-secretary of the Jamaat-e-Islami
...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
 Dhaka City unit. He is also the nayeb-e-ameer of both Khelafat-e Islami and Islami Oikya Jote.

Another moderator, Altaf Hossain, is student affairs secretary of the Khelafat-e-Islami.

One of the moderators, Selimullah, joint secretary general of the Hefajat, at 12:56pm chanted an abusive slogan against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since 1981. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide...
 while inviting a speaker to the podium.

Before uttering the slogan, Selimullah, a teacher of a Jamaat-dominated madrasa in Chittagong, told the crowd that the government had suspended live telecast of the meeting on Diganta, Bangla Vision and nTV.

Amid a roar from hundreds of thousands in the audience, Selimullah then uttered the slogan twice: "Sheikh Hasinar dui gale, juta maro tale tale." Many in the audience held their sandals high in the air and kept chanting the slogan.

Zunaid Babunogori, secretary general of Hefajat, however, around 1:00pm announced that they were "withdrawing and rejecting" the slogan against the prime minister, terming it "anti-liberation".

Maulana Foyezullah, Hefajat's joint secretary general who read out the 13-point demand at the rally, is also secretary general of IOJ.

Abdul Latif Nejami is the chairman of the Islami Oikya Jote. Also chairman of the Nejame Islami Party, he called upon the gathering to wage a tough movement to oust the present administration.

Khelafat Majlish Ameer Mohammad Ishak is another top leader in the BNP-led alliance. He spoke prominently at the meeting labelling the government as an anti-Islam element.

Shamsul Alam, Hefajat nayeb-e-ameer, holds the post of nayeb-e-ameer in both the Olama Committee and IOJ.

Another Islami Oikya Jote leader Moinuddin Ruhi is the Hefajat's joint secretary general.


Posted by: Fred 2013-04-07
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=365686