This article examines the deeply contested approaches of ‘political Islam’ towards modern democracy in Bangladesh, the third largest Muslim country in the world, where sharia law is not the source of public law and where a democratic government is in place. Selecting the political manifestos and constitutions of three different influential Islamist parties, the Jamat e Islami Bangladesh, Hizbut Tahrir Bangladesh and Jamatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh, the study examines through discourse analysis why Islamists take such a hostile approach towards democracy. At first sight, Islamists desire the establishment of an alternative governing system, such as the Caliphate, to replace the present parliamentary system of governance in Bangladesh. Islamists also advocate a change of state philosophy from ‘People’s Republic of Bangladesh’ to an ‘Islamic State’, arguing that sharia should be the legal framework of the country. The key finding of this research, however, is that Political Islam in Bangladesh is also perceived as a reaction to globalisation and that this global aspect, in theory and practice, may be more powerful as a reactive agent than local/national politics.

This paper looks into the historic development of political Islam in Bangladesh, the third largest Muslim country of the world. Identifying origins and sociology of Bengali Muslims, this paper finds that development of political Islam took place in Bangladesh mainly in four phases: the Turkish war and the founding of the Khilafat movement during the First World War; the Oil crisis in the 1970s and the boost of Islamic institutions and practices in Bangladesh’s political discourse, mainly supported by the Middle Eastern countries; the Soviet–Afghanistan war and its linkage with Bangladeshi radicals in the 1990s; and by the globalization of war between Al-Qayeda and West and its implication on Bangladesh through the rise of extreme groups.

blogs.lse.ac.uk /southasia/2015/09/24/playing-with-fire-islamism-and-politics-in-bangladesh/ Over the past 20 years, an influential body of conservative scholarship by Samuel Huntington, Bernard Lewis, Roger Scruton and Paul Berman has focused on the alleged conflict between Islam and the West. Following widespread criticism of this scholarship, most notably by Amartya Sen and Edward Said, a number of commentators such as John Esposito, Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na`im , Michael D Driessen, Jillian Schwedler revised its core assumptions to claim instead that the real conflict is between democracy within Muslim societies and the political ideology of Islamism. But even this idea has been challenged by a number of scholars including Oliver Roy and Asef Bayat, who have identified the notion of 'post-Islamism', and the potential subordination of religion to the demands of democratic competition within Muslim societies such as Indonesia and Turkey. The news yesterday that an Islamic militant group in Bangladesh had published a ' global hitlist' of atheist bloggers follows a series of brutal activist murders over the last year and a half. Martin GriffithsHowever, the debate is limited insofar as it ignores a third possibility, which occurs when a government of an allegedly secular state promotes Islam for its own legitimacy (both domestic and international) and as a source of national identity. Pakistan is an excellent example of this phenomenon, and Bangladesh is moving in this direction. In the absence of an authoritative interpretation of how religion can coexist with liberal freedoms and basic human rights, the use of religion by politicians for opportunistic reasons creates the space for more radical (and violent) groups to influence the political game.The invocation of religion for political legitimacy in Bangladesh is in a significant part driven by a cynical opportunism among a ruling elite that cannot deliver real development for the country. Corruption has reached alarming levels in all segments of society as increasing nepotism through partisan political preferences has resulted in growing frustration among the populace. While globalisation has brought economic opportunities to some, it has also widened income disparities. This bleak situation creates fertile ground for the radicalisation of frustrated minds to which the vision of Islamic justice has some appeal.Conflict waged by various Bangladeshi Islamist groups such as Hizbut Tahrir, Hefazat e Islam, Jamaat e Islam, Ansarullah Bangla Team and Jamaatul Mujahedeen may be interpreted as a form of resistance against the impact of global capitalism on Bangladesh. Perhaps surprisingly given the high levels of corruption and poor governance, Bangladesh has experienced moderately good economic growth of around 5 per cent per annum over the past decade. The primary reason for this is the fact Bangladesh is a classic case of a coastal low income country with few resources. Its development has therefore been driven by the export of labour-intensive manufactures (such as t...

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