Scholars and imams will make sermons, recite and explain excerpts of verses from the Noble Qur'an

DHAKA , December 3 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Two million Muslims have gathered in Bangladesh Friday, December 3, beginning a three-day annual Islamic assembly, the second largest after Hajj in Saudi Arabia .

Islamic scholars and sheiks will deliver religious sermons, recite and explain excerpts of verses from the Noble Qur'an to show the holy book of Islam shuns violence and promotes peace, organizers were quoted by Reuters as saying.

The huge gathering of Muslims, including religious leaders and devotees from 65 countries, is expected to assemble at Tongi, 12 miles north of Dhaka , by the final day Sunday, December 5.

“Some 3,000 representatives from 40 countries have already joined the session that began from the Fajr (dawn) prayer today,” said an official of Bangladesh Tablig Jamaat, the organizer of the 41st Biswa Ijtema.

The Biswa Ijtema, which began in 1962, is a gathering of the devout, who listen to sermons, meditate, take part in discussions and pray.

Bangladeshi leaders, including Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and main opposition leader Sheikha Hasina Wajed, were likely to join the mass prayers as in previous years.

Multilingual Sermons

Organizers said the sermons will be delivered in Arabic, Bengali, English, Hindi, Urdu and other languages.

Security has been tightened as people gathered under makeshift tents covering 160 acres on the bank of Turag. The country was rocked by several mysterious blasts in the last two years.

“With unprecedented security measures, we have deployed some 6,000 uniformed and plain-clothed security as well as sniffer dogs,” a senior police officer was quoted by Reuters as saying.

An army helicopter was pressed into service to hover over the venue of the gathering while about 2,000 policemen and units of the anti-terror Rapid Action Battalion were giving security to the masses on the ground.

The annual gathering of Muslims has been taking place on the same venue since 1963.

The Tablig Jamaat, which is increasingly drawing larger crowds every year, was launched some four decades ago in India as a new religious movement to encourage Muslims to rigorously practice Islamic tenets in daily life.

The venue was shifted in the early 1960s to downtown's Kakrail Mosque in Dhaka , then capital of East Pakistan , now Bangladesh .