[ALOCHONA] WIKILEAKS: Jamaat looks 'further than polls'

WIKILEAKS EXPOSÉ: Jamaat looks 'further than polls'

Bent on making Bangladesh a 'genuinely' Islamic state, Jamaat-e-Islami unruffled despite last election debacle and its top leaders being tried for war crimes, the US embassy in Dhaka said.

Chargé d'affaires Nicholas Dean sent the classified diplomatic cable titled—Jamaat-e-Islami: The tortoise not the hare--to Washington on Jan 3, 2010.

Julian Assange's whistle-blower WikiLeaks published the cable along with nearly 150,000 new cables on Aug 30.

The report was based on the discussions with several top-ranking leaders who allegedly opposed Bangladesh's war of independence of Pakistan and the 'Majlish-e-Shura' meeting.

The cable said, "Jamaat's leaders clearly hope that slow and steady wins the race.

"Jamaat-e-Islami Assistant Secretary General Abdur Razzaq told us Jamaat is not concerned with short-term gains like winning the next national election or increasing the number of seats in the national parliament.

"Rather, Jamaat's true aim is to make Bangladesh a genuinely Islamic country," the cabkle added.

Bangladesh's largest religious party won only three seats in the 2008 general elections and five of its leaders including chief Matiur Rahman Nizami and sectretary-general Ali Ahsan Mohammed Mojaheed were arrested in the middle of 2010 on charges of committing crimes against humanity in the 1971 freedom struggle.

Abdul Quader Mollah, the party's assistant secretary general now behind bars, claimed "what differentiated Jamaat from the other two major political parties was that Jamaat had an ideology and the other parties did not.

"According to Jamaat leaders, the Awami League and Bangladesh Nationalist Party formed positions that varied election-by-election depending on what they think would garner votes, while Jamaat focused on its end goal."

Mollah told the American officials an Islamic state was "the only thing that could solve the problems of Bangladesh.

"He said he was not worried about electoral losses or parliamentary intrigue."

Mollah also claimed that Jamaat "had no ties with and received no money, official or unofficial, from the Jamaat-e-Islami parties of other countries".

However, Dean commented, Mollah was "well-versed on Pakistan's Jamaat-e-Islami and claimed its former leader, Maulana Fazur Rehman, as a friend".

Jamaat-e-Islami was founded by Syed Abul A'laa Maududi in 1941 in British India. It was against the creation of Pakistan but after the Partition of India, Maududi went to Pakistan.

He was sentenced to death by hanging in Pakistan for inciting killings of Ahmadiyya community, but he somehow survived.

The party was banned after the war of liberation for being a communal party but revived its political fortunes during the reign of Ziaur Rahman.

Known for years as Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, the party renamed itself Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami following debates about whether it was an extension of a foreign party.

Kader Mollah said Jamaat leaders used their highest policy-making forum Majlish to "advise delegates, who came from every district in Bangladesh, about ways to effectively convey Jamaat messages" and "focus more on Islam and how to connect with the people of Bangladesh".

Though Jamaat has a long-term goal, its student wing, Bangladesh Islami Chatra Shibir, "in contrast, is much more focused on the short-term", the cable observed.

They "also spend much of their time clashing with the student wings of the Awami League and Bangladesh Nationalist Party".

"In a meeting with a Political Officer, [Shibir] leaders were intent on showing him picture after picture of fights [Shibir] members have had with other parties on campuses throughout the country and the injuries suffered, they claimed, unjustly.

"There was no mention of injuries inflicted," the US embassy cable added.

Shibir leaders claimed their budget was funded solely by nominal contributions from its membership and alumni, but "the high-rent location" of Shibir's headquarters in Maghbazar "belies this claim", said Nicholas Dean.

Like the Awami League and BNP's student wings, Shibir "regularly shake-down area business for money".

"Like the other student parties, Shibir serves as a feeder-organization to Jamaat," he summarised.

The US diplomat believes Jamaat's "closed-door majlish and our meetings with Jamaat and Shabbir indicate that the organizations remain hierarchical with top-down decision making, despite their claims that they are internally democratic."
http://bdnews24.com/details.php?cid=2&id=204967&hb=2

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