100,000 Bangladesh Muslim clerics rally against extremism

More than 100,000 clerics and preachers rallied in the Bangladeshi capital against Islamist extremism Thursday (April 6) after a resurgence of attacks by militant groups in the Muslim-majority nation. Organisers said the rally was staged to protest a violent “power grab” in the name of Islam in Muslim majority Bangladesh, where a rise in Islamist […]

More than 100,000 clerics and preachers rallied in the Bangladeshi capital against Islamist extremism Thursday (April 6) after a resurgence of attacks by militant groups in the Muslim-majority nation.

Organisers said the rally was staged to protest a violent “power grab” in the name of Islam in Muslim majority Bangladesh, where a rise in Islamist extremism has sparked international concern.

The rally followed suicide attacks on Bangladeshi security forces that sparked a series of raids in which nearly two dozen suspected extremists were killed.

Police said Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina addressed more than 100,000 clerics in a park in central Dhaka where two top Saudi Arabian clerics delivered sermons against extremism.

“There is no place for terror and extremism in Islam,” Shaikh Mohammed bin Naser Al Khujaim, a senior cleric from Mecca, told the rally.

“Muslims across the world must stand firm against this terror and extremism.”  (The Straits Times)