Bangladesh court rejects bid to scrap Islam as state religion

on Monday rejected a petition by secular activists to scrap Islam’s status as the state religion in the wake of nationwide

 

Bangladesh’s high court on Monday rejected a petition by secular activists to scrap Islam’s status as the state religion in the wake of nationwide protests by hardline Islamist groups.

A special bench of three judges threw out the petition within moments of opening the case and without allowing any testimony, an AFP correspondent at the court said.

The petition, which was first launched 28 years ago, has triggered countrywide protests by Islamist groups in the impoverished nation.

The country’s largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, responded to the court’s decision by withdrawing a call for a nationwide strike. It described the decision as a “victory of 160 million people”.

“The people will never accept any government move to remove Islam as the state religion from the constitution in an effort to please a handful of anti-religion persons,” the Jamaat had said earlier.

More than 90 percent of Bangladesh’s population is Muslim, with Hindus and Buddhists the main minorities.