DHAKA, 25 September 2005 — A suggestion of the opposition Awami League’s Dhaka unit president, Mohammad Hanif, that the party should abandon its secular principles has generated commotion among a section of party leaders, particularly Hindus.
Hanif, former mayor of Dhaka and a leading member of the Awami League’s Central Working Committee, told reporters Thursday that it is the high time for the party to abandon secular principles and replace them with the slogan of “freedom of religion and religious practices”.
Claiming himself a “Muslim first”, the Awami League leader also said that he has “no problem with being labeled as a fundamentalist”. Hanif categorically said that he believes in Islam, and not in secularism.
Arguing that the Awami League should abandon the slogan of secularism, Hanif said that the party adopted the secularist slogan “as a tactical move” in extraordinary political circumstances after the country’s independence in 1971, and “the party needs to change the principle to meet the demand of the time”.
Hanif reiterated his remarks the next day, when a couple of daily newspapers confronted him over the issue. Hanif’s observations have caused a lot of concern among the secularist section of the party, particularly among Hindus.
The party president, Hasina Wajed, asked top leaders Friday to refrain from making any comment for or against Hanif’s observations.
“The interpretation of secularism is clearly defined in the party constitution. If he (Hanif) has a different interpretation, he is free to put forward his opinion at the appropriate party forum,” Suranjit Sengupta, a top party leader, said.
But Mukul Bose, an organizing secretary of the party, said that Hanif should not have made such a statement.
