US embassy cable - 05DHAKA2409

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 DHAKA 002409 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SA FOR DAS GASTRIGHT 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/24/2015 
TAGS: KISL, PHUM, PGOV, PTER, BG 
SUBJECT: WIDENING SPLITS AMONG BANGLADESHI ISLAMIST GROUPS 
 
REF: 04 DHAKA 0888 
 
Classified By: P/E Counselor D.C. McCullough, reason para 1.4 d. 
 
1. (C) Summary. There is a widening, public split between 
mainstream Jamaat Islami and other, more extreme Islamist 
groups driven by ideological, personal, historical, and even 
material factors.  While IOJ could drop out of the ruling 
coalition, the JI-BNP alliance -- grounded solidly in 
political expediency -- looks secure.  End Summary. 
 
Growing Rumbles 
--------------- 
 
2. (C) Factions of the Islami Oikya Jote (IOJ), a member of 
the ruling coalition, and AMM Bahauddin, owner/editor of the 
anti-US/pro-Saddam/pro-Islamist Daily Inquilab newspaper, are 
spearheading a move to unite a large number of Islamist 
groups against the mainstream Jamaat Islami (JI) and 
undermine the BNP-led coalition.  The two principal leaders 
of this move have material grievances against the BDG. 
Fazlul Haq Aminee, MP and chairman of one of the three IOJ 
factions, has been lobbying the BDG hard since at least 
December 2003 for a cabinet seat. a push that coincided with 
the revival of anti-Ahmadiya agitation, which he strongly 
supported.  He also reportedly wants a license to open a 
bank.  Bahauddin, meanwhile, tried and failed to get a 
license for a satellite TV channel called Inquilab TV. 
(Note: Recently freed journalist Shoaib Chowdhury, who had 
been detained since 2003 on sedition charges for trying to go 
to a conference in Israel, was the channel's managing 
director.) 
 
3. (C) Aminee, citing BDG attempts to expand the curriculum 
at quomi madrassas to include science and English, complains 
the BDG is "cracking down" on these madrassas and the 
Islamist groups, like his, which support them.  (Note: During 
the 2001 election, alleged anti-madrassa actions by the Awami 
League (AL) led the Islamists' objections to the AL 
government.)  In September 2004, Aminee told us that three 
senior AL leaders met with him to propose a political 
understanding.  AL leaders subsequently denied this to us but 
there is good reason to believe some sort of meeting 
occurred.  Aminee has a long history of publicly criticizing 
the BDG; in private, he says it is dictatorial and mercenary. 
 On March 17, Aminee and other IOJ leaders demanded that the 
BNP expel the two JI ministers for allegedly licensing a 
company to produce alcohol and for allowing prostitution in 
Bangladesh. 
 
4. (C) Mufti Ijharul Islam, former SYG of Aminee's IOJ 
faction and since March chairman of his own faction, says he 
left Aminee because he could not abide his criticism of 
coalition partners BNP and JI.  "When we formed the alliance 
with JI, we knew we had religious differences with them," he 
said.  "What has changed about JI that we should oppose them 
now?"  The AL, he told us, had been trying for a year to 
persuade him and Aminee to defect.  When he refused, he said, 
the AL asked him to speak publicly about the religious 
differences between JI and Deobandi ulama.  Islam insists he 
declined but suggests Aminee did not.  On May 23, Islam 
alleged to us that India has funneled funds to Aminee and 
Bahauddin to undermine the ruling coalition. 
 
Nothing New 
----------- 
 
5. (C) Maulana Syed Abul Ala Moududi is the founder and 
guiding light of JI.  Deobandi ulama condemned his advocacy 
of political Islam.  When Moududi founded JI in 1941, they 
declared him a "deviated" person because he mixed politics 
with religion.  Moududi's book, "Caliphate and Monarchy" in 
1967, produced allegations that he was a conspirator against 
Islam and fatwas were issued instructing Muslims not to 
associate with JI.  According to IOJ's Ijharul Islam, there 
are three major differences between Moududism and 
traditionalist ulama: Moududi does not attribute the same 
level of innocence and purity to Prophet Muhammad as do the 
ulama, Moududi found weaknesses in the personalities and 
abilities of some caliphs and companions of the prophet, 
while ulama believe they are beyond reproach, and Moududi did 
not have formal Islamic training and was therefore unfit to 
interpret Islam for others. 
 
