{"id":7118,"date":"2026-01-24T08:55:46","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T08:55:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/?p=7118"},"modified":"2026-01-24T08:55:47","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T08:55:47","slug":"u-s-ties-with-jamaat-are-an-ominous-signal-forhad-mazhar-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/?p=7118","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Ties with Jamaat Are an \u201cOminous Signal,\u201d Forhad Mazhar Says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Poet and public intellectual <strong>Forhad Mazhar<\/strong> on Friday described what he called an existing relationship between the <strong>Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami<\/strong> and the <strong>United States<\/strong> as a \u201cfrightening, ominous signal,\u201d urging politics to refocus on safeguarding people\u2019s basic needs rather than external alignments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Speaking at a discussion titled <em>\u201cNationwide Crisis of Gas, Electricity and Safe Water: What Society Must Do\u201d<\/em> at the National Press Club, Mazhar was asked about a media report claiming Washington seeks \u201cfriendship\u201d with Jamaat and would impose 100% tariffs if the party attempted to introduce Sharia law. He replied that \u201cevery party in Bangladesh is linked to the U.S. in some way\u2014some directly, some indirectly,\u201d adding that the post\u2013August 5 upheaval amounted internationally to a U.S.-favored \u201cregime change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Citing what he called a \u201charsh reality\u201d of global power politics and disregard for international law, Mazhar said his concern is how <strong>170 million Bangladeshis<\/strong> can \u201clive on lentils and rice in peace,\u201d not entering anyone\u2019s wars. He argued Jamaat\u2019s stance over issues such as Gaza indicates a policy relationship with Washington and called that <strong>\u201can ominous sign.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mazhar urged against attempts to drive a wedge between the <strong>armed forces<\/strong> and ordinary people, noting soldiers \u201care sons of farmers and workers,\u201d and warned that any such divide would be dangerous. On Gaza, he said public opinion in Bangladesh would reject participation in any international military initiative seen as aligning with Israel and the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On domestic politics, Mazhar said the <strong>goal of the mass uprising<\/strong> was to build a state that secures people\u2019s livelihoods, but that goal has been sidelined. \u201cIf looting structures aren\u2019t dismantled first, elections won\u2019t produce a people\u2019s government,\u201d he said, arguing for <strong>state reform before polls<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Turning to utilities, he called the crises in <strong>gas, electricity and water<\/strong> \u201cstructural and political,\u201d alleging that despite expanded generation capacity, people still face outages while private producers receive payments from the treasury. He attributed water woes to state mismanagement, river grabbing and commercial plunder. \u201cReal politics means establishing people\u2019s control over food, water, energy and land,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The event was organized by the <strong>Gonobipplob Shurokkha Moncho (Mass Uprising Protection Platform)<\/strong>. Among others, <strong>Ahmed Ferdous<\/strong> and <strong>Mohammad Romel<\/strong> addressed the session.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Poet and public intellectual Forhad Mazhar on Friday described what he called an existing relationship between the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and the United States as a \u201cfrightening, ominous signal,\u201d urging politics to refocus on safeguarding people\u2019s basic needs rather than external alignments. Speaking at a discussion titled \u201cNationwide Crisis of Gas, Electricity and Safe Water: What [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7121,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-5"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7118"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7126,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7118\/revisions\/7126"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}