Rejecting the principles of her late father in favor of Islam. “O ye who believe! take not for protectors your fathers and your brothers if they love infidelity above Faith: if any of you do so, they do wrong.” — Qur’an 9:23
“Hasina for Islam as Bangladesh’s state religion,” from IANS, May 31:
Dhaka, May 31 (IANS) Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has expressed herself in favour of retaining Islam as the state religion, moving away from the secular provisions in the constitution that were incorporated when country became free in 1971.
Hasina told a special parliamentary committee formed to study changes in the constitution in the light of Supreme Court verdicts delivered in the last one year that her government would like “Bismillah Rahman-ur-Rahim” retained.
Bangladesh’s 150 million population is overwhelmingly Muslim, with about nine percent Hindus and the rest Buddhists and Christians.
Secularism was one of the principles enshrined in the constitution drafted under the leadership of the country’s founding father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Sheikh Hasina’s father.
Mujibur Rahman was assassinated in August 1975. Subsequent military-ruled governments incorporated religious expressions, amending the constitution and issuing a series of rules between 1975 and 1990.
In two separate judgments, the apex court last year declared all these changes void and asked that the constitution be restored to its original 1972 form.
Hasina has repeatedly assured that her government would retain Islam as the state religion. Her aides have explained that the ethos of the majority of the population could not be ignored or tampered with….