Muslims rally for anti-blasphemy law
DHAKA, Bangladesh — Hundreds of thousands of members of a hard-line Muslim group rallied in Bangladesh’s capital Saturday to demand authorities enact anti-blasphemy laws to punish people who insult Islam.
The massive rally in Dhaka took place amid heightened security after Hifazat-e-Islam members targeted bloggers who they say are atheists.
The bloggers are seeking capital punishment for those found guilty of war crimes during the nation’s 1971 independence war against Pakistan. They also want a ban on Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest Islamic party, for campaigning against Bangladesh’s independence more than four decades ago.
Top Jamaat-e-Islami leaders are accused of crimes against humanity during the 1971 war, and two senior party leaders were convicted this year by a special tribunal. Bangladesh says as many as 3 million people were killed and 200,000 women raped by Pakistani troops and local collaborators during the war.
About 25 liberal and secular groups enforced a daylong shutdown across the country in an effort to denounce the Hifazat-e-Islam rally. Roads were blocked, and train and bus services were suspended. Organizers said the hard-line group was not interested in protecting Islam, but that rather it wants to help Jamaat-eIslami free the party’s detained leaders.
Still, hundreds of thousands of Hifazat-e-Islam members managed to join the rally, most of them wearing white Islamic skullcaps. They listed 13 demands, including reinstating “absolute trust and faith in the Almighty Allah” in the nation’s constitution, which is largely secular, and passing a law providing for capital punishment for maligning Allah, Islam and its Prophet Muhammad.
The group’s other demands include declaring the minority Ahmadiya sect living in the country nonMuslims and banning “all foreign culture, including free mixing of men and women.”
Saturday’s rally came amid months of violence.