6. (C) Maulana Shamshul Haq, one of the few prominent Islamic 
scholars asserting some appreciation for Moududism, withdrew 
his support from JI after "Caliphates and Monarchy" and wrote 
a book called "Correcting Mistakes" that declared it illegal 
for a Muslim to support JI unless Moududi corrected his 
mistakes.  Similarly, praying with such people was declared 
invalid.  Other ulama issued fatwas that included banning 
marriage to JI supporters.  On May 21, Haq's own political 
party, Khelafat Majlish, split into two groups when one 
faction rejected Haq's six-point declaration condemning 
Moududism and Shia'ism, among other things.  The splinter 
group consists mostly of former JI activists who found JI too 
flexible ideologically.  After Bangladesh achieved 
independence in 1971 and secularism was included in the new 
constitution, some traditionalist ulamas joined with JI 
leaders to form the Islamic Democratic League once the AL was 
ejected from power in 1975.  The JI gradually rebuilt its 
political base, rendering the IDL insignificant, and ulama 
started joining political Islam in the form of a respected 
scholar known popularly as Hafezzi Huzur, who ran for 
president in 1981.  In a surprise move, Huzur visited Iran 
and recognized Shias as acceptable Muslims.  After Huzur's 
death, his party mutated into what became the core of the IOJ. 
 
7. (C) The JI and IOJ drew closer during the 1996-2001 AL 
government, but differences were apparent soon after the 
four-party coalition came to power.  IOJ leaders charged that 
JI amir Nizami was vain, ignored the IOJ, and did not support 
their demand for a separate Arabic university authorized to 
affiliate with quomi madrassas.  In addition, they said, 
Nizami failed to oppose strongly enough USG actions in 
Afghanistan and Iraq, and he did not support their 
anti-Ahmadiya campaign.  After the BNP candidate lost the May 
9 Chittagong mayoral election, Inquilab newspaper and IOJ 
leaders blamed JI "betrayal" and declared the JI a political 
liability for the BNP. 
 
Going Public 
------------ 
 
8. (C) On May 12, leaders of different Islamist groups, minus 
JI, gathered at a seminar organized by Inquilab's Bahauddin 
in Dhaka to discuss the need for political unity in the next 
election.  Asked about the possible beneficiary of such a 
move considering the small vote banks of the non-JI Islamist 
groups, Bahauddin expressed indifference about who comes to 
power next.  IOJ leaders reiterated their criticism of JI as 
an "un-Islamic" force and a "deviated" group like Ahmadiyas. 
 
JI's Response 
------------- 
 
9. (C) JI leaders strike a generally relaxed view about these 
developments.  Some note that the JI won 18 parliamentary 
seats on its own in 1991, and that Bangladeshis traditionally 
ignore ulamas' political guidance.  JI, one said, is a 
complex party that draws its support from civil society and 
educated people who are pious but understand the modern 
world.  IOJ leaders, however, are ignorant of modern 
economics, science, and international relations, and are 
jealous of JI's success and influence.  Another JI leader 
told us Nizami has several times tried and failed to persuade 
Bahauddin to stop his anti-JI activities. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
10. (C) Political Islam in Bangladesh is a 
vertically-integrated enterprise with JI as its political 
center (reftel).  However, it is not a monolith and 
Bangladesh's many Islamist groups have important ideological, 
historical, personal, and even material issues that push them 
apart.  The agenda of these groups is predominantly domestic, 
although anti-U.S. rhetoric, fueled by incidents associated 
with the GWOT, is on the increase, even if it is still lower 
than in many Muslim countries.  Political expediency, and not 
much else, binds the JI and BNP, and that is unlikely to 
change before the next election.  Other groups, like IOJ, 
however, could move more openly into anti-government terrain, 
intensifying Islamist activism against the Ahmadiyas and 
other alleged affronts to Islamist orthodoxy.  The upsurge in 
anti-Ahmadiya attacks in April, the JI's defensive denial of 
involvement and condemnation of its Islamist rivals as an 
extremist embarrassment, and the BDG's belated move to curb 
again the attacks should be seen in this broader context of 
widening Islamist differences. 
THOMAS