[size=5pt]Supporters of hardline Islamist group Islami Andolan Bangladesh protesting against the "lady justice" statue and asking for it to be replaced with a Quran, despite the country's secular Constitution.PHOTOS: EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY[/size]

DHAKA • Thousands of supporters of a hardline Bangladeshi Islamist group staged protests yesterday calling for the removal or destruction of a controversial statue at the nation's highest court.

The statue of "lady justice" has ruffled feathers in the Muslim-majority nation, with hardliners in recent weeks protesting against what they say is a Greek god unbefitting of Bangladesh.

Protesters want the statue of the blindfolded woman holding scales - said to represent justice - destroyed and replaced with a Quran, despite Bangladesh's secular Constitution.

Supporters of the Islami Andolan Bangladesh (IAB) gathered after Friday prayers outside the country's national mosque Baitul Mukarram, in central Dhaka, chanting and wielding placards with slogans such as "demolish the statue on the court premises".

Local police chief Rafiqul Islam said: "Nearly 10,000 protesters attended the rally. Security has been beefed up in the area."

IAB spokesman Atiqur Rahman said the group also wanted the removal of the country's chief justice because of his "procrastination" in removing the statue.

Last week, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told a meeting of top Islamic seminary teachers that she, too, disliked the statue, boosting the hardliners' stance.

Secular rights groups accused her of kowtowing to the Islamists in preparation for an early general election.

Court officials have defended the statue as a symbol of justice.

Conservative Bangladesh has experienced increasing tensions between hardliners and secularists in recent years, suffering a spate of killings of atheist bloggers, religious minorities and foreigners.

And so the cancer in Bangladesh continues to spread...

Divide the country between Muslims and Others just like Malaysia and Singapore

OjukwuWarBird:
Divide the country between Muslims and Others just like Malaysia and Singapore

It is already kind of like this. The problem is the islamists are getting bolder and openly murdering non-muslims and people who support a secular non-muslim state. People are scared to speak out because they fear the islamists will come for them next.

They are already corrupting the education system with bullsh$% and are removing historical Bengali writers who are not muslim.

They always think up new forms of madness to exhibit! Why must everything be their way or be destroyed? Shedding innocent blood is absolutely nothing to them!

Islam is the largest religion of Bangladesh, the Muslim population is approximately 146.6 million, [/b]which is the fourth largest Muslim population in the world (after Indonesia, Pakistan, and India), [b]constituting 90% of the total population as of 2011.

Religion has always been a strong part of identity, but this has varied at different times. A survey in late 2003 confirmed that religion is the first choice by a citizen for self-identification.
The constitution makes Bangladesh a secular state and guarantees freedom of religion, however the United Nations has recognized the country as moderate Muslim democratic country.

...but what has the statue got to do with Islam?does it stop them from praying 5 times a day?if the quaran is used in its place would it guarantee paradise for them?

Muslims are the most selfish people on earth. They are so intolerant of other people's belief. Imagine a world without Islam. Religion is not the problem, Islam actually is.

madridguy:
Islam is the largest religion of Bangladesh, the Muslim population is approximately 146.6 million, [/b]which is the fourth largest Muslim population in the world (after Indonesia, Pakistan, and India), [b]constituting 90% of the total population as of 2011.

Religion has always been a strong part of identity, but this has varied at different times. A survey in late 2003 confirmed that religion is the first choice by a citizen for self-identification.
The constitution makes Bangladesh a secular state and guarantees freedom of religion, however the United Nations has recognized the country as moderate Muslim democratic country.

Demographics alone without context is like reading the last chapter of a long book. You are not getting the entire story.

Bangladesh won independence from Pakistan after a long civil war, in which islamist back Pakistani militants massacred hundreds of thousands of people, and raped thousands of women systematically, along with other massive atrocities such as torture and the murder of children. This terror and firsthand experience of radical islam is one of the reasons why the Bangladeshi State formulated a secular constituation in the first place, despite it's large muslim population.

However, huge war criminals from the ~1970 civil war still exist within Bangladesh's government - all of whom are wahhabists, salafists and other islamists, and secularism and free-thinking are being murdered by the thugs they employ on the street. In the past 4 years, human rights bloggers and movement leaders have been murdered nearly every month by bloodthirsty islamist muslims wielding machetes. This includes people who support local tribe rights, people who support women's rights and education, people who disagree with islamic beliefs and people who are atheists. The worst thing is that the Bangladesh government does nothing. They just sit around and let these murderous monsters get away with it, instead blaming the victims for 'not respecting islam' or some stupid sh&^ like that.

Bangladesh just a few years ago had a lot of progressive politics and secular movements, but Saudi-Arabia backed shariah muslims are destroying that and are instilling fear into the people. Bangladesh is on the knife edge of becoming a fully realised islamic state.