The leader of the Bangladeshi community in Lisbon, Rana Taslimuddin, challenges the leader of the Chega list for the European elections, Antonio Tanger Correa, to provide “proof” for the claim that “two Islamist parties banned in Bangladesh” held an alleged “summit”. In Lisbon on May 11.
The allegation was made by Tanger Correa on Thursday during a face-to-face debate with the head of the National Action Party list, Pedro Fidalgo Márquez, held on Radio Observador. The discussion is available as a podcast and can be listened to in full here. The statements in question came after 17 minutes and 30 seconds.
Tangier Kuria said, “On May 11, a summit was organized in Lisbon between two Bangladeshi Islamic parties banned in Bangladesh,” and he classified these two parties as “wanting to Islamize Europe.” When Fidalgo Márquez accused Chiga’s candidate of spreading conspiracy theories, Tanger Correa responded: “Go ask SIS if this is not true.”
Today, Friday, the observer asked the Security Information Authority about whether it had confirmed its monitoring of the alleged summit, as well as its follow-up by the authority, but it did not receive any response until the publication of this article. Another question that remains unanswered is whether this will lead to any action being taken to understand the source of the information leak, if true. The internal security system and the Information System Supervisory Board of the Portuguese Republic were also called into question.
Speaking to the Observador on Friday, Rana Taslimuddin, a resident of Portugal since the 1990s and the main face of the Bangladeshi Muslim community in Lisbon, confirmed that he was not aware of any meeting held in the Portuguese capital with these landmarks and on that date.
“We don’t know anything,” says the official, noting that, as far as he knows, “there is no extremist group banned in Bangladesh in Portugal.” Rana Taslimuddin reiterated that he was not aware of any information about a political meeting of any group in Bangladesh, and also said that Tanga Korea “must provide proof” of the existence of “these banned extremist groups.”
The leader of the Bangladeshi community states that there is “a group called Jamaat-e-Islami, which is not from Bangladesh, but is international.” It is an Islamic movement with its origins in the 1940s in British India, with the aim of promoting a society guided by Islamic law. In the first half of the twentieth century, this movement spread to many Asian countries in addition to India, including Pakistan and Bangladesh, and also led to the emergence of its branches in European countries.
“It is an international organization, and in Bangladesh there is a section,” explains Rana Taslimuddin, who noted that many branches of Jemaah Islamiyah have been banned or banned in different parts of the world, including Bangladesh, due to extremists. ideology.
In 2013, Jamaat-e-Islami, at the time the largest Islamist party in Bangladesh, was banned from running in the legislative elections the following year. According to the news at the timeThe party’s ideology conflicted with the secular principles of the country’s constitution. Four years ago, the party was the target of a petition by a group of citizens seeking to have the party declared illegal, as the JI’s project was to implement the law. Islamic Law (Islamic law) in the country. The party was actually banned in 1971, but returned in 1976.
Rana Taslimuddin also reminded The Observer that sections associated with this global movement settled in England and several other European countries, such as France and Italy, but would also end up being declared illegal about a decade ago. The same would have happened in Portugal, where the existence of a “small” group was recorded, with only “hundreds” of members, which would also end up being banned by the Portuguese authorities, similar to the British decision.
According to the official in charge of the Bangladeshi Islamic community in Lisbon, the majority of people who were associated with this group are no longer even in Portugal. On the contrary, the migrants arriving in Portugal from Bangladesh in recent years are “younger” and “educated” – with less religious fanaticism.
However, Rana Taslimuddin pointed out that “any Muslim can organize a meeting or give a lecture, just as we come together in the month of Ramadan,” and that this “does not mean it is an extremist or banned group.” For this reason, and insisting that he was not aware of any political initiative on the part of those groups that had already been declared illegal around the world, the leader of the group, Tangier Correa, asked to provide “proof” that such a “summit” had been “organised” in Lisbon. .
