Bangladeshis protest against Sweden’s right-wing extremist unrest, Al-Aqsa crash
Many also carried the flags of Bangladesh and Palestine during a procession. Bangladesh has no formal diplomatic relations with Israel and supports the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
Protesters marched peacefully through the streets of Dhaka outside the country’s largest Baitul Mokarram mosque following Friday prayers.
The Conservative group has previously organized similar protests condemning the French president and his firm support for secular laws, which said caricatures depicting the Prophet Muhammad were protected by the nation’s freedom of speech.
On Friday, Israeli police stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City, the third holiest site in Islam, after Palestinian youths threw stones at a gate where they were stationed.
The renewed violence at the site, which is also sacred to Jews, came despite the fact that Israel temporarily stopped Jewish visits, which is seen by the Palestinians as a provocation.
Last weekend, violence broke out in southern Sweden despite the police moving a demonstration by a right-wing extremist group, which planned to burn a copy of, among other things, the Koran, to a new location as a preventive measure.
Moulana Imtiaz Alam, leader of Islami Andolon Bangladesh, called on the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Bangladesh to officially condemn such acts. He also demanded that the Organization for Islamic Cooperation raise its voice.
“We ask the OIC and the Muslim countries to play an effective role against the misery and slander of the Koran by Muslims,” he said. “If the Bangladeshi government does not take action in the OIC and the UN, we will conclude that they are working on behalf of Israel,” he said.