Must He Die? Meet A Muslim Dissident Who Loves Jews, Christians And Free Speech

His country wants to hang him, and this could happen within the next few months. Sallah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury is a Bangladeshi journalist, publisher and peace activist who has left the fold of Jew hatred and Muslim supremacy that is infecting his country in recent years. For that, he is accused of ‘crimes against humanity’ and ‘hurting the image of Islam.’

The newspaper he publishes, The Daily Blitz, criticizes the jihad culture that is growing increasingly strong in his country and instead advocates inter-faith understanding between Muslims, Christians and Jews. Choudhury, who says he is proud to call himself a ‘Muslim Zionist,’ is partners on a peace project with a sheikh who believes that the Koran intends for Jews to be the rightful inhabitants of Israel - not what one would expect to hear from a Muslim. In November, 2003, he was on his way to speak in Tel Aviv at a writers’ conference about the role the media can play in promoting peace. If he had been allowed to visit Israel, it would have been a first for a Bangladeshi journalist since his country refuses to acknowledge Israel as a state and travel to it is not permitted. Choudhury chanced it anyway since Bangladesh also prohibits travel to Taiwan, yet it often looks the other way. Unfortunately, however, he was grabbed at the airport by Bangladeshi officials, which started seventeen months of torture in government captivity. Choudhury was beaten so badly his leg was broken, given only dirty water from the toilet to drink, and almost went blind because he was denied medical care for an eye condition. The charges made against him of sedition, treason and blasphemy were groundless. Even the prosecuting attorney eventually wanted to drop them, but the Islamist judge in charge of the case insisted on continuing the show trial even without any evidence against Choudhury. Other officials have said they would like to drop the case too, except they fear, “how the radicals would react.”

Choudhury’s aborted speech needs to be read. (http://interfaithstrength.com/Speech.htm) In passionate yet surprisingly serene tones, he confronts the irrational hatred primarily directed against Jews and Israel that is inflaming the Muslim world, including its semi-religious belief in Holocaust Denial. Choudhury commends Israel’s democracy and progress, and proposes creating what he calls a “’Culture of peace’ with justice and tolerance for all people as opposed to the ‘culture of death.’” His stated mission is to take personal responsibility to break down the ‘firewall of lies’ and ignorance that separate one people from another, using his talents as a writer and publisher. Are you hearing echoes of Reagan’s famous command, “Tear down this wall?” You should.

Why was it important to the Bangladeshi officials to arrest Choudhury exactly at the moment he was to leave for Israel, when he had been previously outspoken in his opposition to the rising Jihad culture? Perhaps it was because Israel’s eagerness to build a friendly culture of mutual respect between Jews and Muslims would have done damage to the prevailing Jihadist image of Jews as demonic aggressors. The firewall would have fallen. If Israel must remain The Enemy, then diplomatic ties and dialogue are certainly taboo. Another reason involves power. The muftis would lose control of Bangladesh’s masses of uneducated people, ground down by poverty, who come to life mainly under the Mullahs’ incitement to hate Jews. If the masses were animated by reason and respect, the mullahs would be out of work.

To read the complete article by Brenda West to to Israel News