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The Bangladesh government has ordered mosques and libraries to be purged of all books written by Abul Ala Maududi. The chief of the state-funded Islamic Foundation has said the late Jamaat-i-Islami founder's books encourage “militancy and terrorism”. He added that the decision was taken as Maulana Maududi's works are “against the peaceful ideology of Islam”.
It appears there is a political angle to the Awami League government's decision. Observers have said the government wants to keep a check on the activities of the Bangladesh Jamaat-i-Islami allied with the Awami League's arch-rival, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Maulana Maududi's works have influenced the ideology of the various chapters of the Jamaat in the subcontinent. Bangladesh's state minister for religious affairs told parliament the other day that the government would withdraw books written by persons 'identified' as having been involved in 'war crimes' and 'crimes against humanity' during the 1971 war.
Banning books is a perilous proposition. Democracy and tolerance demand that opposing viewpoints and ideologies be heard, as long as they don't promote hatred and violence. Though many people may not agree with Maulana Maududi's politics or his worldview, banning his works does not seem prudent. All shades of opinion must be represented in public discourse and debates about the subjects the Jamaat founder has written on — politics, religion and their intertwining — must continue. While it may be true that Abul Ala Maududi's writings have contributed to increasing conservatism in society, to say they encourage terrorism is debatable. The Jamaat believes and participates in parliamentary democracy both in Pakistan and Bangladesh, while religious extremists have no qualms about violently overthrowing such a system. It can be safely assumed that Al Qaeda, the Taliban and similar extremist movements power their ideological engines by exploiting geopolitical issues and narrowly interpreting religious texts, not studying Maulana Maududi's works.
