As the campaign to prevent John Bolton from becoming the US ambassador to the UN intensifies, on the grounds that it is intolerable to appoint someone to that position who actually tells the truth about the UN, a further example has occurred of that organisation's moral and political bankruptcy. A resolution proposed by Pakistan on behalf of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference and passed by the UN Commission on Human Rights (sic) has condemned the 'campaign of defamation' against Muslims following 9/11. Ignoring the fact that 9/11 and the wider jihad against the west have been perpetrated in the name of Islam, that its perpetrators have not been excommunicated from the faith but, on the contrary, Islamic religious and political leaders have backed their aims and, in the case of Israel at least, openly supported their tactics (remember the standing ovation given by the Organisation of the Islamic Conference to Mahathir Mohamed when he urged holy war against the Jews), it singles out Islam as the victim of a 'culture of hatred, disharmony and discrimination' in the war against terrorism, totally ignoring the religions of the world targeted by terrorists and their state sympathisers for murderous attack in the name of Islam.

Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury knows all about the culture of ‘hatred, disharmony and discrimination’. The Jerusalem Post has reported that, as the Muslim editor of the Bangladeshi newspaper The Weekly Blitz, he had the enormous courage to condemn the power of radical Islam in his country and to provide his readers with unbiased news about the Middle East (we could do with him here in Britain). 16 months ago he was arrested as he prepared to address the Hebrew Writers' Conference in Tel Aviv on "The Role of Media in Creating a Culture of Peace" and thrown into jail. The Post reported:

‘Shortly after his arrest, police raided his home and business, seizing computers, files and other material. A mob then sacked the premises with impunity. His family was threatened, even attacked. His brother twice fled the capital. Mobs gathered in front of their home, and police blamed it all on the Choudhurys' "alliance with the Jews." The government said Choudhury was "spying for the interests of Israel against the interests of Bangladesh," then orchestrated a vilification campaign. They called Choudhury's undelivered speech their strongest evidence of his perfidy and said he broke Bangladeshi law by trying to visit Israel. Choudhury remains behind bars in deteriorating health, without due process, and facing a capital offense. Blackballed from employment, his family is on the verge of financial ruin.’

In an extraordinary article printed by the Post, Choudhury wrote:

‘Today, I stand before you perhaps as a living contradiction: a Zionist, a defender of Israel, and a devout, practising 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.

‘A true culture of peace is far more than the cessation of hostilities. It includes justice and tolerance for all people. It allows each person to have pride in one's own faith, while respecting the pride that courses through the veins of those who follow other paths to God. In Israel, you have any number of viewpoints being aired in any number of forums. You have Likud; you have Labor. You have Shas; you have Shinui. You have Peace Now; you have the Temple Mount Faithful. You have The Jerusalem Post; you have Haaretz…

‘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?'

This remarkable and immensely brave man currently awaits trial in Cell No.15 of the Dhaka Central Jail in Bangladesh. Just as it did with the Soviet dissidents, the free world must now bring every kind of public and private pressure to bear upon the government of Bangladesh to free him.

But don’t look for support from the UN, for which any such protest will dountless be merely further proof of ‘stereotyping’ and ‘discrimination’.

Posted by melanie at April 13, 2005