Hard-Line Muslim Rally Demands Anti-Blasphemy Laws in Bangladesh

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/07/world/asia/rally-demands-anti-blasphemy-laws-in-bangladesh.html

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DHAKA, Bangladesh — Hundreds of thousands of members of a hard-line Muslim group rallied here in Bangladesh’s capital on Saturday to demand that the authorities enact anti-blasphemy laws to punish people who insult Islam.

Separately, members of the group, Hifazat-e-Islam, clashed with the police and pro-government activists in a district outside of the capital, leaving a ruling party supporter dead.

The giant rally in Dhaka took place amid heightened security in the capital and elsewhere in the country after Hifazat-e-Islam members singled out bloggers who they said were atheists.

The bloggers, who deny they are atheists, are seeking capital punishment for those found guilty of war crimes during the nation’s 1971 war of independence against Pakistan. They also want a ban on Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest Islamic party, for campaigning against Bangladesh’s independence more than four decades ago. The party is an important partner of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which is led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia.

Top Jamaat-e-Islami leaders are accused of crimes against humanity during the 1971 war, and two senior party leaders were convicted this year by a special tribunal. Bangladesh says as many as three million people were killed and 200,000 women were raped by Pakistani troops and collaborators during the war.

While Hifazat-e-Islam said its rally was nonpolitical and not aligned with the opposition, Ms. Zia’s party backed the demonstration. The group listed 13 demands, including reinstating “absolute trust and faith in the Almighty Allah” in the nation’s Constitution, which is largely secular, and passing a law providing for capital punishment for maligning Allah, Islam and its Prophet Muhammad.

The group’s other demands includes banning “all foreign culture, including free mixing of men and women.”

Saturday’s rally came amid months of violence stemming from a bitter political rivalry between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government and the opposition led by Ms. Zia. Ms. Hasina initiated the war crimes trials in 2010. Ten of the defendants convicted or on trial are from Jamaat-e-Islami, while two others belong to Ms. Zia’s party.

In February, the tribunal sentenced a senior Jamaat-e-Islami party leader to death, but the decision incited violent clashes between opposition activists and the police that left more than 70 people dead.