Dhaka: The most unexpected outcome of Bangladesh's August 2024 'Gen-Z' revolution has been an Islamist resurgence, with a few in the country expecting that radical Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami would make history by emerging as the country's main opposition after securing a third of the votes in the February 12 elections, a report detailed.
The student-led uprising had ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, under whose government Jammat had been banned.
Emphasising that Jamaat staged its comeback by focusing on issues beyond its traditional Islamist platform, a report in The Economist said, "Under its current leader, Shafiqur Rahman, it plays down its religious roots and presents itself as the anti-establishment. Jamaat also has history to atone for. In Bangladesh's war of liberation in 1971, it fought against independence from Pakistan. And, though it is more than 90 per cent Muslim, Bangladesh has a proud tradition of moderate Islam and secular politics."
According to the report, Jamaat's calculated move was in campus politics, where its student wing won all the big student-union elections in 2025. (IANS)
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