Anwar Dayal

Among other things, the Shahbagh movement demands a ban on Jamaat and religious politics. Earlier this month, one of the accused collaborators in 1971, Abdul Quader Mollah, also known as the “Butcher of Mirpur,” was convicted of atrocities. Surprising most observers, however, Mollah escaped the death penalty. This set off the Shahbagh movement — the largest of its kind seen in Bangladesh since 1990. The movement’s demand to ban Jamaat and religious politics in Bangladesh is a response to a long history of complicity between such politics and anti-state actions. The Jamaat, founded by Maulana Abul Ala Maududi in pre-partition India, has historically played a leading role in these politics. Jamaat in Bangladesh Wali Nasr’s Vanguards of the Islamic Revolution is perhaps the best known book on the party available in English. That book, as well as Jamaat’s own literature—in both Bangladesh and Pakistan—makes it clear that it does not believe in western-style electoral, representative democracy. Nor can it be characterized as a mass political party. At the risk of oversimplification, Jamaat’s internal organization may be described as following some form of “democratic centralism”: the top leadership collectively takes a decision, and through a hierarchy and network of members, cadres, […]