Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Leader
Maulana Abul Kalam Muhammad Yusuf Passed away in prison
Jamaat leader Yusuf was arrested from his Dhanmondi residence on May 12, 2013
February 09, 2014: The senior Nayeb-e-Ameer of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami A.K.M Yusuf has passed away in prison from a reported cardiac arrest. (Innalillahe wa Inna ilahyhe rajeon) Moulana Yusuf has been undergoing trial for alleged war crimes and crime against humanity in 1971 in the Internation Crimes Tribunal (ICT) 2. Yusuf is among the top Jamaat leaders against whom charges of war crimes have been brought by the Awami League government. He was in the prison for the trial of WC. He was refused for bail for his treatment. He was a prominent scholar, author of many books and established many institutes in Bangladesh. On February 12, the International Crimes Tribunal-2 was supposed to hear from the prosecution the summing up arguments of the case with the accused Yusuf in the dock. Yusuf was arrested from his Dhanmondi residence on May 12 last year hours after the tribunal, responding to a prosecution plea, issued a warrant for his arrest on charges of war crimes.
On August 1 last year, the tribunal indicted Yusuf for his involvement in crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War. The tribunal considered 13 out of 15 charges of crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War as proposed by the prosecution on May 8 last year which fall under sections 3(2), 4 (1) and 4 (2) of the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act 1973. Yusuf, also the second man in the hierarchy of Jamaat leadership, had been facing trial on charges of genocide, killing, loot, arson, deportation of people and religious conversion. Reputed international bodies including the Human Rights Watch and International Bar Association have raised serious questions regarding the tribunals lack of due process and allegations of collusion among the government and the judges. BDINN: http://bdinn.com/news/a-k-m-yusuf-passes-away-at-age-88/
Biography
Maulana Abul Kalam Muhammad Yusuf is a distinguished religious scholar, writer, civil society leader, social reformer and a veteran politician in Bangladesh. Maulana Yusuf is a specialist in the study of hadith (Prophetic tradition) and has published widely in the field; he earned the title Muhaddesin for his post-graduate degree as a hadith scholar. As a prominent citizen of Bangladesh, he has gained national and international recognition for his dedication to scholarship and social justice. He has represented Bangladesh abroad as a delegate to various policy and scholarly conferences in South and Southeast Asia and the Middle East, as well as various events among the Bangladeshi diaspora communities in Europe and America. In Bangladesh, he has served as the Chairman of Bangladesh Peasants Welfare Society for over thirty years and as a senior official of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh for over sixty years.
Established Several Islamic Institutions: Orphanage, Schools, Mosques
Personal Life and Education
Maulana A.K.M. Yusuf was born in February 1926 in the village of Rajair (Sarankhala) in the district of Bagerhat in Bangladesh. He began his early education at the village school, and upon completing lowerprimary school there, he attended minor school in Rayenda. With his mothers special encouragement, he was able to continue his education at the secondary level, enrolling at Galua Madrasa in Barisal. To attend school, he would have to travel by water from the port of Rayenda to the port of Bhandariya (serviced at the time by a small ship run by a British-owned company called Sibsa). When WWII broke out in 1939, he was still a student there. Subsequently, he briefly attended the Sharshina Aliya Madrasa and then Amtali Madrasa in Barisal, where he began his education in nahw and sarf (Arabic grammar and morphology), hadith and Quranic tafsir. Maulana Yusuf completed his higher education in Dhaka at the public Alia Madrasa, and excelled at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. He ranked 1st in the country in the 1950 Fazil (Honors) examination under the East Pakistan Madrasa Board, which earned him a government scholarship for the rest of his studies. Following his post-graduate education in the Islamic sciences, he took the Title/Kamil examinations in 1952 and attained recognition as a Mumtazul Muhaddesin, the highest distinction available to scholars of hadith in Bangladesh. Maulana Yusuf spent many years teaching at a number of madrasas in Bangladesh, including Khulna Alia Madrasa and Tikikata Senior Madrasa in Mothbaria (Barisal), where he served as Head Master. Maulana Yusuf has been married to his wife since 1949. He has five daughters and three sons, and twenty-four grandchildren. Inspired directly by the singular example and guidance of his scholarship and his life-long passion for learning, Maulana Yusufs daughters, sons and grandchildren have all tried to live up to the aspirations of an academically gifted family: many of them have been blessed to attend and obtain higher degrees from some of the leading institutions in Bangladesh and across the world (including BUET, NSU, IIUM, Colgate, George Washington, Harvard, Harvey Mudd, NJIT, UC-Davis, UTAustin, Toronto, Waterloo, Yale etc). They are accomplished in their respective fields in business, medicine, technology and academia, and are all dedicated to serving the communities in which they live, as well as the people of Bangladesh, to the best of their abilities.
