DHAKA, Bangladesh - Bangladesh's Jamaat-e-Islami party is already flexing muscles inside the coalition that will form the next government with a long-term plan to turn the country into an Islamic republic.
Jamaat's prime objective is to drop secularism from state policy, implement Islamic statutes and gradually turn overwhelmingly Muslim Bangladesh into an Islamic republic.
"But we are not in a hurry," its chief, Moulana Matiur Rahman Nizami, said. "We don't expect anything to happen overnight but pursue a slow but steady policy towards total Islamisation of the country."
Nizami said Jamaat opposed Bangladesh's decision to allow the United States to use its airspace, ports and other facilities in a likely offensive against Afghanistan.
U.S. President George W. Bush has said Afghanistan, or more precisely its purist Islamic Taliban rulers, must be punished for harbouring Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the September 11 suicide attacks in New York and Washington.
"We cannot support the United States using Bangladesh territory for attacks on any Muslim country," Nizami told Reuters at his office.
"I can tell you that we are not extremists, fanatics or communal. But we are surprised that both the Awami League and BNP (Bangladesh Nationalist Party) have offered unqualified support to the U.S. for their possible attack on Afghanistan," Nizami said.
"ISLAM MEANS PEACE"
Jamaat leaders insist Islam and fundamentalism are not synonymous. "Islam means peace, fundamentalism means a kind of extremism," one leader said.
The party made a strong showing in parliamentary elections this week, securing 16 seats compared to just three at the previous poll in 1996.
Nizami credits the gain to his party's coalition with the biggest winner, Begum Khaleda Zia's BNP, which has bagged 185 of 283 parliament seats unofficially declared so far.
Khaleda, together with Jamaat, said she hoped to form a government in a week's time.
Nizami said the BNP and Jamaat shared common policies regarding religion and government, and had joined forces to eliminate their common enemy, the Awami League of outgoing prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
Nizami said Hasina's government acted against Islam. "We want total Islamisation...but before that we must create a truly conducive atmosphere," he said. He did not explain.
Nizami said both the Jamaat and BNP gained from the alliance and that he believed the Awami League would never be able to regain power so long as the pact holds.
The election, held under a non-party caretaker government, handed down a crushing defeat for Hasina.
Hasina accused Jamaat of having opposed Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan through a nine-month bloody war in 1971, which killed an estimated three million people in what was then known as East Pakistan.
She also accused many Jamaat leaders, including Nizami, of collaborating with the Pakistani army in the massacre of Bengali nationalists during the war, charges Nizami rejected.
"The Awami League has paid a price for its falsehood and for trying to hoodwink people," he said.
"Our success is that we could substantially cut back on the Awami League's strength in parliament and ensure its defeat in the election."
Jamaat, virtually pushed into oblivion following Bangladesh's independence, resurfaced during the rule of General Ziaur Rahman, Khaleda's husband, who was killed in a 1981 army mutiny.
The Jamaat leaders and workers have since regrouped and participated in all three parliamentary polls since 1991, when Khaleda was elected the first woman prime minister.
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