Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami
Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami is the largest Islamist political party in Bangladesh. It emerged from the East Pakistani wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan in 1979. It is one of the two contemporary mainstream political parties in the country, alongside the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
The origin of the party lies in the Jamaat-e-Islami movement founded by Sayyid Abul A'la Maududi in 1941 in British India. Its predecessor, Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan, opposed the independence of Bangladesh and the dismemberment of Pakistan.
Following the independence of Bangladesh, the party was banned along with all other religion-based parties in 1972 by the government. The ban was lifted in 1976, and its leaders were allowed to participate in political activities after 1979, and the current Bangladeshi faction of Jamaat-e-Islami was formed. It actively participated in the pro-democratic mass uprising against the government of Hussain Muhammad Ershad in 1990. Following the 2001 Bangladeshi general election, the party joined the coalition government led by the BNP and two of its leaders received ministerial positions in the government.
From 2010, the Awami League government began to prosecute Jamaat leaders for the war crimes committed during the 1971 war under the International Crimes Tribunal. By 2012, eight leaders from Jamaat were charged and three were convicted of war crimes. In August 2013, the Bangladesh Supreme Court cancelled the registration of the party. In early-August 2024, with the surge of the July Revolution, the party was again banned by the Awami League government. However, after the fall of the government, the decision was reversed by the newly-established interim government in late-August of that year, and in June 2025, the ban on the party was officially lifted and its registration was reinstated by the Appeliate Division of the Supreme Court.
History
In British India (1941–1947)
was founded in British India by Maulana Syed Abul A'la Maududi at Islamia Park, Lahore on 26 August 1941 as a movement to promote social and political Islam. Jamaat opposed the creation of a separate state of Pakistan for the Muslims of India. It also did not support the Muslim League, which was then the largest Muslim party in the 1946 elections. nor did it support "Composite Nationalism" of the Jamiat Ulama e-Hind. Maulana Abul Ala Maududi, the founder of Jamaat-e-Islami, actively worked to prevent the partition of India, arguing that concept violated the Islamic doctrine of the ummah. Maulana Maududi saw the partition as creating a temporal border that would divide Muslims from one another. He advocated for the whole of India to be reclaimed for Islam.In Pakistan (1947-1971)
After the creation of Pakistan, Jamaat-e-Islami divided into separate Indian and Pakistani national organisations. When East Pakistan became independent as Bangladesh, the East Pakistan wing of Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan became Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh.Jamaat-e-Islami participated in the democratic movement in Pakistan during the Period of Martial Law declared by Ayub Khan. An all-party democratic alliance was formed in 1965. Jamaat head of East Pakistan branch, Ghulam Azam was a member of the alliance, which also included Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
During the late 1960s, Jamaat‑e‑Islami strongly resisted the rising socialist programs promoted by leaders such as Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in West Pakistan and Maulana Bhashani in East Pakistan. The party actively campaigned against these agendas, and it organized a large coalition of Islamic scholars and clerics, over a hundred ulema, who issued statements denouncing the Pakistan Peoples Party's socialism as "atheistic" and "anti‑Islam".
As the Six-Point Movement gained momentum in East Pakistan from 1966 onwards, Jamaat-e-Islami adopted a firm stance against it. The Six-Point Movement, put forth by the Awami League, demanded for extensive autonomy for East Pakistan and was viewed by Bengali nationalists as a charter for self-rule. Jamaat-e-Islami's pan-Islamist ideology emphasized the unity of Pakistan based on Islamic principles. The party viewed the Six-Point Movement as a divisive, secessionist agenda that threatened the solidarity of the Muslim nation and the integrity of Pakistan.
In the 1970 general election, Jamaat‑e‑Islami invested significant effort and resources by putting forward 151 candidates but managed to secure only four seats in the National Assembly and another four in the provincial assemblies.
Bangladesh Liberation War (1971)
In 1971, Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan opposed the independence of Bangladesh and the dismemberment of Pakistan. Ghulam Azam, who was the then head of Jamaat-e-Islami East Pakistan, delivered several speeches after 25 March 1971, excerpts of which were regularly published in the party's mouthpiece, The Daily Sangram. On 30 June in Lahore, while speaking to journalists, Azam stated that his party was making every effort to suppress what he described as the activities of "miscreants" in East Pakistan, and that many Jamaat workers had been killed by these elements as a result of their efforts.Jamaat-e-Islami played a key role in organizing pro‑Pakistan collaborationist bodies. On 4 April 1971, twelve pro‑Pakistan leaders, including Nurul Amin, Ghulam Azam, and Syed Khwaja Khairuddin, met General Tikka Khan of the Pakistan Army and assured him of their cooperation in suppressing the independence movement. Following a series of meetings, they announced the formation of the East Pakistan Central Peace Committee, which initially included 140 members, among them 96 Jamaat‑e‑Islami members who began training at an Ansar camp on Khanjahan Ali Road in Khulna. The Peace Committee was also alleged to have been involved in recruiting Razakar paramilitaries to assist the Pakistan Army.
