The anti militancy secular government of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina finally has done a tremendous job, for which they deserve profound thanks and applause from the anti militancy forces in the world.
Bangladesh had gone under the dangerous clutches of radical Islamic terrorism ever since a pro Islamist and antisemitic Islamist coalition government of Bangladesh Nationalist Party Party (BNP) and Jamaat e Islami Bangladesh came into power with the unholy agenda of transforming a secular Bangladesh into a Sharia nation. They wanted to destroy the secularist and anti militancy forces in the country. Under that extreme adversity, a hero – a journalist with rarest virtue, Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury stood up and exhibited his guts and courage of saying no to jihad. He is the first Bangladeshi Muslim who not only confronted the culture of religious extremist, anti-Semitism, rogue culture of religious hatred and Holocaust denial, but he openly expressed his support towards the State of Israel. Mr. Choudhury demanded establishment of relations between Bangladesh and Israel.
But, BNP and Jamaat had always considered Israel as an enemy nation and even denied its existence. They joined the voice with Hamas and Iran and visibly declared state patronized war against Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury and his newspaper – Weekly Blitz. They branded him as Mossad agent and brought false sedition, treason and blasphemy charges thus pushed him into prison.
The United States, along with most of the decent nations in the world had expressed solidarity with Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury and demanded his release. Journalist rights groups such as Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF), Pen International, PEN USA, American Jewish Committee (AJC), Middle East Forum (MEF) as well as the United States Congress had strongly condemned the Islamist government of BNP and Jamaat and demanded immediate dropping of the false charges brought against Mr. Choudhury.
Under international pressure and especially at the relentless efforts of US Congressman Mark Steven Kirk and Jewish rights activist Dr. Richard Benkin, the Islamist government of BNP-Jamaat were forced to release Mr. Choudhury from prison after 17 months! But, they exhibited the most nefarious brutality with Mr. Choudhury. In 2004, when his mother died, the BNP-Jamaat government denied him bail on parole to attend his mother’s funeral! Most definitely, Mr. Choudhury will never forget this notoriety and will not forgive BNP and Jamaat. In fact, none of the Jewish people and friends of Israel will ever forget this barbaric behavior of BNP and Jamaat.
PEN USA gave their Freedom to Write Award in 2005. In 2006, American Jewish Committee gave the most prestigious Moral Courage Award to Mr. Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, while he also received Key to Englewood and Teaneck (New Jersey) from the mayors. He also is the recipient of the Monaco Media Award alongside many local and international accolades.
In 2007, the United States Congress passed a bi-partisan resolution by 406 votes [House Resolution 64] in defence of Mr. Choudhury. US Congressman Mark Steven Kirk in a remark wrote – “Sir, you are an inspiration to the US Congress”. The New York Times in its editorial termed Mr. Choudhury as a man of rare virtue.
In fact, Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury is a national pride for Bangladesh and could play significant role in promoting Bangladesh to the international community should he ever got that opportunity. It is extremely unfortunate for Bangladesh that they have failed in using this man of rare virtue as the goodwill ambassador of Bangladesh to project the nation to the international community in a positive manner.
Instead of showing respect to this advocate of interfaith harmony, very unfortunately, Bangladeshi governments had exhibited unimaginable hostility and had mostly tried to harass him either by bringing false charges or pushing him behind the bars. They also had failed in providing fullest protection to Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, who certainly is a key target of the Islamist and militancy groups in Bangladesh and the world. Let us not forget, it was Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury and his Weekly Blitz newspaper that played key role in getting notorious Islamist militancy group named Hizbut Tahrir black listed with the US State Department. In 2012, Weekly Blitz began exposing the real face of Jamaat e Islami [as this organization is no different than Muslim Brotherhood] and had also called upon the international community to ban Jamaat e Islami.
Mr. Choudhury is known as a strong critic of Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat e Islami. He had always tried to expose the nasty face of Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and the radical Islamist militancy groups. The secularist government of Sheikh Hasina should have found their best ally in Mr. Choudhury as the United States, the European Union, Canada and Australia had always done. Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury is respected by millions of non Muslims, especially Jews around the world. He also is known as the Son of Israel.
Mr. Choudhury had never hesitated in proclaiming himself as a Zionist. He thinks, Jerusalem is the eternal and undivided capital of the Jewish State and had expressed gratitude to the United States President Donald Trump and his entire administration for expressing strong support towards Israel. In the eyes of Mr. Choudhury, the US ambassador to the United Nations, Ms. Nikki Halley is a real hero as she has always been strongly defending the Jewish State.
Anyway, after many years, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has rightly realized the simple fact that a man like Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury should not remain in prison. Instead, he should be given the opportunity of serving Bangladesh and work in strengthening the existing relations between Bangladesh and the United States and the world.
Mr. Choudhury is released from the prison on 29thJuly 2018 after 5 years and 8 months. By this time, his family had suffered a lot. Weekly Blitz and its vernacular weekly had to suspend publication. Can we hope, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her government along with the secularist forces in Bangladesh will stand in defence of Mr. Choudhury and extend fullest support to the internationally acclaimed multi award winning journalist in re-starting his efforts in projecting Bangladesh in a positive way to the international community and save the country from going once again under the grips of antisemitic and pro Islamist [also pro militancy] forces like Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat e Islami. Weekly Blitz should resume its publication immediately alongside its sister publications. I even hope, Weekly Blitz will get published from other countries and continents forthwith. For Bangladesh and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, now it is the prime time to take the right decision forthwith. She must not waste any more time as another election in Bangladesh is very near and there are every possibilities of return of BNP and Jamaat into power. Only, individuals like Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury can change such political hazards and save the nation. Anyway, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina deserves applause for setting Mr. Choudhury free but that is not enough! She needs to immediately meet this heroic individual and get him on board in her mission against radical Islam.
Keya Mukherjee is a political analyst and investigative journalist. She writes for Gatestone institute.
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