Hefazat blamed for demo against Maulana Saad -The Asian Age

A faction of Tabligh Jamaat has blamed Hefazat-E-Islam for instigating Wednesday's demo-nstration against Maulana Saad Kandhalvi. Mizanur Rahman, one of the leaders of Tabligh Jamaat in Bangladesh said to media on Friday that Hefazat-E-Islam's activists carried out the protests against Saad Kandhalvi using Tabligh Jamaat's name.

He also criticized the government for complying with Hefazat-E-Islam's demands and added that Hefazat-E-Islam aims to enforce control over Tabligh followers in Bangladesh. Professor Kazi Sufiar Rahman, Department of Islamic History and Culture, University of Calcutta has also reportedly deplored Hefazat-E-Islam for igniting hue and cry against Mawlana Saad Kandhalvi in Bangladesh.

Hefazat-E-Islam wants to add political colors to religious  preaching and practices, Professor Kazi Sufiar Rahman added. Consideration is going on to move Ijtema to Malaysia from next year, he further said.

On the other hand, Hefazat-E-Islam's joint secretary general Mufti Faizullah has stated that his party did not provoke the agitations against Saad Kandhalvi or any factions of Tabligh Jamaat. However, several leaders of Tabligh Jamaat have asserted that Hefazat-E-Islam played the main roles for making people angry with Mawlana Saad Kandhalvi by raising controversies about him.

A number of Tabligh leaders have said on condition of anonymity that Wednesday's uproarious showdown against Mawlana Saad Kandhalvi was orchestrated by Hefazat-E-Islam's leader Nur Hussain Kashemi who is Hefazat's Dhaka city amir.

According to history, Tabligh Jamaat was founded in 1927 by Muhammad Ilyas Al Kandhalvi in India and Saad Kandhalvi is his great grandson. Mawlana Saad Kandhalvi belongs to Nizamuddin Markaz in Delhi which is Tabligh Jamaat's central office but Saad Kandhalvi was opposed by a number of Islamic scholars from Darul Ulum Deoband of India who denounced him for advising Tabligh Jamaat to reform its leadership pattern and to modernize education system in Islamic academies, relevant sources have informed.

Reportedly seven out of 11 shura members of Tabligh Jamaat in Bangladesh were in favor of Mawlana Saad Kandhalvi but Saad Kandhalvi abstained from attending this year's Ijtema due to the furious expostulations against him which was orchestrated by Hefazat-E-Islam, some Tabligh leaders from Kakrail Mosque have stated to media agencies.

A lot of Tabligh Jamaat members who support Mawlana Saad Kandhalvi have not joined this year's Ijtema in Tongi. Rather they visited Kakrail Mosque to meet Saad Kandhalvi reportedly. Tabligh Jamaat is known as a non-political organization but Hefazat-E-Islam's involvement with a faction of Tabligh Jamaat is not a good sign, several Tabligh leaders have remarked.