Adopting Islam as the state religion is considered by the Awami League as a means of satisfying the Muslim majority and peacefully coexisting with religious groups such as Hefazat-e-Islam.
In 2011, the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution was adopted during the tenure of Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League as Sheikh Hasina saw the necessity for following an established religion model, while making sure that sufficient rights were also awarded to religious minorities. Islam was declared as the state religion in 1988 during the rule of President Hussain Muhammad Ershad through the Eighth Amendment. President Ziaur Rahman removed the secularism principle from the Constitution in 1977 through the Fifth Amendment. Anti-communalism in Bangladesh does not refer to anti-religion rather, it eliminates conflict between the various subnational communities and describes politics by giving equal status to individuals in a unified national community. In Bangladesh, secularism is understood as the antithesis of communalism.
After independence, the Constitution of Bangladesh was adopted in 1972 and secularism was included in the Constitution. However, secularist ideals were emphasized by the party. Sheikh Mujib and his political party, the Awami League, did not explicitly use the word “secularism” until the independence war in 1971. For this purpose, this Article analyzes statements given by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (known as the Father of the Nation and the leader of the Bangladesh Awami League) to identify the secularism model followed in Bangladesh. This Article aims to discuss the various interpretations of secularism, create a classification of secularism models, and examine how secularism is considered in Bangladesh. Others are of the view that, while secularism denotes separation between religion and state, there should be little involvement of religion in the public domain because it is a vital part of the lives of individuals. According to some scholars, secularism is the phenomenon in which religion is fully separated from the state and plays no part in the public domain. There are different ways in which scholars comprehend secularism.
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