Bangladeshis Protest Against Ending Islam As State Religion

Thousands of Muslims rallied in Bangladesh's capital on Friday to stop a court petition seeking to remove Islam as the country's official state religion.
 
Close to 3,000 Muslims protested outside the national mosque in Dhaka against the petition, which is to be taken up by the High Court on Sunday.
 
"We are here to give a message to authorities that we will not tolerate any move to cancel Islam as state religion," said Abdur Rahim, a participant. "We will resist such moves at any cost."
 
A group of citizens filed the petition with the court as the country has seen an upsurge of violence toward non-Muslims.
 
More than 90 percent of Bangladesh's 160 million people are Muslim. Hindus and Buddhists are the main religious minorities and two percent of the population are Christians.
 
Recently, ISIS claimed credit for the stabbing death of a Christian convert, a senseless killing that the group warns should be a "lesson to others."
 
The group argues that the Islamic designation has been used to rationalize recent violence against Christians and other non-Muslims.
 
"Minority groups in Bangladesh continue to face discrimination in the law, in society and in treatment by enforcement agencies," Jubliee Campaign and Christian Solidarity Worldwide said in an oral statement to the United Nations this month.
 
The protest, which began after weekly Friday prayers, was organized by the citizens' group Touhidi Janata and the Islamist group Hefajat-e-Islam. No large political parties were involved.
 
Military dictator H.M. Ershad declared Islam the state religion in 1988 to win support during a campaign by major political parties to oust him from power. He resigned amid large protests in 1990.
 
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina brought back secularism as a pillar of the constitution in 2011, but retained Islam as the state religion.