Protest in Bangladesh against ending Islam as state religion
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Thousands of Muslims have rallied in Bangladesh's capital to denounce a court petition seeking to remove Islam as the country's official state religion.
About 3,000 Muslims protested Friday outside the national mosque in Dhaka against the petition, filed by a group of prominent citizens, which is to be taken up by the High Court on Sunday.
More than 90 percent of Bangladesh's 160 million people are Muslim.
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Military dictator H.M. Ershad declared Islam the state religion in 1988 to win support during a campaign by major political parties to oust him from power.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina brought back secularism as a pillar of the constitution in 2011, but retained Islam as the state religion.