How an Islamist party is gaining ground in Bangladesh

Long vilified for opposing independence and barred from electoral politics for over a decade, Bangladesh's biggest Islamist party is reinventing itself and attracting new support ahead of parliamentary polls next month, unsettling moderates and minority communities.



Jamaat-e-Islami began its overhaul soon after a youth-led uprising in the Muslim-majority nation of 175 million people toppled Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in August 2024.



With Hasina’s Awami League banned, Jamaat is betting on its anti-corruption image, welfare outreach, and what analysts describe as a more inclusive public stance to deliver the party's best-ever performance.



A December opinion poll by the U.S.-based International Republican Institute ranked Jamaat as the most "liked" party and projected a tight race with ⁠the Bangladesh Nationalist Party for the top spot in the February 12 election.



The party has its origins in the pan-Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami movement, which emerged in India in the early 1940s and called for a society governed by Islamic principles.



Jamaat opposed Bangladesh's independence, and during Hasina's rule many of its leaders were executed or jailed in a war crimes tribunal that was criticised by international human rights groups.



In 2013, it was barred from elections after a court ruled its charter was in conflict with Bangladesh's secular constitution.