DHAKA: Tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered in Bangladesh’s capital on Saturday to demand that followers of a tiny Muslim sect be declared infidels, in a show of force for hard-liners ahead of elections.
The Ahmadiya community, followers of a branch of Sufism that has its origins in 19th-century India, have long been persecuted in Muslim-majority Bangladesh.
Mob attacks targeting sect member were reported across the country when former prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s government fell last year in a student-led revolution.
In the months since then, hard-line Islamist groups that had been stifled under Hasina’s autocratic rule have returned to the fore, in part hoping to make headway in general elections set for February.
The crowd in the heart of Dhaka on Saturday included political leaders and senior Islamic preachers from India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
Some protesters wore T-shirts that read: “Ahmadiyas must be declared kafirs (infidels).”
A banner called for legislation against the sect “now.”
Hard-line Islamic scholars often denounce them as heretics, describing their belief in a prophet after Mohammed as blasphemy.
“Ahmadiyas hold a completely different view from ours, and that’s why they are not us,” protester Mohammad Mamun Sheikh, 50, told AFP.
“They can live in our country like followers of other religions, but not as Muslims,” he added.
A 15-year-old boy at the rally, whose name has been withheld for safety, said his teacher had encouraged him to attend, arguing that “Ahmadiyas are polluting our religion.”
Ahmad Tabshir Choudhury, a spokesman for the Ahmadiya community in Bangladesh, dismissed the theological arguments against them.
“Religion is being used as a political tool,” he told AFP.
Ahmadiyas make up less than one percent of Bangladesh’s population.
“If our community made up even ten percent of the population, things would be different. Ahmadiyas would be treated differently by political parties,” Choudhury said.
He added that despite fear of attacks, community members would not abandon their faith.
“We will not give in,” he said.
They are not us: Bangladeshis rally against minority sect
https://arab.news/58uwf
They are not us: Bangladeshis rally against minority sect
- The Ahmadiya community, followers of a branch of Sufism that has its origins in 19th-century India, have long been persecuted in Muslim-majority Bangladesh
Climate activist group files second lawsuit against Sweden
- Sweden’s Supreme Court in February 2025 ruled that the complaint filed against the state was inadmissible
- “We still have a chance to get out of the planetary crises and build a safe and fair world,” Edling said
STOCKHOLM: A group of climate activists said Friday they were filing another lawsuit against the Swedish state for alleged climate inaction, after the Supreme Court threw out their case last year.
The group behind the lawsuit, Aurora, first tried to sue the Swedish state in late 2022.
Sweden’s Supreme Court in February 2025 ruled that the complaint filed against the state — brought by an individual, with 300 other people joining it as a class action lawsuit — was inadmissible.
The court at the time noted the “very high requirements for individuals to have the right to bring such a claim” against a state.
“We still have a chance to get out of the planetary crises and build a safe and fair world. But this requires that rich countries that emit as much as Sweden stop breaking the law,” Aurora spokesperson Ida Edling said in a statement Friday.
The group, which said the lawsuit had been filed with the Stockholm District Court Friday, said it believes the Swedish state is obligated “to reduce Sweden’s emissions as much and as quickly as necessary in order for the country to be in line with its fair share.”
“This means that emissions from several sectors must reach zero before 2030,” the group said, while noting this was 15 years before Sweden’s currently set targets.
The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency as well as the OECD warned last year that Sweden was at risk of not reaching its own goal of net zero emissions by 2045.
While the first lawsuit was unsuccessful, the group noted that international courts had made several landmark decisions since the first suit was filed, spotlighting two in particular.
In an April 2024 decision, Europe’s top rights court, the European Court of Human Rights, ruled that Switzerland was not doing enough to tackle climate change, the first country ever to be condemned by an international tribunal for not taking sufficient action to curb global warming.
In 2025, the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion stating that countries violating their climate obligations were committing an “unlawful” act.
