Leaders of the Haqqani Alem community has said it is not right to spread provocative speech among the people terming sculptures as idols since sculpture is an old art form of human being while idol is for worship.
"Every nation has its own culture besides religious activities and even the Arabians have their own culture. Similarly, as a Bangali nation, we have our own culture and sculptures are being built as a part of art, culture, history and tradition," Haqqani Alem Md Elias Ebrahim Bikrompury said while reading out a written statement at a press conference at the National Press Club in Dhaka on Sunday.
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"Many sculptures have been in Bangladesh, including the sculptures of Ziaur Rahman, for years but no one ever has talked to remove or demolish the sculptures. Now, some people want to create anarchy in society by opposing construction of Bangabandhu's sculpture all of a sudden," read the statement.
"Those who are now giving fatwa [Islamic edict] against sculpture of Bangabandhu had termed the freedom fighters as Kafer and infidel during the Liberation War in 1971," they said in the statement.
These people once gave fatwa against watching television and learning English but later, all those were proved as legal from religious perspective, the statement added.
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The Haqqani Alem community also called upon the people not to be confused by the provocative speeches of those who want to create unrest in the country using people's religious sentiment.
Md Imran Hossain, Md Hafizul Haque, Md Lokman Hossain Saify, and Solaiman Bin Kashemi were present at the press conference, among others.
