A journalist’s courage under fire

Sunita Paul 

Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, the Bangladeshi journalist is a man who is prepared to make any sacrifice to uphold not only his principles but also the right to promote intra faith understanding and tolerance. He is a man who could have sought asylum in west continued his tirade against his own country and people but has chosen to stay among them and wage his battle for justice. 

"People are punished for crime, for creating anarchy and for putting humanity to horrifying terror. But, could we ever believe that someone would be arrested, tortured and imprisoned for long 17 months just for being in favor of global peace, inter-faith dialogue, ending religious hatred and thinking of everything good and noble for mankind? In my case it did happen and after being released on bail keeping the sedition charge very much alive. According to the allegations, my crime is: I am a living contradiction to today's phenomenon in the Muslim world, a Zionist, a defender of Israel and a devout, practicing Muslim living in the second largest Muslim country in the world."

These are not mere words! These are all facts. Such courageous statement comes from the very heart of a Moslem journalist in Bangladesh named Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, who is facing sedition, treason and blasphemy charges in his own country since 2003, for confronting radical Islam, for advocating interfaith understanding between Moslems, Jews and Christians and for demanding relations between Israel and the Moslem Bangladesh. For this 'crime', Choudhury continues to suffer since he was arrested on November 29, 2003 while boarding a flight bound Tel Aviv to attend a writer's conference. According to Bangladeshi law, sedition charge bears capital punishment. It is apprehended that, if the international community, including the United States Congress, European Parliament and the Australian Senate wouldn't stand in his support, by now, Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury would have been a dead man.

Why does he promote interfaith dialogue? He says, "Like most Muslims, I've been victimized by a socially supported information flow; one that taught me to look the other way when facts seem to contradict the politically-mandated and politically-correct view that we are supposed to adopt. I was taught that much of the world is in essence my enemy, and that Israel and the Jewish people are the embodiment of evil. And I was taught to distrust—even though we all admired—Americans.

"And that is the case because the enemies of freedom have wormed their way into most social institutions in the Muslim world—the press, the media, governments, and schools. I have seen this in my own nation—a nation of good people, who seek nothing other than the things all of us want in life. These enemies of freedom seek to control my people by controlling our access to information and our contact with those who offer a different point of view."

Commenting on Moslem clergies statements saying God will reward those with 70 virgins for killing Jews through jihad, Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury says, "I am a devote Muslim, and I know that my faith, my Koran does not award 70 virgins to those who murder children and seek to destroy the faith of our mutual prophet Moses—our Jewish cousins who preceded us in our journey of faith."

There is no room to have any doubt that, Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury is the Moslem Hero in millions, who has the guts and courage to stand against all evils. Although thousands of his friends and supporters around the world offered him political asylum (he was offered asylum in United States, Canada, Australia, Denmark and Sweden), Choudhury opts for staying in Bangladesh to fight the radical Islam. He visited United States twice in 2007, and each time, he returned to his own country despite requests from his friends of seeking asylum in that country.

Why did Choudhury choose to return rather than ask for a sure-to-be-granted asylum? The question, doubtless uppermost in the minds of his listeners, was raised in the question and answer period. Choudhury responded that this was just what the Islamic extremists wanted. "I will fight in my own country. If someone is willing to say no to jihad he must say it on the ground." On practical grounds, too, Choudhury observed that if he were to take political asylum, others in Bangladesh would lose heart and he wants to show them you can stand up against the extremists at home. "I have to give them confidence by being there. If I abandon them, why should they join me?" Choudhury says that while he was alone at the time of his arrest, gradually he has been winning support, especially from Hindus and Bahais (around 17% of the population is not Moslem) but also increasingly among Moslems.

Forty-three years old, Choudhury is that rarest of breed, a faithful Moslem who, in the belly of the beast, publicly dissents from the stifling orthodoxy of hatred and extremism that characterizes the Islamic world. There are a handful of other outspoken Moslem-born men and women (mainly the latter), but while their heroism is unquestionable, most live in the West where, although their lives remain in danger, their right to speak is at least upheld by the government.

Most of the best known dissidents, moreover, alienated by the prevailing extremism, are no longer practicing Moslems. Choudhury finds grounds for his support of Jews and Israel in Islam. "In the Koran, God has assured the dignity of the Jewish people and tells us that the land of Israel is only for the Jews," he notes.

