Free Republic

Filming of BLACK starts in weeks :: Weekly Blitz Oct 28, 2010 Internationally acclaimed award winning journalist and peace activist Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury and his entire team are spending busy time in giving final touches into the script of Bangla movie named BLACK, which is being made targeting international audience. In this film, is it shown that few decades back, Bangladesh was a country of religious harmony and peace. But, for past decades, Islamism and activities of Islamists became gradually prominent in the entire village. Clergies in the mosques and madrassas became increasingly influential in the locality, thus imposing...

"Gaza flotilla: 2 dead, dozens injured in navy boarding." By JPOST.COM STAFF AND YAAKOV KATZ 05/31/2010 07:00 SNIPPET: "Passengers tried to wrest weapons from soldiers, Army Radio reports; Turkish leadership in emergency meeting to discuss response to attack at sea. Passengers tried to grab weapons away from soldiers boarding the Gaza protest flotilla, starting the violence, Army Radio reported Tuesday morning, responding to accusations that Israeli commandos assaulted the ships guns blazing."

ONE of Britain’s most vocal, extremist preachers has been using a false name on a secret website to incite Muslim followers to go on jihad, or holy war, in Somalia. Anjem Choudary, former spokesman of the banned group Al-Muhajiroun, has posted a statement on a jihadist internet forum telling followers they must join the “divine call of jihad” in the African state. His call in the password-protected site came days before America mounted air raids on suspected Al-Qaeda units in southern Somalia and news emerged that seven British passport holders had been captured in Somalia by Ethiopian troops. This weekend...

Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has touted himself as a friend to the oppressed, as a politician who stands up for justice and human rights. This is a cornerstone of his campaign to the American people. It’s easy enough, however, to define oneself in whatever way one wants; especially when no one in the media challenges you on it. The real test of moral courage is how one acts—not just talks—in real-life situations. And in the one concrete instance when the Illinois senator was called upon to stand up for justice, he was nowhere to be seen. In...

He fired the first salvo in 2003 and has been sticking his thumb in Islamist eyes ever since. Bangladeshi journalist Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury describes himself as a "Muslim Zionist." He is unabashedly pro-US, pro-Israel, and anti-Islamist. More importantly, he remains all of that from within the Muslim world, which he refuses to leave. I have fielded any number of asylum requests for him, and he declined them all. "Retreat is not in my vocabulary," he says, for he believes that if he were to leave his country, his credibility would be gone, and Islamists would claim victory; a satisfaction...

On April 15, The New York times ripped the current government of Bangladesh as a “military dictatorship.” It also challenged the Bush administration for remaining silent given its goal of “promoting democracy, especially in Islamic countries.” Unfortunately, The Times did not bother to produce any evidence to support is assertions; but then again it did not have to given the dearth of information about Bangladesh among Americans. A search of The New York Times itself showed only a handful of articles about Bangladesh among the thousands upon thousands in its database. Successive Bangladeshi governments have done a singularly incompetent job...

Four Muslims were arrested outside the Old Bailey yesterday during angry protests against the trial of a man allegedly involved in protests against Danish cartoons. Anjem Choudary, who helped organise the anti-Danish protests, was once more involved as was Abu Izzadeen, who confronted John Reid, the Home Secretary, on a recent visit to East London. Mr Choudary said afterwards: "We should not be surprised at people doing something like 7/7. How else do you expect Muslims to express themselves? "We are a community under siege. It's going to blow up one day in everyone's faces." Male demonstrators, most wearing scarves...

THE Muslim teacher who insisted on wearing a veil in class has been following a fatwa issued personally to her by a Islamic cleric belonging to a hardline sect. Aishah Azmi found herself in the middle of a national row about integration when she took her school to an employment tribunal after it suspended her for refusing to remove the veil in class. Tony Blair joined the debate about the wearing of veils — opened by Jack Straw, the Commons leader — and supported the school’s actions. Azmi, 24, has maintained that her decision to wear the veil was driven...