![\"Mosque\"](\"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Mosque.jpg\")
Bangladesh has launched a billion-dollar campaign to build hundreds of \u201cmodel mosques,\u201d partly with Saudi funding, to try to counter radical Islam in the Muslim-majority country, officials said Friday.\nPrime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who inaugurated work on nine mosques through a video conference on Thursday, is also trying to bolster links with Muslim groups in an election year, according to analysts.
\nA senior official said 560 \u201cmodel mosques cum cultural centers\u201d would be built in the next 30 months as part of a government attempt to fight extremism.
\n\u201cIn the next one to one and a half months, work on another 100 mosques will begin,\u201d Shahmim Afzal, who heads the government Islamic affairs department, told AFP.
\nThey will be used to preach against \u201cdistorted islamic philosophy\u201d of groups such as Bangladesh\u2019s largest opposition Islamic party Jamaat-e-Islami and Egypt\u2019s Muslim Brotherhood, the official added.
\nThe country has been fighting extremism in recent years after militants carried out attacks on religious minorities, secular activists and foreigners.
\nAfzal said the centers of worship would be open to women, unlike most of the country\u2019s 300,000 mosques, and would be equipped with libraries and cultural centers.
\n\u201cEach mosque will cost 150 million taka ($1.8 million),\u201d he said.
\nImams would be required to give sermons \u201cto inspire people against extremism.\u201d
\nAfzal, however, told AFP that Saudi Arabia was partly funding the project. \u201cThey have already sent part of the fund,\u201d he said, without disclosing the amount.
\nAn expert said the real aim of the billion dollar mosque project by Hasina\u2019s government could be political.
\n\u201cShe wants to build rapport with traditional Islamic groups. She wants to win over these forces,\u201d said Ataur Rahman, chairman of the Dhaka-based Center for Governance Studies.
\nHasina\u2019s ruling Awami Legaue party has over the decades championed secular causes.
\nIn recent years Hasina has cracked down on hard-line groups, and tried and executed leaders of extremist groups accused of war crimes. She has made secularism part of Bangladesh\u2019s constitution.
\n\u201cAhead of the elections, she is adjusting her secular stand by leaning toward a more rightist Islamist position,\u201d Rahman said.
\nHasina has said a general election will be held this year.
\nSome 90 percent of Bangladesh\u2019s 160 million people are Muslims.<\/p>\n