Participants at a pro-Palestinian rally over the weekend in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka were seen carrying portraits of Ottoman Caliph Sultan Abdul Hamid II as they protested Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
“Some protesters were seen holding the portraits at the massive pro-Palestine rally in Dhaka on Saturday as sources of inspiration to see an independent Palestine and to recall the role of the Muslim Caliph in becoming a safeguard of the people of Palestine,” SM Mushfiq Hasan Jami, one of the key organizers, told Anadolu on Monday.
Jami, repeating the same observation, said they also remembered the Ottoman role and sought Türkiye’s increased role in stopping Israel’s war on Gaza, including key roles in global platforms and organizations for Muslims.
Thousands of people gathered around the National Press Club in Dhaka under the banner of an anti-supremacist Muslim unity forum, showing solidarity with oppressed Muslims in Gaza, Palestine, India, and among the Rohingya.
Israel’s extreme brutality and atrocities against Palestine’s oppressed Muslims can no longer be tolerated, the speakers at the rally said, vowing their firm commitment to continue speaking out against Tel Aviv’s barbarism.
They also demanded that the “unconstitutional” and “anti-Muslim” Waqf Bill be declared null and void by the Indian parliament.
Speakers at the rally demanded that Palestine be declared an independent state through direct UN intervention, that financial compensation be paid for all structural damage caused by Israel’s attacks, and that all killings and assaults resulting from Israel’s direct intervention in Palestine be investigated and brought to justice.
Israel has killed more than 52,200 Palestinians in the enclave since October 2023, most of them women and children.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.