‘Islam and Jamaat not the same thing’

Secretary General of the Khelafat Majlis Ahmad Abdul Quader on Monday said that Islam and Jamaat-e-Islami should not be seen as the ‘same thing’.

The top leader of the party, which in conjunction with 11 other small outfits launched a protest programme after Friday’s prayers against ‘anti-Islam activities’ of the organisers of the Shahbagh movement, urged everybody to ‘sincerely’ reflect on the subject so as to find an answer by themselves using their ‘senses and conscience’.

“Jamaat-e-Islami and Islam are not the same thing. I beg you (journalists) not to equate one with the other,” Abdul Quader told a press conference at the party headquarters in Bijoy Nagar.

Quader also clarified that he did not disagree with the demand of the Shahbagh protesters that the war crimes convicts be given death, but ‘strictly’ opposed ‘blogging against Islam, Islamic thinkers and experts on Islamic laws’.

Twelve small parties have set up a platform to counter the Shahbagh movement that is demanding death for war criminals and a ban on Jamaat for crimes it perpetrated against humanity during 1971.

Khelafat Majlis organised the press conference to clear its stance

A day before the press conference, the party’s Assistant Secretary General Mujibur Rahman Hamidi said, “It is out of question to unite with Jamaat. Even Awami League does not hate Jamaat as much as we do.”

“We know where Jamaat contradicts Islam. We understand it with our heart.”

He also said they were not against the Shahbagh movement.

“But we are against those bloggers who are making Islam and Alems controversial.”

Last Friday’s programme turned out to be violent, with demonstrators demolishing replicas of the Ganajagaran Mancha, built in solidarity with the Shahbagh protesters, across the country, tearing national flags and setting Shaheed Minar alight.

Their clash with the police left four people dead.

Police and activists of the Shahbagh movement claim that Jamaat-e-Islami and its student front Islami Chhatra Shibir were behind the violence.

“National flag is our pride. Khelafat Majlis strongly condemns defamation of national flag,” said Abdul Quader.

He claimed his party activists were not involved in Friday’s violence.

“Khelafat Majlis did not do it. But some intruders might have done this.”

He requested journalists to report what was truth.

It was also demanded from the press conference that the Muslims and Alems arrested after the violence be released and the cases filed against them withdrawn.

Abdul Quader demanded the resignation of the Home Minister for the death of’ five people’ in Manikganj following clashes on Sunday. He also demanded a judicial inquiry into the incident.