EWTN News reports (January 22, 2026) on Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami leader Shafiqur Rahman’s pre-election promise to Christian leaders that his party would not impose Sharia law if elected. The article describes Christian leaders cautiously engaging with this Islamist group while expressing skepticism about the sincerity of these assurances. Political analysts speculate whether this represents genuine ideological moderation or mere electoral strategy, noting divisions within Bangladesh’s Islamist political coalition. The piece frames this as part of broader election dynamics in a majority-Muslim nation with vulnerable Christian minorities.
Sacrilegious Equivalence Between Divine Law and Human Deception
The very premise of the article constitutes theological treason by treating Sharia—a man-made system rejecting Christ’s divinity—as negotiable political terrain rather than blasphemous rebellion against the Social Reign of Christ the King. Pius XI’s encyclical Quas Primas (1925) dogmatically declares: “Nations will be reminded by the annual celebration of this feast that not only private individuals but also rulers and princes are bound to give public honor and obedience to Christ” (¶32). The Bangladeshi Islamist’s “assurance” presumes authority to withhold what he never possessed—the right to impose any law contrary to Christ’s universal kingship. This mirrors the conciliar sect’s betrayal at Assisi (1986), where antipope John Paul II treated pagan creeds as legitimate partners in “peacebuilding.”
Post-Conciliar Ecumenism’s Poisonous Fruits
The article’s description of Christian leaders “seeking clarity” from Sharia advocates exposes the rotten harvest of Vatican II’s Nostra Aetate. When the anonymous Catholic priest states: “If Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami keeps its word, it is very good”, he perpetuates the conciliar heresy that false religions contain “rays of truth” (Lumen Gentium 16). Compare this to Pope Gregory XVI’s condemnation in Mirari Vos (1832): “This perverse opinion is spread on all sides by the fraud of the wicked who claim that it is possible to obtain the eternal salvation of one’s soul by the profession of any kind of religion”. The Christian delegation’s very attendance legitimizes a political party seeking to institutionalize rejection of Christ’s divinity—a mortal scandal against the First Commandment.
Theological Bankruptcy of Islamist “Assurances”
Rahman’s promise not to impose Sharia is as credible as Satan’s pledge not to tempt Eve beyond a certain point. Islamic doctrine itself renders such promises null:
“He who disobeys Allah and His Messenger has strayed into manifest error” (Quran 33:36).
Any Muslim leader claiming to govern without Sharia fundamentally violates core Islamic tenets, making his position theologically impossible. The article’s analysts who call this a “strategy” inadvertently admit what Catholic apologists like St. Robert Bellarmine established centuries ago: Islam cannot coexist with civil societies ordered toward true worship (De Controversiis). The Bangladeshi “moderate” engages in taqiyya—the Islamic permission to deceive infidels for institutional advancement—while the Christian leaders fall into the trap condemned by Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors: “Every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which, guided by the light of reason, he shall consider true” (Error #15).
Linguistic Subversion Through Secularized Vocabulary
The article’s repeated use of “minority safeguards” and “social security” reduces the Church’s mission to naturalistic humanitarianism. When Martha Das states: “We recorded the assurances… to hold Jamaat publicly responsible”, she embraces the liberal error condemned by St. Pius X in Pascendi—that temporal accountability mechanisms can replace divine judgment. The very term “religious minorities” smuggles in the conciliar heresy of religious equality, denying Christ’s mandate to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). Contrast this with Pope Leo XIII’s teaching in Immortale Dei (1885): “States cannot without crime behave as if God did not exist, nor sponsor the erroneous notion that all religions are equally acceptable.”
Symptomatic of The Great Apostasy
This Bangladeshi episode reveals the post-1958 collapse into apostasy. Where pre-conciliar missionaries preached extra Ecclesiam nulla salus (no salvation outside the Church), the conciliar sect’s Bangladeshi representatives now negotiate terms of surrender with Christ’s enemies. The unnamed Catholic priest’s willingness to entertain Islamist promises embodies the modernist cancer described in Pius X’s Lamentabili Sane: “The dogmas which the Church proposes as revealed are not truths of divine origin but are a certain interpretation of religious facts” (Proposition 22). Meanwhile, the Islamic Movement Bangladesh’s accusation that Jamaat “deviated from Sharia for power” ironically confirms Catholic eschatology—that Islam’s final rebellion against Christ will merge with the Antichrist’s political apparatus (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4).
Source:
Top Islamist leader promises Christians no Sharia ahead of Bangladesh election (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 22.01.2026