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Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, pro-Israeli, anti-jihadist Muslim journalist

High profile trip to America may have kept Bangladeshi journalist safe

By Judi McLeod

Monday, August 20, 2007

A trial date of September 23, 2007 has been set for Bangladeshi journalist, Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury.

The scheduled court date is proof positive that the Bangladeshi government is refusing Western government demands to drop the charges against Choudhury.

The pro-Israeli, anti-jihadist Muslim journalist earned international support when he was arrested, imprisoned for 17 consecutive months and tortured after writing articles exposing Islamist attempts to take over the world's third largest Muslim country.

Salah Uddin Shoaib ChoudhuryMembers of the journalist's family have been beaten and his children have been stalked.

The "show trial" that has been hanging over Choudhury's head like the hangman's noose since the Spring of 2005 could result in the death penalty.

There were, as usual, no witnesses allowed to testify on Choudhury's behalf when he was forced back to court on August 18. Ironically, the public prosecutor was also noticeably absent. The public prosecutor was otherwise occupied at the trial of the former State Minister for Home Affairs, who is facing criminal charges for arms possession.

"My lawyers told me that, as my Leave to Appeal Petition is pending with the Appellate Division, the trial court cannot hear the case until it is disposed of in the Appellate Division. Possibly, the case would not even be heard in the Appellate Division by September 23," said Choudhury.

Even with the concerted efforts of worldwide Western governments to set Choudhury free, the Bangladesh government has yet to drop the charges to show any respect to a Resolution passed in the U.S. Congress, European Parliament and Australian Parliament.

In the stony silence of Bangladesh, Congressman Mark Steven Kirk has sent yet another letter to the Bangladesh government. The Canadian Parliament, under the auspicious initiative of Choudhury's international counsel, Professor Irwin Cotler has sent a similar letter.

No one has worked harder to free Choudhury than American university professor Dr. Richard Benkin.

Benkin may have saved Choudhury's life by having arranged a high profile trip to America for the courageous journalist one month before his last court date.

A frequent radio guest and contributor to publications worldwide about the Choudhury case, intelligence matters and the war on terror, Benkin has also published and spoken extensively about Jerusalem's Temple Mount, Hasidism, the Middle East, and other topics about Jewish culture and history.

A tireless advocate of real interfaith understanding, Benkin is currently working on a book about the terrorist threat in non-Arab Muslim Asia.

As Special Advisor to the Intelligence Summit on Bangladeshi Affairs, Benkin has been warning the West "despite being the world's third largest Muslim-majority country and the seventh largest overall, Bangladesh has been able to pursue its slide toward a "Taliban State" unnoticed.

"For decades, Saudi and Kuwaiti money have helped Bangladeshi Islamists buy and build infrastructure in its various social institutions. Their success has supported a social ethic among the population that has ensured solid support for Islamists, even in the face of their 2005 terror bombings in every Bangladesh province.

"Further strengthening Bangladesh's Islamists is what Asian expert, Christine Fair has termed the country's "zero-sum political culture". The two major parties so detest one another that their leaders would choose almost any option over the other party's victory. This has led to the center-right Bangladesh Nationalist Party, for instance, to welcome Islamists into its ruling coalition. It also has sustained a deliberate policy of appeasement, which has resulted in Islamist infiltration of the police, court system, and other arms of the government."

In 2003, a lone Bangladeshi journalist, Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury began writing about growing Islamist power in Bangladesh, where millions of children from poverty-stricken families attend madrasses.

Choudhury, who lost the sight of one eye from glaucoma when officials refused him treatment during 17 months in prison, was also not allowed to attend his mother's funeral.

Courageously, he continues to chronicle Islamist attempts to take over Bangladesh in his independent publication, The Weekly Blitz.

Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com


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