Voting for Jamaat is haram: Islamist Hefazat launches jihad on Bangladesh poll eve

Just days before Bangladesh's parliamentary elections on February 12, the Islamist advocacy group, Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh, has opened a front against the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, the country's leading Islamist political party. The Ameer of Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh, Allama Shah Muhibbullah Babunagari, declared "jihad" against the Jamaat and warned that it was "haram (religiously forbidden) for Muslims to vote for it".

Announcing his support for a BNP candidate in the eastern city of Chattogram, Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh's chief Allama Shah Muhibbullah Babunagari on Thursday (February 5) said, "For me, this is not an election. This is a jihad against the Jamaat", reported Bangladeshi newspaper Desh Rupantor.

He further added that the Hefazat-e-Islam had fundamental ideological and doctrinal differences with the Shafiqur Rahman-led Jamaat-e-Islami, accusing the party of "misinterpreting Islam". "We must unite to prevent the rise of this false force," Babunagari added.

"Voting for the Jamaat is haram for all Muslims and is not permissible in any way... We have fundamental and doctrinal differences with Jamaat-e-Islami. They do not give a correct explanation of the religion. Therefore, we must unite to prevent the rise of this false force," Babunagari was quoted as saying by Bangladesh Protidin, a Dhaka-based newspaper.

Surveys have suggested that the Jamaat-e-Islami is likely to emerge stronger than ever in the February election. It is said to be breathing down the neck of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the frontrunner.

In September 2025, a report in Bangladeshi newspaper Prothom Alo noted that the BNP, now being led by Tarique Rahman, intensified outreach to the Hefazat. The report also said that, while the Hefazat had previously worked within alliances that included Jamaat without objection, it had begun opposing it.

On February 12, apart from voting to select the next government, the people of Bangladesh will also vote to approve or reject the July Charter, which the Islamist-backed Muhammad Yunus regime has said is linked to "the birth of a new Bangladesh".

WHY HEFAZAT-E-ISLAM HAS DECLARED JIHAD ON JAMAAT-E-ISLAMI

The remarks of Babunagari, the Ameer of Hefazat, against the Jamaat come months after he called it a hypocrite Islamic party.

In August 2025, Babunagari said, "Jamaat-e-Islami is a hypocrite Islamic party. It is not an authentic one. I'm not the only one saying this. Our respected elders have said so as well. Jamaat-e-Islami follows the Islam of Maududi, whereas we follow the Islam of Madinah. Practising Maududi's Islam puts one's faith at risk," reported Dhaka-based newspaper, The Daily Star.

Jamaat follows the political-ideological interpretation of Islam developed by Abul A'la Maududi, which views the religion primarily as a comprehensive system for establishing an Islamic state, with sovereignty belonging to God and religion inseparable from political power.

In September 2025, Jamaat-e-Islami condemned and rejected the statements of Babunagari, calling them "fabricated" and "baseless".

In contrast, the Islam of Madinah, as practised, is rooted in moral reform, community consensus, plural coexistence, and prophetic authority rather than party ideology, with governance emerging organically from ethical leadership and social contracts like the Charter of Madinah, not from a doctrinal political movement.

HEFAZAT-E-ISLAM AND ITS ANTI-INDIA, ANTI-HINDU STANCE

Hefazat-e-Islam, is a Bangladesh-based Sunni Deobandi Islamist advocacy group. Founded in January 2010, it is based in the vast network of Qawmi madrasas, with its headquarters at the Al-Jamiatul Ahlia Darul Ulum Moinul Islam madrasa in Chattogram.

While it claims to be a non-political advocacy group, it exerts significant political pressure through mass mobilisations and a 13-point charter of demands aimed at "Islamizing" Bangladesh's legal and social framework.

Less than a month after coming to power after PM Sheikh Hasina's regime's ouster, Muhammad Yunus met Mamunul Haque, a leader of the Hefazat-e-Islam and his group members in Dhaka. In the final years of her regime, Hasina was trying to woo Hefazat to widen her voter base.

In December 2025, when the Bangladeshi Police arrested 12 individuals for targeting the Assistant High Commission of India in Chattogram, Mufti Harun bin Izhar, a senior leader of the Hefazat-e-Islam, stormed into the station and confronted officers there. Following that, the 12 individuals were released by the police.

In November 2025, when Bangladesh's interim administration planned to recruit music and physical education teachers in primary schools, Islamist groups, including Hefazat-e-Islam, called it "un-Islamic", and threatened street unrest if their demands for religious teachers over arts educators were not met.

In December 2024, a Hefazat-e-Islam member filed a case against Hindu monk Chinmoy Krishna Das and hundreds of his followers in Bangladesh. The Hefazat also sought a ban on Iskcon in Bangladesh.

The most prominent display of Hefazat's anti-India sentiment came during PM Narendra Modi's visit to Bangladesh in March 2021 for the country's Golden Jubilee of independence. The Hefazat-e-Islam enforced a nationwide strike. Its members attacked a train in the eastern district of Brahmanbaria, resulting in injuries to 10 people.

Hefazat, after the revocation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), organised rallies to galvanise its base in Bangladesh. It portrayed India as an existential threat to the Ummah.

So, while the Islamist groups are now up against each other, Bangladesh's election has seemingly turned into a battle for defining "true" Islam. The Hefazat-Jamaat rupture shows the ideological fault lines within political Islam in Bangladesh on the eve of national elections.