Is Banning Jamaat "Impractical"

Jamaat's leader has emerged to protest the recent demands for imposing ban on its communal politics. Ali Ahsan Mujahid, Jamaat's General Secretary, has called the demand as "impractical", since they've been working with all the parties for democracy and care taker government in Bangladesh. His statement didn't refute war crime and genocide charges brought against Jamaat's leaders during the recent reform discussion with the Election Commission. Radio Today reports,

‘বাম দলগুলোর পাশাপাশি আ’য়ামীলীগও জামায়াতে ইসলামীকে রাজনৈতিক দল হিসেবে নিবন্ধন না করা’র দাবিকে ‘অবাস্তব’ বলে মন্তব্য করে জামায়াতে ইসলামীর সেক্রেটারী জেনারেল আলী আহসান মোহাম্মদ মুজাহিদ বলেন - এ পর্যন্ত সকল নির্বাচনেই জামায়াতে ইসলামী অংশগ্রহণ করেছে৷ গত নির্বাচনে সরকারেও অংশগ্রহণ করেছিল৷ ফলে এখন যারা জামায়াতে ইসলামীকে নিবন্ধন না করার দাবি করছে, তারা বাস্তবতা বিবর্জিত একটি দাবি করছে৷ বিশেষ করে আ’য়ামীলীগের মতো দলের পক্ষ থেকে যদি বাম দলগুলোর এ দাবিকে সমর্থন করা হয়, তবে সেটা আরও বেশী অগ্রহণযোগ্য৷ বিশেষ করে কেয়ারটেকার সরকারের দাবির সময় জামায়াতে ইসলামী তাদের মিত্র শক্তি হিসেবে একত্রে কাজ করেছে৷

BDnews24 reports today,

The Awami League Friday joined a growing chorus demanding that the Election Commission do not allow Jamaat-e-Islami registration and not allocate it the polls logo " daripalla or scales of justice.
Acting AL president Zillur Rahman told reporters after a meeting of its policymaking presidium at his Gulshan home in the morning that they fully endorsed the leftists' demands and condemned Jamaat-e-Islami's communal politics.

Bangladesh needs to bring Jamaat-e-Islami's war criminals to justice as they were rehabilitated by the BNP's Founder General Zia during his military dictatorship. The demand to ban Jamaat from politics was raised by the freedom fighter Quader Siddiqi during his discussion with the election commission. He firmly reiterated,

"We are not talking about any individual, rather about a political party which opposed the liberation war of Bangladesh. Jamaat-e-Islami is a political party which had first worked as an agent of the British colonialists and later as a collaborator to the invading Pakistani army during Bangladesh's war of independence," Quader said.

He said the EC in its proposal for having parliamentarian political parties registered with the commission mentions that a party has to express allegiance to Bangladesh's constitution and to the country's sovereignty, but Jamaat-e-Islami does not have allegiance to the country's constitution as the party's constitution pledges to establish Allah's laws. "So, Jamaat-e-Islami in no way can be allowed to be registered with the Election Commission," Quader said.

In the past, Jamaat was elusive when war crime and genocide charges were brought against their party leaders who collaborated with the Pakistani Army during our independence in 1971. Jamaat-e-Islami should be banned from politics as they promote religious intolerance and fanaticism that we no longer need to flourish our democratic society.