Kolkata, July 9 (TIWN) Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) lawmaker Harunur Rashid has pitched for an Islamist Bangladesh, opposing the secular polity that the ruling Awami League seeks to uphold.

During his speech in the Bangladesh Parliament this week, Rashid said, "There is no place for secularism in Islam." His comment was opposed by the Awami League lawmakers, including Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

But Rashid continued to strongly push for a Constitution based on "Islam as enshrined in the Holy Quran", negating the often-made claims by the BNP politicians that their party is for "equality before law" of all Bangladeshis.

The BNP had made its political preference clear when it formed the government in 2001 with pro-Pakistan Jamaat-e-Islami as its coalition partner.

For the next five years of the BNP-Jamaat reign, a surfeit of Islamist radical terror groups like HUJI, JMB and Ansarullah Bangla Team surfaced or consolidated their position in Bangladesh, unleashing horrible pogroms against minority Hindus, Buddhists and Christians.

Jamaat-e-Islami had opposed the break-up of Pakistan and the emergence of an independent Bangladesh, with its top politicians functioning as local collaborators of the Pakistan army in its genocidal campaign.

The BNP was born in the military barracks, and its founder and military ruler General Ziaur Rahman had legitimised the pro-Pakistani collaborators by removing the ban on them. Its brand of Bangladeshi nationalism is religion-driven.