Jamaat-e-Islami: Apologies, Amnesia and the Shadow of 1971

In the wake of the 2024 July Uprising that unseated Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year rule, Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh is attempting a political resurrection, branding itself as a progressive and tolerant Islamic party. But the past is not easily shed

Following the 2024 July Uprising that toppled Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year rule, Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh has embarked on a journey of political resurgence by rebranding itself as a progressive and tolerant Islamic party. However, this political comeback has not been smooth so far.

The ghost of the past continues to linger on the Jamaat, especially for its controversial role in the 1971 Liberation War. Recently,  Shafiqur Rahman, the Ameer (chief) of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, offered a public apology for all past wrongs since 1947, including the Liberation War. This is not the Jamaat chief’s first apology, although certainly one in direct reference to the Liberation War.

Let’s briefly revisit Jamaat-e-Islami’s role in the 1971 War. Decades of West Pakistan’s colonial gaze towards East Pakistan birthed the sentiments of liberation among ethnic Bengalis in the East. Going against this common wave, Jamaat-e-Islami (founded in 1941) sided with West Pakistan in opposing East Pakistan’s demand for complete independence. The reason is that the Jamaat’s pan-Islamist ideological vision is based on the unity of the Muslim Ummah, whereby East Pakistan’s secessionist aspiration, rooted in (secular) Bengali nationalism, was perceived as a threat to that very vision.

However, leaders and members of Jamaat did not just pledge their allegiance to West Pakistan after the launch of Operation Searchlight, but also became active collaborators of the Pakistan Army, aiding in the latter’s military operations against Bengalis in East Pakistan. Jamaat’s then chief Ghulam Azam, a Bengali himself, was one of the organising members of the East Pakistan Central Peace Committee (Shanti Committee), which became a vital agent (of the Pakistan Army) in compiling a list of liberation fighters and their supporters. Jamaat also played a significant role in the creation of paramilitary anti-liberation forces (Razakar, Al-Badr and Al-Shams) and unleashed relentless violence against its people — the Bengalis.

Together, they had been complicit in the genocide of about three million ethnic Bengalis (includes liberation fighters, Bengali intellectuals, professionals, supporters of liberation fighters), besides the systemic mass rape of about 200-400,000 Bengali women and girls, and pogrom of Hindus. 

In post-1971 Bangladesh, Jamaat has had a tumultuous political journey — from its initial ban from 1971-75, subsequent emergence as the third largest political party in the 1990s, to its senior leaders being tried for their involvement in 1971 war crimes under the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) Act. When its prominent leaders Ghulam Azam and ATM Azharul Islam were arrested and sentenced to the death penalty for 1971 war crimes, Jamaat-e-Islami called it foul play as ‘politically motivated’.

Like Pakistan, the Jamaat refrained from issuing a public apology for its role in 1971. Rather, it denied its institutional involvement in the 1971 War and downplayed allegations of war crimes and human rights violations, despite the documented evidence. Jamaat’s political career came to a halt following a High Court’s decision to declare its registration at the Election Commission illegal for its party charter not conforming to the constitutional principles, barring the largest Islamic party from contesting polls since.

It was also the year when Dhaka witnessed the Shahbag protest, a peaceful demonstration by civil society, demanding the death penalty for Jamaat leader Abdul Qader Molla (sentenced to life imprisonment for 1971 war crimes by the ICT) and a complete ban on Jamaat. In 2020, many former Jamaat activists broke away from the party and established a new political party — Amar Bangladesh — for Jamaat’s persistent refusal to apologise for its role in the Liberation War.

Jamaat’s political resurgence came about after Sheikh Hasina’s deposition when Dr Yunus-led interim Government lifted the ban imposed on Jamaat-e-Islami by the Awami League Government on the allegation of instigating violence in July 2024. The party has been rebranding itself as a tolerant, moderate, progressive party which believes in the independence and sovereignty of Bangladesh and aims to transform Bangladesh into an Islamic welfare state, a calculative step to moving away from its earlier hardliner ideological stand and to keep in line with the spirit of the 2024 Uprising.

Since Sheikh Hasina’s deposition, Bangladesh witnessed a complete political ostracisation of the Awami League (now banned) along with attempts at erasing Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s legacy. The political discourse, too, shifted to the Liberation War, many vying for its redefinition.

Many in Bangladesh call the student-led 2024 July Uprising as ‘second liberation’, one that aspires to fulfil the aspirations of 1971, still unfinished. Jamaat, too, joined the bandwagon and claimed that the country’s ‘true independence’ was achieved in 2024, not in 1971. The party has also been at the forefront to call the July Uprising as a ‘genocide’ committed by the Awami League, although the Chief Prosecutor of the ICT had recently cleared the air and called it as mass killing.

Whenever its role in 1971 was brought up, Jamaat showed its usual restraint. Last November, the Jamaat chief stated that he is ready to apologise only “if 1971 mistakes are proven beyond doubt”. Moreover, he defended the party’s stand in 1971, justifying it as a ‘political stance’ instead of a criminal act and reiterated its doubt on the legitimacy of war crime trials against Jamaat leaders.

This February, the Jamaat chief called former party chief Ghulam Azad a ‘victim of oppression’ who suffered and died under the tyranny of the ‘fascist’ Awami League.

The party also organised a mass sit-in demonstration to demand the release of ATM Azharul Islam, Jamaat’s assistant secretary general, sentenced by the ICT to the death penalty in 2014 for his crimes against humanity in the 1971 War. The party chief maintained that Azharul has been locked in prison for over 13 years “due to false and fabricated cases by the then fascist Government.” When ATM Azharul Islam was acquitted following a Supreme Court verdict in May, then came Jamaat chief’s first apology to anyone who “might have been harmed due to the party or any of its activists anywhere in the country”, while also maintaining that ICT war crime trials against Jamaat leaders were a ‘deliberate purge’ aimed at party leadership.

The whitewashing of recorded war criminals reflects that Jamaat-e-Islami’s apology is one without repentance, the rebranding a mere electoral move. The largest Islamic party has been making efforts to make an alliance with other Islamic parties, following its public fallout with its previous political ally Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). However, Islamic parties have shown hesitancy not just because of ideological differences but also because of the former’s historical baggage concerning the 1971 War.

Jamaat was kept aside when five Islamist parties in April decided to field a single candidate in the next national election. The same parties have now reached an electoral compromise, still excluding Jamaat.

Without a doubt, the Jamaat chief’s recent apology, now with direct reference to the Liberation War, exudes the party’s vulnerability in the electoral field. Perhaps it is to win the confidence of Islamist parties for an electoral alliance of Islamic Unity and to win over public trust, now that the Election Commission has reinstated Jamaat’s registration.

No apology, however, would help Bangladesh’s oldest Islamic party to achieve its much-awaited political comeback if its actions continue to echo the same historical amnesia about the party’s controversial role in 1971.

(The writer is a Research Fellow at International Centre for Peace Studies (ICPS), New Delhi. View are personal)