Susan Rosenbluth, editor of The Jewish Voice and Opinion, who has been a staunch supporter since she learned of the case, offers an in-depth summary in her newspaper on which what follows draws heavily. Choudhury had aroused the wrath of the Islamists months before his arrest, by what he wrote in his newly established paper The Weekly Blitz. Choudhury condemned terrorism and the propagation of hatred by clerics, supported the free exchange of ideas and, most unforgivable of all, argued that the Bangladesh government should recognize Israel and establish diplomatic and trade relations with her. What's more he included in his paper contributions by Sheikh Abdul Hadi Palazzi, head of the Muslim Association in Rome, who like Choudhury calls himself a "Muslim Zionist" and finds the Jewish right to Israel anchored in the Koran, Yehudit Barsky of the American Jewish Committee; and Dr. Yehuda Stolov of the Jerusalem-based Interfaith Encounter Association.

Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury has already received Freedom to Write Award from PEN USA in 2005, Moral Courage Award from American Jewish Committee in 2006 and Monaco Media Award from Prince Albert of Monaco in 2007. He was also presented Key to Englewood (highest honor with honorary citizenship) by its Mayor Michael J. Wildes in 2007. New York based Hudson Institute invited him to a couple of lectures in 2007 with the special initiatives of the members of this prestigious institution, and especially of Nina Rosenwald. Hudson is continuing to monitor the case of Shoaib Choudhury and is committed in doing everything possible for this hero. But despite such huge international support, harassment of this extra ordinary man never ended in his own country. Recently (on March 18, 2008) he was abducted from his office by the armed thugs named Rapid Action Battalion (RAB). Thanks to United States government, US Embassy in Dhaka and of course to American Jewish activist and constant defender of Shoaib, Dr. Richard L Benkin, who took immediate steps in salvaging his 'brother' from the mere death trap. Dr. Benkin is the man, who drew world's attention since 2003 when Choudhury was arrested and finally succeeded in getting him released from Bangladesh prison with the help of US Congressman Mark Steven Kirk.

What can we learn from the heroism and tribulations of this extraordinary human being, Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury? On one hand, his fate is a reminder of the depth of hatred toward Israel in the Moslem world, which Israel's peace-processors ignore to their great peril. Bangladesh is not Arab, has no borders or conflict with Israel. Yet this country, with the third largest Moslem population in the world, makes it a crime for a citizen to go to Israel and is so hostile that it is prepared to give the death penalty to anyone who seeks to defy the ban and speaks up for friendship with the Jewish state.

In July 2006, members of radical Islamist group Khatmey Nabuat Andolan (a group demanding declaring Ahmediyas as non-Moslems and continuing persecution on them) bombed the office of Shoaib's newspaper Weekly Blitz. In October 2006, members of cultural front of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (a party which formed coalition government with Jamaat-e-Islami and other Ilsmaist groups) attacked the office of Choudhury and physically assaulted him. Police never took any action against the attackers, as they had been sheltered by BNP, which shelters bunch of criminals and terrorists.

On March 18, 2008, members of notorious Rapid Action Battalion (a para military group known for killing hundreds of people extra judicially) stormed into the office of Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury and abducted him at gun point, thus looting cash and valuables from the office of Weekly Blitz. Although Shoaib was released after several hours, government in Dhaka never took any action against the culprits in Rapid Action Battalion for this illegal abduction, nor the looted valuables had ever been returned.

Although United States Congress (through HR64) and European Parliament passed resolution demanding dropping of charges against Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury and according protection to him, Bangladeshi authorities are continuing to ignore such international opinion, as Dhaka is gradually sleeping towards Islamist blocks.

Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury never got the attention of anti-Semitic institutions like Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch. Committee to Protect Journalists fears in honoring this Moslem Hero with any of their awards. None of the Israeli organizations ever came forward in favor of Choudhury with their recognition, to at least tell him "we are with you". When Prince Albert of Monaco or Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiessel recognize him for his extra-ordinary courage, Dan David Foundation, Gruber Foundation or other Jewish organization's recognitions for defending human rights and rights of Jews never went to this man.

And, Choudhury never is greedy for recognitions or awards. He has already learnt to live in extreme adversity in a Moslem nation of 150 million. There he is fighting a serious battle against radical Islam, just alone. Each day, members of his family, his newspaper and him are in real danger of getting killed.