Awami League, Ummah, and Political Islam

Abstract

This chapter shows how top leaders of the Awami League (AL) see themselves as part of ummah and situate party platforms within the critic of Western modernity and democracy. The AL is one of the oldest and most influential political parties in the country. Many Bangladeshi scholars consider the AL to be a secular political force in the country. I argue that by emphasizing the secularity of the AL, this group of Bangladeshi experts misrepresent the dominant ideological character of the party. This chapter shows how the AL constituted itself as a moderate Muslim party, which supported anti-Zionism in its foreign policy, aligned Bangladesh with Muslim majority states in the Middle East, patronised the Islamization of Bangladeshi society, and extended its political support to other conventional Islamist parties and religiously conservative forums. Finally, this chapter will further demonstrate that in order to maintain its strategy of Islamization, the AL defines secularism as part of Islam.