On 12 October 1971, Yahya Khan declared that elections would take place between 25 November and 9 December. Jamaat‑e‑Islami East Pakistan decided that the party would participate in the local elections. According to a government declaration issued on 2 November, 53 candidates were to be elected without contest, and Jamaat‑e‑Islami secured 14 of these uncontested seats.
On 2 December 1971, according to a report in The Daily Ittefaq, Ghulam Azam held a one‑hour and ten‑minute meeting with President Yahya Khan in Rawalpindi. After the meeting, Azam addressed a press conference where he urged the public to give their full support to the armed forces in dealing with the ongoing crisis. He again described the Mukti Bahini as an enemy force and stated that the Razakars were sufficient to confront them, further calling for an increase in the number of Razakars.
In Bangladesh (1971–present)
Jamaat was banned after the independence of Bangladesh in December 1971, and its top leaders fled to West Pakistan. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the first president of Bangladesh, also cancelled the citizenship of Ghulam Azam, the leader of Jamaat-e-Islami who moved to Pakistan, the Middle East and the UK. Azam first fled to Pakistan and organized "East Pakistan Recovery Week". As information about his participation in the killing of civilians came to light "a strong groundswell of resentment against" East Pakistan JI leadership developed and Azam and Maulana Abdur Rahim were sent to Saudi Arabia. In Saudi Arabia, Azam and some of his followers successfully appealed for donations to "defend Islam" in Bangladesh, asserting that the Hindu minority there were "killing Muslims and burning their homes."Then-President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was assassinated in August 1975 by a group of officers of Bangladesh Army. post-Mujibur governments were immediately recognized by both Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, and Jamaat-e-Islami resumed political activities in Bangladesh. Ziaur Rahman also allowed Azam to return to Bangladesh as the leader of Jamaat-e-Islami.
After the end of Ershad's regime in 1990, mass protests began against Ghulam Azam and Jamaat-e-Islami, The protests were headed by Jahanara Imam, an author who lost her elder son, Shafi Imam Rumi, in the Bangladesh War of Independence. Azam's citizenship was challenged in a case that went to the Bangladesh Supreme Court, as he only held a Pakistani passport. Absent prosecution of Azam for war crimes, the Supreme Court ruled that he had to be allowed to have a Bangladeshi passport and the freedom to resume his political activities.
Bangladesh Police arrested Jamaat-e-Islami chief and former Industry Minister Motiur Rahman Nizami from his home in Dhaka in a graft case on 19 May 2008 and was charged with war crimes in 2009. He was hanged to death on 11 May 2016. Earlier, two former Cabinet Ministers of the immediate past BNP-Jamaat led coalition government, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan and Shamsul Islam were sent to Dhaka Central Jail, after they surrendered before the court.
As a result, in the parliamentary elections of December 2008, Jamaat-e-Islami garnered fewer than 5 seats out of the total 300 that constitute the national parliament. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party was concerned as Jamaat-e-Islami had been their primary political partner in the Four-Party Alliance.
On 27 January 2009, the Bangladesh Supreme Court issued a ruling after 25 people from different Islamic organisations, including Bangladesh Tarikat Federation's Secretary General Syed Rezaul Haque Chandpuri, Jaker Party's Secretary General Munshi Abdul Latif and Sammilita Islami Jote's President Maulana Ziaul Hasan, filed a joint petition. Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami, Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mujaheed and the Election Commission Secretary were given six weeks time to reply, but they did not. The ruling asked to explain "why the Jamaat's registration should not be declared illegal". As a verdict of the ruling, High Court cancelled the registration of the Jamaat-e-Islami on 1 August 2013, ruling that the party is unfit to contest national polls because its charter puts God above democratic process.
On 5 August 2013, the Supreme Court rejected Jamaat's plea against the High Court. The chamber judge of the Appellate Division Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury Manik while rejecting the Jamaat's petition seeking stay on the High Court verdict, said that the Jamaat could move a regular appeal before the Appellate Division against the verdict after getting its full text.
In February 2013, following the verdict by the International Crimes Tribunal and the announcement of death sentence of Delwar Hossain Sayidee, supporters of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir were involved in anti-Hindu violence; law enforcement killed 44 protesters and wounded 250. More than 50 temples were damaged, and more than 1,500 houses and business establishments of Hindus were torched in Gaibandha, Chittagong, Rangpur, Sylhet, Chapainawabganj, Bogra and in many other districts of the country, By March 2013, more than 87 people had been killed by law enforcement agencies. Jamaat-e-Islami supporters called for the fall of the Awami League regime. Jamaat-e-Islami supporters have been accused of murdering opponent political party activists and instigating religious riots by spreading fraudulent news.
As a result of Jamaat-e-Islami and Shibir's support for the Bangladesh student quota protests, Hasina's regime decided to fully ban the party on 1 August 2024. However, it was reversed on 28 August 2024 and the ban on Jamaat—Shibir and its affiliated organisations was officially lifted. On 1 June 2025, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami regained registration after a order by the Appellate Division of the Bangladesh Supreme Court.