SECULARISM IS THE GOAL
Surveillance to monitor 'khutba' at mosques starts
Faisal Rahim
The government has placed Imams of the mosques under special surveillance and started to monitor 'khutba' or the religious sermons that they deliver at Friday Jumma prayers and on other occasions. In this backdrop, police has taken to custody on August 7, the Imam of the Chawrasta mosque of Tetulia Sadar Union Parishad and assistant professor of Sahabuddin Girls School and College Maulana Abdul Gani In Dinajpur for presenting critical interpretation of some religious issues which ruling party activists found sensitive to the image of the present government.
News report said he was manhandled by local ruling party activists for explaining three characters of 'munafiques' or hypocrites and later handed him over to police who later showed him arrest and sent him to jail. The Imam was also blamed for criticizing Hindu Swami Dev Narayan in his khutba for his attempt to realize new interpretation of the Quranic sayings from the High Court on prophet Ibrahim's attempt to sacrifice his son Ismail to please God.
Dev Narayan said Muslims faith is based on wrong basis, it needs to be corrected and the new version needs to be incorporated to textbooks for primary, secondary and higher secondary levels.
His criticism of the matter was not taken well by the ruling party men as they feared it may create bad impression about the government, so they put him to police custody.
This is why the government is already working on the scheme to establish control on the mosques and its Imams from discharging any voice of dissent. The government is however justifying such move as part of its anti-terrorism campaign throughout the country to stop terrorists' activities.
His criticism of the matter was not taken well by the ruling party men as they feared it may create bad impression about the government, so they put him to police custody.
This is why the government is already working on the scheme to establish control on the mosques and its Imams from discharging any voice of dissent. The government is however justifying such move as part of its anti-terrorism campaign throughout the country to stop terrorists' activities.
As things are now on the move, Imams of the mosques have already received a model khutba for the Friday Jumma sermon. The government has also nominated Islamic Foundation in the meantime to monitor the mosque-based activities of suspected groups and specially that the Imams are complying anti-terrorism guidelines in their Friday khutbas.
Ministry of Home
On the other hand, to arrange fund to run the mosque-based anti-terrorism campaign the government has made the Ministry of Home as its contact point and in that process the Inspector General of Police (IGP) has been asked to provide necessary fund to the campaign, news reports said.
Thus mosques have in a sense have come under direct supervision of the Ministry of Home in general and the IGP in particular. There will be nothing left unnoticed in the mosques in the new environment to stop fundamentalist groups and Imams having political leaning.
Ministry of Home
On the other hand, to arrange fund to run the mosque-based anti-terrorism campaign the government has made the Ministry of Home as its contact point and in that process the Inspector General of Police (IGP) has been asked to provide necessary fund to the campaign, news reports said.
Thus mosques have in a sense have come under direct supervision of the Ministry of Home in general and the IGP in particular. There will be nothing left unnoticed in the mosques in the new environment to stop fundamentalist groups and Imams having political leaning.
The fifth meeting of the committee on combating terrorism and developing protective mechanism took the decision recently to strengthen monitoring the mosques and Imams at its meeting in the city, said a report.
The meeting has asked the director general of Islamic Foundation to develop the monitoring strategy and a working mechanism and also to present the budgetary estimate for the scheme to the IGP for mobilization of necessary fund.
The meeting has asked the director general of Islamic Foundation to develop the monitoring strategy and a working mechanism and also to present the budgetary estimate for the scheme to the IGP for mobilization of necessary fund.
News reports further said the committee has also decided to take steps to monitor whether Imams are following the model khutba of the Friday prayer. Its guideline has demanded that Imams should speak on religious injunctions and prohibitions to avoid and resist terrorism as part of religious faith in one hand and should keep them away from speaking in a way that may inspire people to jihad and such other activities that may ultimately lend support to terrorists and fundamentalists.
Model text
Meanwhile, Islamic Foundation has also set up a seven-member national monitoring committee to keep watch on the Imams of the mosques throughout the country through their local monitoring cells, in addition to grassroots support of the ruling party activists.
They will ensure that the Imams are speaking in terms of the model text of Friday khutba without derogatory remarks and in the process will see that they are not speaking on political issues from religious context that may cause or inspire anti-government feeling.
Model text
Meanwhile, Islamic Foundation has also set up a seven-member national monitoring committee to keep watch on the Imams of the mosques throughout the country through their local monitoring cells, in addition to grassroots support of the ruling party activists.
They will ensure that the Imams are speaking in terms of the model text of Friday khutba without derogatory remarks and in the process will see that they are not speaking on political issues from religious context that may cause or inspire anti-government feeling.
The government decision is that the national monitoring cell will periodically present reports to the Ministry of Home to inform authorities whether Imams are effectively running the anti-terrorism and anti-jihadist campaign or not and what improvement may be brought in the system.
This is how the government has extended its monitoring network over the mosques throughout the country to prevent Imams in the first place from becoming the mouthpiece of the pro-religious political forces and turn mosques into centres of anti-government political activism.
This is how the government has extended its monitoring network over the mosques throughout the country to prevent Imams in the first place from becoming the mouthpiece of the pro-religious political forces and turn mosques into centres of anti-government political activism.
And secondly, the authorities are working in a way to take control of the mosques and neutralize Imams to keep them under pressure to become part of the government campaign against religion-based politics. The sources said the government's focus on the mosques has intensified following the annulment of the 5th amendment to the Constitution which has paved the way to remove religion-based politics in a secular society.
Critics say attempt to hold control on mosque in a secular state system is nothing new. But the results always remained counterproductive. Egyptian president Anwar Sadat became seriously apprehensive in mid-1977 of the growing power of the Muslim Brotherhood challenging his authority from all over including the mosques. He passed decree taking over power to nominate Imams at the mosques on the state pay rolls and presented copies of model khutba to mosques to stop Imams speaking on derogatory political issues.
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