Bangladesh bans religion in politics.
Bangladesh’s dozens of Islamic political parties must drop Islam from their name and stop using religion when on the campaign trail following a court ruling, the country’s law minister said Monday. The Supreme Court on Sunday upheld an earlier ruling by the High Court from 2005 throwing out the fifth amendment of the constitution, which had allowed religion-based politics to flourish in the country since the late 1970s.
“All politics based on religion are going to be banned as per the original constitution,” Shafique Ahmed told AFP. The verdict does not affect constitutional amendments that made Islam the Muslim majority nation’s state religion in 1988 and incorporated a Quranic verse in the constitution. The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which is allied with two Islamic parties, said it would appeal the verdict.
Bangladesh’s original constitution, drafted by the secular Awami League party after the country became independent from Pakistan in 1971, barred the use of religion in politics. “We want to reinstate the original constitution. Secularism was a pillar of the 1972 constitution,” said Ahmed.
aziz 7:40 pm on January 4, 2010 Permalink |
hmm. this makes me uneasy. Would we consider a political party in the US with the name “Christian” in it to be a violation of separation of church and state?
abunoor 8:37 pm on January 4, 2010 Permalink |
Aziz, it wouldn’t be a legal violation of the establishment clause, but many people would find it to be a cultural one.
It seems very odd to have a situation where Islam is the state religion but parties cannot have Islam in their name. Of course whether Islam is in one’s name is superficial and whether one “uses religion on the campaign trail” is vague.
My friend from Bangladesh has described to me in the past that even secular politicians make a show of religiosity of certain types during campaigns (something we also see here).
I’m not sure how deep I want to investigate this, but the Supreme Court throwing out part of the constitution? — quite odd.
abunoor 8:39 pm on January 4, 2010 Permalink |
One of Zahed’s good news picks was the Bangladesh elections from late 2008 and how they showed that Islamic parties would be defeated at the polls, it seems from the outside as if at least some secular Bangladeshis would rather not take chances on that continuing to be the case.
Hassan 4:16 pm on January 5, 2010 Permalink |
Good news, cause for celebration. This is the proper way to get rid of mischief and bloodshed in politics.
Hope Pakistani leaders have the wisdom and courage to follow suit.