I’ve blogged several times about Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, a Bangladeshi Muslim journalist facing charges of sedition for advocating ties with Israel. Last month, he was beaten by a mob while working at his newspaper office. Tomorrow, his trial resumes. He faces the death penalty for voicing his unapologetic anti-jihadist views.

Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), a Naval Reserve intelligence officer who served in Iraq, Haiti and Bosnia, as well as in four Navy tours at sea and three in Panama, has been instrumental in crusading for Choudhury’s freedom (Kirk was reelected last Tuesday to his fourth term):

In an election night phone call Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) promised Choudhury that he would continue fighting for the journalist in the new Congress. Of late, Kirk has been joined by a bi-partisan group of Senators and House Members, and he intimated to Choudhury that he will propose specific action when Congress re-convenes. Kirk was instrumental in forcing the Bangladesh government to free Choudhury from prison in 2005.

Since 2003, the Bangladesh government and Islamist radicals have targeted Choudhury and his family. After seventeen months of imprisonment and “interrogation,” Choudhury was freed in April 2005 due to the efforts of Chicago-area resident, Dr. Richard Benkin (‘Asian Tribune’s’ Correspondent) and Rep. Mark Kirk. Since then, he has continued publishing his paper despite government blocks on advertisement and other forms of harassment.

Radicals have issued several death threats against him and in July, they bombed his newspaper. On October 6, 2006, a large group of Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, Bahais, and Muslims spent all night with Choudhury to protect him from radicals who threatened “dire consequences” for his actions. Shortly after that, Choudhury went into hiding after a tip alerted him to impending police and radical moves against him.

Daniel Freedman has an interview with Choudhury here. An excerpt:

Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury is remarkably calm for someone facing death. I sat for a few minutes in a state of near shock after our conversation earlier today ended with him politely thanking me for my time and telling me that “I hope that people in the world will stand with us against radical Islamists. We can be free together and secure the world for future generations.” He spoke from Dhaka, Bangladesh, where on Monday he goes on trial for his life on counts of sedition, treason, and blasphemy.

Mr. Choudhury, a Bangladeshi journalist, is accused, he told us, of “praising Jews and Christians,” “spying for Israel,” and being “an agent of the Mossad” — because he advocated relations between Israel and Bangladesh. He’s also accused of being critical of Islamic radicals, which is considered blasphemy. He committed these crimes by writing articles favorable toward Jews and Christians.

He did so, he says, because while he was born and raised in a Muslim country (Bangladesh) where he was taught a “religion of hatred” and a “religion of Jihad,” his father “told from an early age not to listen and to learn for himself.” He did and became friends with Jews, realized the lies he had been taught, and wanted to end “the culture of hatred.” He says that if “Muslim countries want peace they need relations with Israel.”

Mr. Choudhury says he holds no hope of getting a fair trial. The judge, he says, is a radical Islamist who has already made clear his view that Mr. Choudhury is guilty. “In open court … he made comments that by praising Christians and Jews I have hurt the sentiment of Muslims … which is a crime,” the journalist says. Other comments made by the Judge have made it clear, Mr. Choudhury tells me, that the judge’s goal is a conviction and a death sentence. Mr. Choudhury describes his judge as a “one man judge and jury,” and Mr. Choudhury cannot even present witnesses in his own defense.

Why hasn’t Mr. Choudhury fled Bangladesh despite having had the opportunity? Because, he says, “if I leave I will be proved to be a coward … I want to fight the matter to the last…”

The Free Choudhury site is here.

Chantal Basch-Tetreault urges you to “Stand up for a Bangladeshi Hero.”

Dr. Richard Benkin has worked tirelessly on behalf of Choudhury. He e-mailed me this plea:

As I have said before, were this only happening to Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, it would be a human tragedy; but, of course, it is happening to others, as well. Shoaib is unique, however, in that he wants to stay in Bangladesh, one, because he is a patriot and wants to fight to make it a better country. Secondly, he wants to fight the jihadists from inside the Muslim world. He and I have had countless discussions about this. He feels that if he can e victorious in their own back yard, so to speak, it will embolden others to stand up against the Islamists as well.

My own investigation and sources have made it clear, as well, that Bangladesh is teetering on the verge of an Islamists takeover, and no one is doing anything to stop it–except my dear brother who is on trial for his life as a result. (Trial is a misnomer; the verdict is preordained by the openly Islamist judge who has sole discretion over Shoaib’s fate.)

Please encourage your readers to write their Congressional Representatives and Senators and demand that they join in this fight.

Petition the Bangladeshi government here.

Please raise your voices.

***

Question: Will newly-elected Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minnesota, the first Muslim in Congress, join Rep. Kirk in fighting to save Choudhury?

Ask him.

***

Previous:

Moderate Muslim editor beaten; faces death penalty for views
Critics of Islam under fire…again

Related:

A journalist beheaded…guess why?
Free Muhammed al Asadi
The war on the free press
American newspapers, will you please stand up?
The cowardly American media
In search of a brave American newspaper
First, they came for the cartoonists

comments (0)   trackbacks (2)