Bangladesh: Petition to remove “state religion” was only a “paper tiger”

This is an update for the previous: Bangladesh to rediscuss “state religion” law: reality or rumor?

Bangladesh’s High Court last Monday 28th March simply rejected the 28-year-old petition calling for the removal of a constitutional provision recognising Islam as the official religion of the Muslim-majority South Asian nation.

The court ruled that the petitioning organisation, the Committee against Autocracy and Communalism, did not have the even right to be heard in the court.

The organisation’s lawyer, Subrata Chowdhury, said that he was “100 percent disappointed” with the decision. “Without a hearing and without giving us any chance to present our argument on the point of locus standi, the court dismissed the case,” he told. Others, however, were pleased with the decision.

Lawyer Maulana MA Raquib, the president of the religious party Nezam-e-Islam who was present in court, said: “This is the decision of the highest court in the land. Islam should be the state religion. The majority of people in this country believe in Islam.”

The petition was originally filed in 1988 after the then President Lieutenant General Hussain Muhammad Ershad declared Islam as the state religion in a symbolic bid to win popular support while major political parties campaigned to oust him from power.

He resigned amid mass protests in 1990.

“We filed the petition then because Bangladesh was founded as a secular state, and having a state religion contradicts the basic structure of the constitution,” Professor Anisuzzaman, one of the leaders of the petitioning organisation, told. “The founding fathers of the country wanted to have a secular nation, and all of us during our liberation war subscribed to that and Bangladesh was founded on that basis.”

Bangladesh became independent from the Islamic state of Pakistan after a nine-month war in 1971 which resulted in as many as three millions of deaths.

The dismissal of this case on Monday 28/3 has allowed the government to avoid setting out its position in favour of the constitutional amendment, which could have been fraught with political dangers and loss of votes and support.

“I don’t know more what is the position of the current government as the latest amendment brought back secularism from the first constitution but did not abolish the provision of state religion, so there is a contradiction,” said Professor Anisuzzaman. “Bangladesh is a secular country but also provides a State Religion.” This legislation is particularly contradictory and anomalous.

“The government seems to favour both concepts, so that those who are in favour of state religion do not vote against the government,” he added.

Asif Nazrul, a professor of law at the University of Dhaka, said that he did not think the government was particularly concerned about secularism or Islam. “Their only issue right now is how to stay in power, and when that requires emphasising secularism, they will do that, and when that requires supporting Islam, they will stick to that,” he said.

Shireen Huq, a leading women rights activist, states: “Once wording like this in the constitution has been introduced, it is difficult to remove it as it could have a reaction which the government is not prepared to face”.

Source: Al-Jazeera