The Muslim Media's Culture of Death

What a thrill it is for me to be here in Israel! You know, it might be unexpected from a Bangladeshi, but I must tell you that coming here has been a lifelong dream of mine. The moment I stepped off the plane and onto Israeli soil, I realized that dream; and I cannot thank you enough for helping to make it a reality.

Today, I stand before you perhaps as a living contradiction: a Zionist, a defender of Israel, and a devout, practicing Muslim living in a Muslim country.

Like you I believe in the justice of the Zionist dream. I also acknowledge this historical reality: that the world has endeavored to crush that dream and, yes, even destroy the viability of the Jewish people.

At the same time I live in an environment where people believe just as passionately in an opposing view that sees Israel as illegitimate and the Jewish people as evil incarnate. Witness the recent statement of outgoing Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohammed that "Jews rule the world."

But even in Bangladesh — and certainly elsewhere in the Muslim world — many of us have a blind spot. And I am ashamed to say that it is with regard to the Jewish people and Israel that too many conveniently ignore the nobler, and even essential, principles of Islam and of basic human decency.

The Islamic missionaries who have taken root in Bangladesh recently have, of course, a very different agenda than their Christian counterparts. Funded by shadowy sources in the Middle East and Africa, they operate under charitable-sounding names like Islamic Hospital, Free Ambulance Service, and Kindergarten Madrassa.

But charitable they are not. Whispered allegations — for louder objections place you at considerable risk — that Islamic kindergarten madrassas train children for guerrilla war found support when many of their graduates went on to real battlegrounds in Afghanistan and Iraq. Some even volunteered to fight alongside the PLO and other terrorist organizations here.

Repatriated Soldiers from Palestine, an organization in Bangladesh, cares for "soldiers" wounded in the fighting here, then recruits a fresh batch of terrorists to take their place. You might think such revelations would placing these organizations in a bad light. Yet, if anything, to my chagrin, it improves their standing in the eyes of many Bangladeshi citizens.

That popularity has taken them to more affluent neighborhoods, away from the poorer areas that were once their exclusive location. Children of prominent Bangladeshis now attend the madrassas, where they learn Bangla (our vernacular), Arabic, Urdu, English and, in some places, French, as well as other advertised subjects. But they also learn the theory and practice of guerrilla warfare. Old hates are taught as faith, and they learn to revere Bin Laden, Yasser Arafat, Saddam Hussein and the shahids. Innocent Muslim children are lured toward "jihad," taught to hate Christians and Jews and encouraged to kill them and destroy their property as a religious duty.

It so distresses me that we are allowing these children, the future leaders of Bangladesh, to be brainwashed with hatred and extremism. These institutions are surely breeding thousands of Bin Ladens and Arafats for the future.

I have listened to this filth since childhood. When I grew up, I turned my eyes to the Bible and many other books, had Christian and Jewish friends, and now am convinced that what the mullahs taught was not merely false, but also evil. That is clear not only to me but to many others in my country.

For there to be any chance of lasting peace, this must change. How can we have peace when most Muslims still believe Israel was behind the September 11 attacks on the US? How can we have peace when Muslims see their own leaders refusing even to recognize Israel's right to exist? How can we have peace when we neither hear nor read anything to the contrary?

We can't. Quite simply, there will be no meaningful Muslim presence in any peace dialogue without an effective media in the Muslim world to combat the false images that today build a culture of death.

Thanks for posting this.

'snip'

Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, journalist, columnist, author, political analyst, and editor of Weekly Blitz magazine in Bangladesh, often wrote in his articles that peace was best made through communication to bridge the gap between societies.

At the time of his arrest, Choudhury had just been appointed the International Director of the first Bangladesh chapter of The International Forum for the Literature and the Culture of Peace, an Israeli and international organization that promotes dialogue on the basis of culture. The chapter was to open on December 3, 2003. One of his main goals in opening this chapter was to “establish bridges of culture and people to people relations between Bangladesh and Israel, and to promote the global culture of peace.”

Because of his work for peace, he was invited by Israeli Professor Ada Aharon to speak at the Writers’ Symposium on “Bridges Through Culture” in Tel Aviv, Israel. Naturally, this journalist’s speech was titled, “The Role of the Media in Establishing Peace”. He would have been the first journalist from Bangladesh to address such a group in Israel. However, he never got there.

On November 29, 2003, he was detained and arrested at Zia International Airport on the way to speak at the conference. Because of what they told him was a “passport violation,” intelligence agents interrogated Choudhury at the airport and confiscated his luggage. He was held overnight for “questioning.” Shortly thereafter, his press offices and home were raided, and police seized his computers, disks and other files. Sources claim Islamic extremists “assisted” in his interrogation.

He was then arrested on charges of “espionage against the country [of Bangladesh] in favor of Israel.” He was told he would be released on January 15, 2004. Instead, in January, Choudhury was charged with sedition, a capital offense.

He is currently being held without bail in a hot, unventilated cell under “deplorable” conditions. Choudhury has been refused badly needed – and court-ordered – medical treatment and forced to sign statements “that I am in good condition” while he deteriorates physically, locked behind bars.

View a sample letter-of-appeal
Please send courteous letters, calling for the release of Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury to the following address:

Begum Khaleda Zia
Prime Minister Government of People’s Republic of Bangladesh
Dhaka
People’s Republic of Bangladesh

There is an online petition for Choudhury’s release as well:

http://www.petitiononline.com/IFLAC102/petition.html

NEW! Please visit http://www.freechoudhury.com/

And write US Ambassador Thomas in Dhaka at dhaka@pd.state.gov address this situation as well!

http://penusa.org/go/programs/honorary-member/choudhury

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

I Slam Islam !!!