JAMAAT ISLAMI LEADER DISCUSSES POLITICS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DHAKA 000354

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/23/2016
TAGS: KISL PGOV PREL BG JI BGD
SUBJECT: JAMAAT ISLAMI LEADER DISCUSSES POLITICS

Classified By: A/DCM D.C. McCullough, Reason(s): 1.4 (b)


1. (C) Summary: On January 19, Poloff met Jamaat Islami
Assistant Secretary General Abdul Quader Molla in his JI
offices. Molla predicted that the AL would join the
election, and said JI would welcome Ershad's party to the
BNP/JI alliance. He saw no long-term fallout from JMB's
attacks on JI's popularity, and dismissed reports that BNP
protected JMB. He welcomed improved relations between his
party and the USG. End summary.

ELECTIONS
=========


2. (C) Asked if JI will ask for more seats in the next
election, Molla smiled and said, "It would be decided by the
four parties" after April. He said that politically the BNP
and JI are in a transitional period. (Note: This may refer to
the aging leadership of the two parties.) Describing it as a
bargaining situation, he said that the bigger partner always
opens with less at first and it,s up to the smaller partner
to make the larger concession. When pressed, Molla threw out
a number of 30 seats, up from their current 16, but was
non-committal on how many seats JI might demand.


3. (C) If Ershad's Jatiya party joins the BNP/JI coalition,
"it will be different," he said. JI would sacrifice seats
for unity. He said that Ershad has a number of demands for
joining, and some are "close" to our position, such as
keeping Islam is the state religion. He said that it would
be better to have Ershad in a BNP-JI alliance because "it
would be easier to administer the nation" if the AL were
isolated in opposition and therefore less prone to violence.
We are a poor nation, he said, and "can't afford the
destruction of all of those vehicles from the strikes."


4. (C) Molla said that the AL will join the elections and
discounted their threat to boycott as posturing. (Note:
Another JI official told us previously that grassroots AL
officials in many localities are clearly preparing for an
election battle.) He said that JI "recognized our mistakes"
with boycotts and "we have changed."

JMB
===


5. (C) Molla said that the militant Jamaatul Mujahedin
Bangladesh (JMB) are isolated from the people, and drew on a
Mao Tse Tung's analogy to insist that JMB "cannot survive in
the current sea." He said the bombers had to leave their
home areas to bomb another area; for example, the bomber who
attacked the judges in Jalakanthi came from Rajshahi.


6. (C) JI has not been weakened by the association with JMB,
he said. While some JMB members had associations with JI,
particularly the student wing, he said that by their own
admission JMB members left as they disagreed with the JI
stance on adhering to the democratic process. JMB is not
gone but certainly their activities have decreased, but
splinter groups might arise and make future attacks. In
response to a question about the role of madrassahs in JMB
activities, he said that the "common madrassah" is not
involved in supporting or acting as terrorist safehavens or
planning sites. He said that the JMB people are not educated
and therefore can't last.


7. (C) Molla dismissed notions that the BNP government was
protecting JMB people. "It,s a political campaign saying
that Abdur Rahman is being protected." He cited statements
of Mufti Hannan being protected by BNP as a "drama" saying
that Hannan was on the loose under the AL government, so they
must have been protecting him too. Asked who might be
supporting JMB, he said that their explosives have come from
India, and it has been long known that India desires to
control the markets of Bangladesh. India, he added, says
that Bangladesh threatens the stability of all neighboring
states to justify its hostility to Bangladesh.

U.S.- BANGLADESH RELATIONS
==========================


8. (C) Molla appreciated the dialogue between his party and
the US, and wanted to close the distance between Americans
and Islam. Molla told poloff that he took exception to a
recent speech by Secretary Rice, whom he quoted as saying
that Afghanistan is a headache for Pakistan, and the "rest of
South Asia is the headache of India, and they should solve
it." He said that statements like this give India carte
blanche to deal with Bangladesh in harsh ways. He said that
the Bangladeshi people are not ready to surrender to the
"Mogul Empire of India," and asked for deeper bilateral ties
with the US, "Why should we not have the same bilateral
relations with the U.S. that Pakistan does?"


9. (SBU) BIO NOTE: In 1998, Molla had a heart by-pass
operation in Riyadh. He is a diabetic.
CHAMMAS