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Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh

Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh is the largest and most influential Islamic political party in Bangladesh. In the last general election (2001) it secured 18 seats (among 300 seats) in the parliament and awarded 2 ministries for its role in the formation of the four-party alliance that gained a landslide victory in the 2001 Parliamentary Election. Today the BNP-Jamaat alliance enjoys a two-third majority in the Parliament.

The Jamaat (as it is often called) was founded in pre-partition India by Syed Ab'ul Ala Maududi in 1941. Maulana Maududi moved to Pakistan after independence and the current party in Bangladesh originated as the section of the party in the wing of that country that gained independence as Bangladesh in 1971. Jamaat is still politically stigmatized amongst large sections of Bangladeshi society, because of their role as active collaborators with the Pakistani regime during the Liberation War.

Jamaat is basically an ideological party that advocates for greater role of Islam in public life. The main objective of Jamaat is the establishment of Deen or Islamic social order through ethical, peaceful, constructive, democratic, and constitutional means. Jamaat claims that it lives up to its standards since its inception in 1941 under British rule of the Subcontinent.

See also

External links

  • Jamaat's official web site http://www.jamaat-e-islami.org/


Last updated: 05-03-2005 17:50:55