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From: S A Hannan [mailto:sahannan@sonarbangladesh.com]
Sent:
To: zohurulislam2; Totonji Al Hajj; THE CANADIAN ISLAMIC CONGRESS; shuyebsbuk; shams@agni.com; shafiqur rahman; sarwar kabir; R Ahmed
Subject: FW: FW: Emailing: news-details.htm-Deputy Speaker wants repeal of Islam as State religion
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Respected all ,
Assalamu Alaikum. Kindly see this news. Mr Shawkat Ali is raising a serious issue.He wants abolition of Islam as a state religion.This is not in the manifesto of Awami League.In at least fifty western and Muslim countries , many of them democratic countries, there are state religion, Christianity, Islam or other religions.Any body can find by typing in google search state religion.Even some US state constitutions they have state religion. Awami league is committed to uphold Quran and Sunnah.Who does not know that Prophet (sm ) established a state and was its chief.Later Great Sahabis Abubakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali( ra) were statesmen and governed states. Even there after the Shariah or Islamic law was the basis of all Muslim states until colonial takeover.
Some of the speakers have blamed partition of 1947 without realising that it was a historical inevitibility because of Congress failure to accept Cabinet Mission Plan which Muslim League accepted. It was in any event Judgment of most of the then Indian population .Even Mr Bhasani, Mr Suhrawardy and Sheik Mujibur Raman sahib were front linre leaders and workers of Muslim League, supporter of Two nation theory and of partition.There is no point in raising all these issues now.
Shah Abdul Hannan
o
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Constitutional change a must to establish secularism
Dy speaker tells seminar
Deputy Speaker Col (retd) Shawkat Ali speaks at a seminar at the National Press Club in the city yesterday. On his right are AHM Nouman and Khondakar Ibrahim Khaled and on his left is M Hafizuddin Khan.
Deputy Speaker Col (retd) Shawkat Ali at a seminar yesterday said recognition of a specific religion as 'state religion' means undermining the other religions existing in Bangladesh.
“Constitution is a document where changes can be brought in. And a change should be made in this regard, especially changes made after 1975 should be reviewed,” he said.
Shawkat said this at the national seminar on 'Social harmony and rights: Banshkhali tragedy' organised by Development Organisation of the Rural Poor (DORP) in association with Manusher Jonno Foundation at the National Press Club in the city.
The deputy speaker called on the political leaders not to bring religion in the affairs of the state and politics.
Speakers at the seminar said the first erosion of communal harmony in the subcontinent occurred in 1947 when two states were created exclusively based on religions. It created division among the people.
Constitutional amendments made after the killing of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib, especially when secularism was replaced with “Faith and absolute trust in the almighty Allah”, discriminate the believers of other religions.
In November 2003, the arson attack at Banshkhali in Chittagong, which killed 11 members of a Hindu family, was the result of corrosion of communal harmony.
Bimal Shil, the only survivor of the arson attack, at the programme demanded punishment to the killers of his family, saying that he is yet to get justice even after so many years.
The main perpetrator of the attack is still at large, he added.
Bimal stressed the need for an administration free from political influence to ensure equal rights of people of different religious faiths.
Manik Lal Somaddar, special assistant to the chief adviser of the immediate past caretaker government, said Bangladesh should revive the constitution of 1972. However, some of the discrepancies which were present in it should be revised.
Shyamol Dutta, editor of the daily Bhorer Kagoj, presented a keynote speech at the seminar with former adviser to a caretaker government M Hafizuddin Khan in the chair.
Replying to a question about the comment of BNP Secretary General Khandakar Delwar Hossain on joining the next parliament session, Shawkat urged the opposition party to joint the parliament.
The deputy speaker said a congenial atmosphere has been prevailing in the House at present.
He hoped that the problem over the seating arrangement in the parliament could be resolved through discussions if the opposition joins it.
Monoranjan Shil Gopal MP; DORP Secretary General AHM Nouman, Adviser Md Azhar Ali Talukder, local government expert Tofael Ahmed, Bangladesh Krishi Bank Chairman Khondoker Ibrahim Khaled and Prof HSK Arefin and Associate Prof Robayet Ferdous of Dhaka University also spoke.
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