The Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami is pulling out all stops while at the same time launched a charm offensive to remain in the good books of the United States.
On July 21, while much of Bangladesh grieved over the death of several people, including children, when a fighter-trainer crashed into a school in Dhaka’s Uttara neighbourhood, the JeI’s women’s wing presented a jamdani saree to American Chargé d’Affaires in Dhaka, Tracey Ann Jacobson, at the Islamist organisation’s Moghbazar office.
The quaint packet, neatly draped in a blue gift-wrapping paper, was presented to Jacobson by a representative of the JeI’s women’s wing. Three women, their faces fully covered in hijab and draped in burqas, handed over the saree to the US diplomat, attired in a black formal suit, gave away the gift-wrapped saree, which was contained in an elegant tote bag with Jamaat-e-Islami printed in bold.
The saree was gifted to Jacobson after a discussion between the US diplomat, who has been officiating in the capacity of Charge d’Affaires since January 2025, and JeI Amir Shafiqur Rahman. Jacobson had brought along a colleague, James Stewart, while Nayeb-e-Amir Dr Syed Abdullah Muhammad Taher, Secretary General Mian Golam Parwar, Assistant Secretary General Ahsanul Mahmood Zubair, Mahmood Hasan, Ameena Shafiq and Habiba Chowdhury were part of the JeI team.
The main issues that the two sides discussed centred around elections, threat to the country’s security and the JeI’s position on the grave matter of terrorism. The JeI leadership, sources said, also focused on “fair elections” and the so-called political, constitutional reforms initiated by the Mohammad Yunus-led interim regime.
Suffice it to say that since November 2023, the US in general and diplomats at the American embassy have shown little interest in calling for free and fair elections in Bangladesh. Jacobson has held several low-key but important meetings with Bangladeshi stakeholders, including Army chief General Waker-uz-Zaman and other senior functionaries of the interim regime.
The JeI leadership is said to have raised the twin issues of rampant corruption and extortion that different political parties and groups have been indulging in since the Yunus-led regime took charge in August 2024.
While the JeI’s wider foreign relations stand has been rather unclear, the organisation’s leaders are said to have impressed upon the American visitors that their thrust would be on the “friendship with all, and enmity with none” principle. The Jamaat leaders also made it clear that it would maintain peaceful relations with neighbours – in this case India.
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Shafiqur Rahman, sources said, conveyed to Jacobson that his organisation favoured lowering of American trade tariffs and wanted the US to recognise and safeguard the “religious and cultural” sensitivities surrounding the thorny issue of a UN Human Rights office in Dhaka.
