Debating Islamists

Not too many years ago, when someone thought about Islamists in Bangladesh, Jamaat-i-Islami, Bangladesh (JIB) was the only party that came to mind, with perhaps the Islami Oikkya Jote making a distant second. That is not the case these days, what with upstarts like the Ahle Hadith Andolan, Bangladesh (AHAB), International Khatme Nabuwat Movement, Bangladesh (IKNMB), JMJB (Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh) and JMB (Jamiyaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh) being recent additions that have grabbed more headlines than one would like, and more often that not, for the wrong reasons at that.

Nevertheless, the ability of these smaller organisations to garner more attention than what one would expect their limited constituency to allow has clearly morphed into a threat that the JIB can no longer ignore.

Consider the follwing exchanges:

April 30: Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer and Industries Minister Motiur Rahman Nizami said:

Jamaat has no link to militancy or communalism, but some quarters are making persistent efforts to prove them 'terrorist and Taliban'. "We also don't have anything to do with International Khatme Nabuwat Movement, Bangladesh, who are running a campaign against the Ahmadiyyas. But there is a conspiracy to prove our link, however non-existent, with it in a bid to tarnish out image." Khatme Nabuwat Movement's extremism against the Ahmadiyyas has given the opportunity for the international community to brand the Muslims in Bangladesh as fanatic, he said.

May 14: Maolana Mahmudul Hasan Momtazi of the IKNMB responded:

"On the one hand he says Jamaat-e-Islami has no link with those who lay siege to the Ahmadiyya structures, on the other he claims his party to be Islamic." He also called upon Nizami to leave the post of Ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami. US Ambassador Harry K Thomas's visit to the Ahmadiyya prayer centres and Nizami's speech that Jamaat has no link with IKNMB are tied with one line, he added. "If anyone helps America to kill the people of this country, that is none but Jamaat-e-Islami," Mufti Abul Kashem said.

May 28: And finally,

Ahle Hadith Andolan, Bangladesh (AHAB) yesterday said Jamaat-e-Islami paved ways for the arrest of its chief Asadullah Galib to cover up the party's links with militant outfits."Fearing the increasing support for AHAB, Jamaat supported the arrest to gain organisational advantage. The BNP, on the other hand, gained political profit from the arrest," said Abdul Latif, AHAB 'muballig' (promoter). "Jamaat and Shibir are capturing the fields where our men used to dominate, while BNP got instant relief from foreign pressure for action against militants," he explained. Galib maintained relations with a number of Jamaat leaders cherishing Ahle Hadith ideology to convert them to AHAB, the meet was told.

To followers of Bangladeshi politics, these are amazing developments.

Unity amongst Islamist parties had thus far been preserved even if it wasn't the most lucrative thing to do from a strict party point of view, often because JIB had the clout to silence unwanted opposition from the smaller Islamist parties. Yet, now we have smaller parties accusing JIB of conspiring with the US, which JIB is accusing the smaller parties in return of being part of some international anti-Bangladeshi conspiracy.

Moreover, there is a race going on to prove who is the most "Islamic" party of all. JIB is eager to point out that extremism has no place in Islam and that therefore the likes of the IKNMB and AHAB are deviants (a stance that makes many of us smirk when we think about its unrepenting stance of its role in '71 as well as more recent acts by its student wing, Shibir), while it ends up being branded as not-quite-Islamic-enough by the IKNMB because it refuses to hound the Ahmadiyyas like they do, and by AHAB because apparently JIB leaders were planning on converting to the AHAB ideology.

There is also a hint of desperation in all their aproaches. The upstart extremists have no hope of garnering the same kind of support that the JIB enjoys, not only because of their ideology, but also because they don't have anywhere the same type or organisation and discipline that JIB has, yet they have decided to take them on on their home ground.

Nevertheless, JIB doesn't seem too confident either - on April 30, Nizami also told his party men: "As the ameer of your party, I strongly direct you not to react or show extremism even in response to negative attitudes... you must comply with my orders unfailingly."

"Comply with my orders unfailingly?" 'Nuf said..

Still, this whole soap opera amongst the Islamist parties is a good thing. It's good that they are debating in public, and disagreeing with one another for all to see. Its importrant for people to realise that there is no one utopia that all Islamist parties in Bangladesh are supposedly striving for, and that what they are striving for instead can often times be quite contrary to one another.

Free speech, no doubt, is a very good thing.