The 11th-century Sitakunda Chandranath Dham is among the most ancient holy places for the Hindu and Buddhist devotees of Bangladesh and South Asia. This sacred place draws huge crowds during the Shiva Chaturdashi every February.
This picturesque site houses the Chandranath Temple atop the hill at a height of about 1,020 feet (310m) above sea level. The Birupaksha Temple is halfway up Chandranath Hill at Sitakunda, visible from the Dhaka-Chattogram railroad.
For many years, this place has been regarded as a tourist spot by successive governments, threatening the sanctity of the pilgrimage site, despite being situated on Debutter (endowed) property (a land essentially meant for Hindu deities).
The devotees have long been demanding that the government control tourism forthwith in Chandranath Hill to protect the sacred place from pollution and hate crimes, but to no avail.
They alleged that many Muslims go around there with ill motivation, sexually harassing Hindu girls and throwing water bottles and beef-biryani packets all around, as they know beef is prohibited for Hindus as per their religious faith.
In 2023, some radical Muslims campaigned on social media that they would capture the Chandranath Hill with the grace of Allah and would make a mosque there.
One Muhammad Shibbir bin Nazir said that he had performed Adhan on the hilltop and offered prayers as he shared some photos and videos on Facebook with the audacity to destroy the sanctuary. Many of his friends and followers supported his intrusive plan to fly the Islamic flag on the hill and build a mosque.
Another youth, Raihan Riad, organised a “Beef Barbeque Party” on Facebook, defiling the sanctity of Chandranath Hill in an offensive manner.
Not only the two temples on this hill, but also the Medhas Muni Ashram in Chittagong, the Golden Temple of Bandarban, and the Adinath Temple in Maheshkhali of Coxโs Bazar are also facing a similar plight due to uncontrolled tourism.
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Recently, a new group of people has taken the initiative to build a mosque atop the hill for Muslim tourists, amid the mindless persecution of minorities by radical Islamists with impunity since last yearโs changeover.
Radical Islamist Mufti Harun Izhar is patronising them. On Saturday, he said a mosque would be built on the hill, and he will finalise it after talking to the administration.
Recent steps
Mufti MM Saiful Islam, the owner of SKM Shoes and CEO of SKM Online Shop in Faridpur, has been campaigning for the mosque on his Facebook profile for the last couple of days. He studied at the Asian University of Bangladesh and operates an entrepreneurship training centre named Olama Uddokta Kafela.
He argues that if there can be a temple next to the mosque in Hathazari, “why not in Chandranath Hill, a beautiful tourist area, in a country of 93% Muslims?”
He claimed that there is no mosque within 4-5km around the hill and that prayers for Muslims are not allowed there. He added that people are arrested if they give the adhan or call for prayer.
โSince there is no place to pray there, let alone two rak’ahs of prayer, thousands of Muslim youths are even making up for their daily obligatory prayers,โ Mufti Saiful said in a post on August 15.
To ensure the project’s success, he travelled to the Hathazari madrasa in Chittagongโthe headquarters of Hefazat-e-Islamโwith three associates and met with Mufti Harun Izhar, a key aide of the Yunus regime that supports Lashkar-e-Tayyiba and Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (HuJI-B), on Saturday.
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Mufti Saiful said he was introduced to Harun Izhar via Ashraf Ali Adnan and shared his experience at the Chandranath Hill and the plan to build a mosque there.
Harun Izhar liked his idea and inquired about financing. When Mufti Saiful said he would arrange it, the Hefazat leader said: โIt is my responsibility to build a mosque there. You arrange the money and keep me as a financial partner.
โI will talk to the administration tomorrow and make the final decision. The mosque will definitely be built, InshaAllah. It may not be next to the temple, but it will be built a little below the temple at the base of a banyan tree.โ
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Later, he shared the whole conversation on his Facebook, assuring his fans that their plan to build the mosque was 90% confirmed. The post was shared around 2,500 times and drew over 11,000 reactions and 3,300 comments in 13 hours until 6am on Sunday.
Of the reactions, over 3,900 people gave haha, 747 gave anger, and 2,200 gave love reactions.
Who is Harun Izhar?
Harun Izhar is the son of the late Mufti Izharul Islam, the president of Nezame Islam, the founder of Lalkhan Bazar Madrasa, and one of the founders of HuJI-B.
He was arrested several times during the Awami League tenure for militant activities when the country saw a series of attacks from 2013 to 2019, including the murders of secularists, foreigners, and police.
Mufti Harun has been campaigning for a Shariah-based Bangladesh since last year and is trying to forge an alliance of all Islamist parties, including Jamaat-e-Islami, Islami Andolan Bangladesh, and Hefazat. He is also a close associate of al-Qaeda cleric Mufti Jasimuddin Rahmani.
Upon his meeting with Law Adviser Asif Nazrul, the interim government released a number of Islamist leaders and militants, including militant Shafiur Rahman Farabi, who was given life imprisonment for provoking the murder of secularist writer and American citizen Avijit Roy.
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