I have mixed feelings about this 'blasphemy law'. Because once enacted, it will become very difficult to remove, and prone to being misused.
Suffice to say, I think it'd be better to enact something where it ensures that religious vs. secularism are not unnecessarily brought into every affair. Or in other words, something that isn't destructive to society.
Especially in critical matters such as the war crimes tribunal. The role of religion should not have any role in the matter.
According to the interview BNP leader distanced BNP from blasphemy law saying they never made or proposed the law when they were in power. It is significant that through this interview he indicated BNP has distanced itself from Hefajat E Islam and even described it as a government outfit. He also said about the claim "if any party needs to come to power they needs to come after fulfilling the 13 point demand" which was made by HeI that it is what they said. BNP may agree on some of the demand but likely to disagree with others. Lastly he claimed that Shahbagh and HeI movement both have been created by government to divert people's attention from caretaker government.
HeI didn't demand for restoration of CTG, but the IAB did:
Tens of thousands of Islamic activists prayed on the streets of the Bangladeshi capital today during a rally calling for the introduction of blaspemy laws and the restoration of a caretaker government.
Members of the Islami Andolan Bangladesh are demanding the arrest of 'atheist bloggers who insulted Islam' and to pass laws punishing those who 'insulted Islam in the parliament'.
Tens of thousands of Islamic activists hold prayers on streets of Bangladesh capital to call for new blasphemy laws | Mail Online
The mistake that Shahbagh movement did by demanding ban on all religious political organization and keeping some atheists at the leading position similar sort of blunder has been done by Hefajat E Islam by demanding many medieval era law. At one hand it pained them as extremist and on the other hand pained it as anti woman which eventually forced BNP to distance itself from the party. I am still curious to know who are the people within HeI that put forwarded the 13 point demand...
Is it just the content of the 13 point demand or something else that has forced BNP to distance itself from HeI???
Agreed on the women's part being questionable.
Who are the HeI? Well from what is known, they are an extremely conservative group of Muslims. Probably Salafists (they are not too common in Bangladesh).
What perhaps hit them was that Hasina visited Rajib's home after his murder. That gave them the impression that Rajib, along with possibly others like him are Awami loyalists. Hence, that makes the AL anti-Islam. And that hurt a lot of people's sentiments.
Rest be assured, those are some very angry mullahs. If they fail to control them, then this country would be in trouble.
As far as an Awami conspiracy is concerned, we never know. Some say a powerful third party is also involved. The Soviets invaded Afghanistan with overwhelming military power. In case of Bangladesh, it is coming under invasion, but not in the form of a military one.
As I have said before, I support justice for 1971. But I've always questioned the legitimacy of the tribunal. However, I never imagined this whole affair would go so far and so wide with potentially dire sociopolitical ramifications for the entire nation.