Bangladesh’s top court has rejected a 28-year-old petition to remove Islam as official religion of the country. While the South Asian nation’s Islamists rejoice, analysts say the move is a setback for secular forces. Islam was introduced as state religion in the Bangladeshi constitution in 1988, almost two decades after the South Asian nation got independence from Pakistan following a liberation war. The inclusion of Islam was against the core principles of the country’s independence fighters. The move prompted a group of 15 prominent citizens to file a petition in the courts.

Bangladesh Supreme Court

• The controversy surrounding the state religion has divided the Bangladeshi people for a long time. While the country’s secular people want to get rid of the state religion, Islamists support it unequivocally.
• Taslima Nasreen, a prominent Bangladeshi writer, believes states shouldn’t have any official religion.
• Several thousand Muslims rallied in Bangladeshi capital to denounce the petition seeking to remove Islam as the country’s official state religion.
• More than 90 percent of Bangladesh’s 160 million people are Muslim, and Hindus and Buddhists are the main religious minorities.
• When Bangladesh was formed in 1971 after the nation split from Pakistan, it was declared a secular state.
• In 1988 the country’s constitution was amended with Islam declared as the state religion by military dictator Hussein Muhammad Ershad.