Dhaka - Bangladesh's Foreign Minister Dipu Moni on Saturday described her country as secular with a majority Muslim population, and not a moderate Muslim state as portrayed by the international community. "Bangladesh is a non-communal country where the majority of the people belongs to the Muslim faith. We achieved our independence through an armed struggle with a dream of establishing a secular nation," the minister told reporters after delivering a lecture in Dhaka on Bangladesh's foreign policy.

She said the ruling Awami League party, which led the nation in 1971 liberation war against Pakistan, never believed in the idea of moderate democratic Muslim country, which most Western diplomats consider Bangladesh.

Many countries have been given different labels but it is not necessary to take someone else's definition when it contradicts one's own fundamental values, she said.

After independence from Pakistan, Bangladesh drew up a constitution with secularism as a basic principle in 1972, but subsequent military dictators replaced secularism in the constitution with Islam as state religion in mid-1980s.

The provision of Islam as a state religion is theoretically still in force and there has been no move by the ruling Awami League- alliance government to return to the original constitution. (dpa)