Source: Undivided US Blog
In the ongoing debate over Islam and democracy, Bangladesh, the eighth largest country in the world, with 164 million people—90 percent of them Muslim—is, oddly enough, seldom discussed. Yet Bangladesh has been a democratic, parliamentary republic since 1991. The country will hold new general elections no later than January 2014. The government of female prime minister Shaikha Hasina Wajed and the Bangladesh Awami League has barred the radical Muslim party Jamaat-e Islami (JEI) from participation in the balloting. The Bangladesh government judged the JEI program incompatible with the country’s secular constitution. JEI was founded in British India in 1943 by ideologist Abu’l Ala Mawdudi.
Categories: Americas, Asia, Bangladesh