Press Release
Resist the Malicious Tactics of Hasina Government to Hide their Corruption, Misrule and People's Misery by Inciting the ‘Sculpture versus Statue’ Controversy

While the price of the hard-labor earned paddy of the helpless farmers has fallen abnormally, the increasing prices of all daily necessities including rice, potatoes, vegetables are bringing immense suffering to the people, workers are protesting for government’s capitalist policies to shut down jute and sugar mills resulting in widespread unemployment, the future of students is uncertain due to the closure of educational institutions, public money is being distributed among the capitalists in the name of incentives by keeping the Coronavirus politics alive, heightened fear is being created in the name of second wave of Coronavirus to make people victims of the million-dollar vaccine ventures of the corrupt businessmen, and protests against government corruption are exploding, Hasina government is fanning the flames of controversy between sculpture and statue to hide their misrule and failure to protect people’s livelihood. Moreover, even though the secular intellectuals are always active against government policies and corruption, but this time the government has cleverly included them in the fight against Islamists who oppose idols or sculpture.

O People, undoubtedly, building an 'idol or sculpture' in the public place is 'munkar' and the secular system is 'Ummul munkar’ (mother of all munkar). Secularists have always denied the existence of the Creator from life’s affairs and the State and taken the Creator’s sovereignty and sanctity for themselves. As a result, the secular rulers idolize their leading figures and impose their images and statues on the people by placing them in courts, offices and public places, forcing them to worship them indirectly. A good example of this were the Soviets who denying the existence of the God, sanctified Lenin and Stalin and their words and statements in the same way we sanctify the Qur'an and the Hadith. They erected huge statues across the country to embody them and compulsorily displayed their pictures in all government and public offices. Similarly, you also see here that the current secular government has ordered that all government and public offices must display pictures of Sheikh Mujib and Sheikh Hasina. This act of sanctification will be clearer if we look at the country's blasphemy laws – maximum ten years’ imprisonment for defaming any religion, but maximum of life-imprisonment for defaming Sheikh Mujib or Sheikh Hasina! Not satisfied with this, they have now taken the initiative to place statues of Sheikh Mujib all over the country. In the eyes of Islam, these actions are Jahiliyyat (ignorance), utterly forbidden and contrary to ‘Imaan. Allah (swt) says,

[ذَلِكُمُ اللَّهُ رَبُّكُمْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا هُوَ خَالِقُ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ فَاعْبُدُوهُ وَهُوَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ وَكِيلٌ]

“He is Allah, your Lord; There is no deity except Him, the Creator of all things, so worship Him. And He is the Disposer of all affairs” [Surah Al-An’am-102]. Thus, there is no scope for legitimizing these activities by citing examples of statutes in other secular Muslim states.

O People, the secular Hasina government is deploying various malicious tactics to cover up their corruption and misery of the people, and have been inciting different issues, one after another, to divert your attention from them. You have witnessed how in the secular system this corrupt ruling regime protects the interests of themselves, the capitalist elites and the Kafir colonialists, looting the resources of the people, and oppressing the larger masses. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, «الإمام راع ومسؤول عن رعيته»“The caliph (imam) is the guardian and responsible for the citizens”. Therefore, without wasting your time in idol or sculpture debates, make a one-point demand for the re-establishment of the Khilafah (Caliphate) State by removing the current secular ruling regime and the Kufr secular system. According to the promise of the RasulAllah (peace be upon him), the Khilafah will be established soon and all oppression will be banished from the state and society forever:

«ثُمَّ يَرْفَعُهَا إِذَا شَاءَ أَنْ يَرْفَعَهَا ثُمَّ تَكُونُ خِلَافَةً عَلَى مِنْهَاجِ النُّبُوَّةِ»

“The rule of tyranny will end, after that the rule of Khilafah will come in the way of Prophethood”[Musnad Ahmad].

Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Wilayah Bangladesh