Tarique Rahman: The Bengali people saw who they are in 1971

BNP Chairman Tarique Rahman has bashed Jamaat-e-Islami and the party’ recent activities during the launch of the election campaign at a rally at the Alia Madrasa ground in Sylhet. He called a member of the audience to the stage and said, “You have been to the Kaaba Sharif. Who owns the Kaaba Sharif?” The man responded, “Allah.”

Tarique then said, “We are all Muslims. Who is the owner of this world that we see in this day and age?” The man again responded, “Allah.”

“Who is the owner of the sun and the stars that we see?” Tarique asked, and the answer came “Allah.”

The BNP Chairman asked, “Who is the owner of heaven?”

“Allah.”

“Who is the owner of hell?”

“Allah,” the man said, as the crowd chanted in unison, “Allah, Allah.”

Then Tarique said: “You all bore witness that the owner of hell is Allah; the owner of heaven is Allah; the owner of this world is Allah; the owner of the Kaaba is Allah. Brother, does anyone else have the power to give away what is owned by Allah? No. So, before the election, if a party says, ‘We will give you this, we will give you that,’ doesn’t that mean ‘I will sell you tickets?’”

“If they speak of things that are not owned by humans – isn’t that ‘Shirk’? If they speak of something that is owned by Allah, which only Allah has control over? Only Allah has rights over everything – Allah has rights above all.

“That is why they are cheating you already. Then think how they will cheat you after the election.”

The BNP chairman said, “They are not only deceiving the people, they are making those who are Muslims commit ‘Shirk’. We seek refuge in Allah.”

“Dear brothers and sisters, this country, this country, this beloved motherland, was liberated at the cost of the lives of millions of people during the war in 1971. We saw what roles people played during the liberation of this motherland. We saw who played a role in hundreds and thousands of our brothers being martyred. The honour of hundreds of thousands of the mothers and sisters of this country was defiled. The people of Bangladesh already know them.”

Tarique said, “We have to unite against this apostacy, this rashness, this lie. We have to take back Bangladesh.

“We have freed the country from tyranny, now we have to establish human rights. Just establishing the right to vote and speak is not enough; we have to make arrangements to empower people and raise them onto their own feet. We have to make arrangements so that every person in Bangladesh can eat properly and live well. We have to make arrangements so that every person can walk safely on the streets. That is what it means to take back Bangladesh.”