Fazlul Hoque Amini was an Islamic scholar and politician from Bangladesh.
Career
He served as a Member of Parliament in the Parliament of Bangladesh from 2002 to 2007. He was an expert in the fields of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), hadith and tasawwuf. He also held a number of positions on the boards of qaumi madrasahs.
Mufti Amini was the chairman of a faction of Islami Oikya Jote (IOJ), and also a leader of Tehreek-e-Khatme Nabuwwat.
He was a former component of the Banque Nationale de Paris-led four-party alliance. WikiLeaks cable He died in Dhaka on 12 December 2012.
Views
He has been a voice against the Women Development Policy of 2011 and the Education Policy of 2012 formulated by the Awami League government after coming to power in January 2009, saying those were anti-Islamic. Demanding cancellation of the policies, mainly for the women one, he campaigned among the Islamist parties and groups, and enforced shutdowns in April–May 2011 under the banner of Islami Ain Bastobayon Committee (coalition of parties to implement the Islamic laws).
On women, Amini, in his booklet, termed anti-Islamic the policy"s section-23.5 that talks about women"s equal opportunity and participation in employment, wealth, market and business. So is section 25.2, which seeks to give women full control over the wealth they accumulate through earning, inheritance, loans and market management, according to Amini.
At a gathering on 14 July 2011, Amini, speaking about the 15th Amendment to the Constitution, which among other things restored the principle of secularism and freedom of religion, said, "People will throw the constitution, from where the name of Allah has been dropped, into dustbin ".
He was sued for sedition for this remark, although he argued that it was a figure of speech. On 26 September 2011, the High Court ordered him to surrender to authorities immediately. He spent the remainder of his life under what he termed "house arrest", his movements confined by police to his home and the IOJ party office in Lalbagh Thana, Dhaka.
Amini"s madrasa is now used as the Dhaka coordination office of Hefazat, who are similarly against the freedom of women.
Watch and download a recent video of Shafi on women
A WikiLeaks cable describing a conversation of Amini with Chammas, the United States ambassador in Dhaka of 14 December 2004, reveals many unknown thoughts of the IOJ leader.
Chammas wrote to Washington in the summary: "At a chance encounter with polcouns, IOJ chairman Fazlul Haq Amini denounced Jamaat Islami as power hungry, criticized the BDG on several fronts, opposed the proposed United States dollar 2 billion Tata investment in Bangladesh, indicated the Awami League has offered him money to quit the ruling alliance, and described in general terms his vision for Bangladesh as a truly Islamic state. How, he asked, could IOJ could improve its image in the United States. and why is the United States Government anti-madrassah?".
