If Jamaat-e-Islami gets the chance to run the country, its government would first try to free the country of corruption, the party’s central nayeb-e-ameer (deputy chief) ATM Azharul Islam has said. This is not a poor country but a resource-rich one, he said, that lacks leaders of good character — and because of this, thousands of crores of taka have been siphoned out of the country. He spoke as chief guest at a large public rally organised by Chougacha upazila Jamaat in Jashore on Sunday (30 November) afternoon, held at Chougacha Government Shahadat Pilot Secondary School grounds and presided over by upazila Jamaat ameer Maulana Golam Morshed.
Azharul Islam said he had been sentenced to death in false cases by the “fascist” government — given the death penalty not in one but three false cases — and was freed after the 2024 movement that many call a “second independence.” He said many ask what proof there is that Jamaat would not be corrupt if it came to power, and replied that the party’s two ministers had run three ministries in the past without anyone being able to prove any corruption. If Jamaat came to power, he said, it would eliminate unemployment within three to five years, and 50,000 crore taka in zakat could be collected annually — money that would be used for the country’s development through a zakat-based economy.
Responding to the accusation that Jamaat would convert non-Muslims to Islam, he said that during the Awami League’s tenure temples were attacked and Jamaat-Shibir blamed, whereas over the past two years Jamaat-Shibir workers had guarded temples and Hindu brothers had completed their worship safely. He said many leaders are abroad and lack the courage to return because they have obtained British citizenship and would have to give it up to come back — fearing that if they surrendered their citizenship and then could not safely become prime minister at home, they would lose both ways. He contrasted this with the party’s Jashore-2 candidate, paediatric cardiologist Dr Mosleh Uddin Farid, who he said had given up 30 years of comfort, and the chance to earn more and rise internationally, to stand by the people in obedience to the Jamaat ameer.
Saying a “scales” wave — a reference to Jamaat’s electoral symbol — had risen across the country, he said those frightened by it were trying to attack the party. “We want to say clearly that we will not attack anyone — but if anyone comes to attack, our workers will not let them go either,” he said.
Jashore-2 (Chougacha-Jhikargachha) Jamaat parliamentary candidate Dr Mosleh Uddin Farid — a former Dhaka Medical College Islami Chhatra Shibir president — spoke as the main speaker, saying that if Jamaat came to power, women would be paid for eight hours while working five, with a government subsidy, and that the party would build a country free of extortion. The rally, conducted jointly by upazila Jamaat secretary assistant professor Nurujjaman Al Mamun and others, also heard from central executive committee member and Jashore-Kushtia regional director Mobarak Hussain and Dhaka South city secretary Dr Shafiqul Islam Masud, among many other party leaders and parliamentary candidates from the region.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report