Leadership of Bangladesh Peasants Welfare Society
Maulana A.K.M. Yusuf devoted his professional career in leading the Bangladesh Peasants Welfare Society (BPWS, ). Maulana Yusuf founded BPWS in 1977 as a non-government, non-political and non-profit social welfare organization. In a primarily agrarian economy like Bangladesh, where the majority of the population comprises of farmers, peasants or day laborers living in abject poverty, BPWS has sought to represent the interests and demands of peasants at the grassroots level. BPWS has now grown to become one of the most well-known NGOs among farmers in Bangladesh, with chapters in all 64 districts of the country and with sub-chapters in each sub-district, comprising several hundred thousand individual members benefiting a few million households.
Maulana AKM Yusuf, Chairman of Bangladesh Peasants Welfare Society, meets with Sheikh Yousuf Jasem al-Hijji, President of International Islamic Charitable Organization, during his visit to Bangladesh.
Leadership in Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh
Before the independence of Bangladesh, Maulana Yusuf served as ameer or head of the Khulna branch of Jamaat-e-Islami from 1956 until October 1958, when martial law was declared in Pakistan and all political parties were banned. Maulana Yusuf actively participated in the peoples nonviolent protest movement for democracy against the authoritarian dictatorship of General Ayub Khan. Eventually, after martial law was lifted and the Jamaat reformed its regional structure, Maulana Yusuf was appointed as the Naib-e-Ameer for the partys East Pakistan division and served in this office until the independence of Bangladesh. From 1962 to 1971, Maulana Yusuf served as a member of Jamaats Majlis-e-Shura (Central Executive Council) for three full terms, under the leadership of Sayyid Abul Ala Mawdudi. At the time, Professor Ghulam Azam was Ameer of East Pakistan Jamaat, while Mawlana Abdur Rahim served as central Naib-e-Ameer.
After the independence of Bangladesh, Maulana Yusuf served as Secretary General for one term under the leadership of Maulana Abdur Rahim. Subsequently, Prof. Ghulam Azam became the Ameer, and Maulana Yusuf continued to serve as Secretary General for three terms. Maulana Yusuf was then appointed Naib-e-Ameer, and during Maulana Matiur Rahman Nizamis second term as Ameer, he was elected to the position of Senior Naib-e-Ameer (senior vice president). He continues in this role at present.
Commitment to the people of his country
Maulana Yusufs political and social engagement and activism spans over 60 years, during which has has proven himself to be a dedicated and honest politician. In the 1952 elections, when the Pakistani government instituted a basic democracy program with voting at the union council level, Maulana Yusuf was nominated by Jamaat to run on behalf of his community. He took a leave of absence from his teaching position at the Alia Madrasa, and was elected as a Member of National Assembly, representing the districts of Khulna and Barisal. At 35 years of age, he was the youngest representative at the Assembly (MNA Member of National Assembly) at the time. During the 50s and 60s, Maulana Yusuf witnessed and contributed to the Jamaats active alliance with the multiparty opposition movements for democracy, including the Pakistan Democratic Movement (P.D.M.) and Democratic Action Committee (D.A.C.) working side by side with leaders like Shaikh Mujibur Rahman, Ataur Rahman Khan, Nabjada Nasrullah Khan, Chowdhury Golam Mohammad and many others. While serving as Member of National Assembly and later as a Cabinet Minister, Maulana Yusuf was always committed to serving the interests of his people. During the pre-partition Pakistan period, he tried his best at the policy level to encourage bringing in industries, shipping, transportation and other infrastructure building projects for the interests of then East Pakistan and its people. Maulana Yusuf personally fought for a Parity Bill at the parliament, demanding political and economic equality between East and West Pakistan. During the war in 1971, like many other political parties both major and minor (for example, the Muslim League, Nezami Islami, PDP, a faction of the Awami League, and the China-leaning East Pakistan Communist Party), Jamaat-e-Islami also supported a united Pakistan as a political stance. The Jamaat-eIslami feared that the division of Pakistan will embolden India, and Bangladesh may loose its independence and become subordinate to India. It is no secret that the party was earnest in keeping the country united and tried to convince all other parties to join in dialogue and reconciliation rather than war. However, even as the situation unfortunately deteriorated, Maulana Yusuf did not take part in any of the factional fighting, atrocities or any other kinds of crime big or small. He tried his best to save his fellow Bengali people of then East Pakistan, who were subjected to all kinds of brutality and atrocities in
the hands of the Pakistan Army. However, after nine month of war, East Pakistan gained independence from West Pakistan on December 16, 1971. Jamaat-e-Islami immediately accepted the independence of Bangladesh and since then, has always remained loyal to the country and its people. Through his involvement in the party, his NGO work, and through all other available social platforms, Maulana Yusuf has been serving for the greater good of the country. Being a visionary leader, he has always initiated and facilitated new, innovative ideas to serve the people, especially those who are needy and underprivileged.
