Shoair Choudhury was editor of the Bangladeshi magazine Weekly Blitz when he was arrested and accused of, but not charged with, supporting the State of Israel. He awaits trial in Cell No.15 of the Dhaka Central jail in Bangladesh. Choudhury, perhaps the world's only Muslim Zionist, writes in the Jerusalem Post (thanks to Iris):
Today, I stand before you perhaps as a living contradiction: a Zionist, a defender of Israel, and a devout, practicing 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. Witness the recent statement of outgoing Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohammed that "Jews rule the world."
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.
Most of the Muslim world takes your diversity as a sign of weakness and disunity, a lack of resolve; we know it is your great strength. It's messy, to be sure. But the fact that you do not feel it necessary to control the flow of information to your people means you respect them far more than we do ours - from whom we keep the news and forswear open dialogue, especially when it comes to Israel and the Jewish people....
Choudhury goes on to appeal to the tradition of tolerance in Muslim Bangladesh, and to describe Bangladesh's increasing radicalization.
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?...
Certainly, our initial steps are tentative ones, but they are yielding the early fruits of success. In Bangladesh, amid the monolithic anti-Israeli rant, a few voices are coming forward questioning the wisdom of that position. Quietly, a few brave souls are questioning what was previously unquestioned doctrine.
But our efforts are feeble and tentative compared to the great noise heard day after day from the other media giants. Muslims need to hear more voices of dissent, of reason, of decency. And a democracy like Bangladesh just might offer us a beachhead to join this epic battle....
The mosques, madrassas, and Muslim media have had absolute power over our hearts and minds for too long. Rather than ascribe evil intent - which there is among some; or ignorance -which also exists, let us pierce the iron curtain of ignorance and hate with the greatest power on earth: knowledge, information and the full and open exchange of ideas.
Indeed.
"He awaits trial in Cell No.15 of the Dhaka Central jail in Bangladesh."
The razakar mentality rules the roost in Bangladesh. Who will save Choudhury from being punished, terribly, for holding such thoughts, for attempting even to visit Israel? It will not be Human Rights Watch, of Kenneth Roth and Joe Stork fame. It will not be the U. N. Human Rights Commission, where the mere reading aloud from current Egyptian textbooks is denounced by the Pakistani representative as a "defamation" of Islam. It will not be the World Council of Churches, so extremely concerned that the vast empire of Israel be pushed back, the terms of the Mandate ignored, the legal, historical, and moral claims of Israel mocked while the disguised but relentless Jihad against it, now in the form of the "Palestinian" people's "legitimate rights, etc." are promoted while every single non-Muslim minority in the Msulim world suffers discrimination, or a disguised jizyah, or persecution, or murder, or mass-murder.
This article should be circulated in Congress. Let everyone be asked to append his or her name, signing a letter of protest to the government of Bangladesh. Make clear that how Choudhury is treated will be the issue which will decide how, in what way, Bangladesh will fare in decisions by the American government, in the possibility of Bangladeshis coming for education or medical care (further immigration will of course cease completely if a hair on his head is touched). And meanwhile, circulate this letter as well among all those Bright Young Muslim Things who claim to be reformers, but so far, more familiar with Rodeo Drive than with rodeos, have proven to be all hat and no cattle.
Worth reading as well, Melanie Phillips's diary entry for April 13th, A Muslim Hero, comparing Pakistan's resolution on the "defamation" of Muslims vs. its persecution of Choudhury. http://www.melaniephillips.com/diary/
As for Choudhury being the only Muslim Zionist... ...Walid Shoebat and Nonie Darwish are both converts to Christianity, but Sheik Palazzi, a leading Sunni Imam in Italy is also a strong and vocal supporter of Israel, and Irshad Manji has also indicated her support of Israel in The Trouble with Islam.
I wept. Interesting that Choudhoury, while still identifying himself as a Muslim, notes a large difference between Christian and Muslim missionaries. Maybe we need to work up an international campaign to have him released.
there should be rallying cry heard across the blogisphere for the open and peacfull wisdom of this man Shoair Choudhury.
As another muslim who vociferously shares Choudhury's views (much to the impotent* rage of my coreligionists), I'm glad I don't live in Bangladesh, Pakistan, or for that matter, Londonistan!
*If we were to continue to believe the police's and MSM's canard on the Armanious-killer's motives.
Waterdragon: Re Sheikh Palazzi, I note that he is a native Italian of Catholic origins. Irshad Manji is a confessed lesbian, which seems more important to her than any Muslim affiliation. As for Shoebat and Darwish (throw in the Caner brothers as well), they long ago figured out the real religion of peace.
Where is Stephen Schwartz on all of this? It seems that with the notable exception of Mr. Choudhoury (and certain people living in Israel), most pro-Israel Muslims seem to be Western converts. Home-grown Isalm, especially the Ulema, seem to be as fire-breathing as ever on this issue.
I'm sure the U.N. will get right on this.
As soon as they pass another declaration about the mistreatment of Muslims.
Hey, wait. Mr. Choudhoury IS a Muslim!
But, he's being mistreated BY Muslims?!?!
That doesn't fit the game plan.
(Official Deafening Silence......
..while Bill "Thong" Clinton and Kofi "Oil-For-Food Thief" Anan schmooze at another press conference.)
Quick he must be silenced. The zionist's have used some sort of vodoo curse and caused him to go insane.
How dare he preach tolerance, and understanding.
What a brave, gutsy, no-nonsense bugger. This is someone worthy of real admiration.
The next question is: how can we HELP him? Should we contact Palazzi, Shoebat, Darwish, Manji? Maybe each of us should take one person and email them about the case (which, doubtless, they know of) and offer support or ask how we can help? Maybe we really could get something started.
Geoff
Hey Big Sleep,
What is your messiah, George "Iraq has Nukes, Statehood for 'Palestine', and Islam is Good" Bush going to do about it?
He didn't do squat when he got the "Bin Laden Determined To Strike In The US" briefing in August, 2001 during his month-long vacation in Waco.
1600 dead Soldiers and Marines + 300 BILLION taxpayer dollars = one successful re-election.
Good luck to Mr. Choudury. I (kind of, slightly) know how he feels. As a liberal Zionist, I often find myself fighting my fellow libs on the issue of Islam in general and Israel in particular. Of course, I'm not in jail and being threatened with murder.
IF the guy lives long enough to stand trail (and he probably won't) you know he's going to be found guilty of ... something. (I think the usual crime is "spying for Israel," but they could get him for blasphemy of defaming the Prophet or whatever.) But the most likely thing is that he will meet his demise at the hands of a lynch mob, a hired assassin, or just a plain old run-of-the-mill Mobot a**hole.
I wouldn't bet a penny on he or any of his friends or family living one day.
But you have to admire his bravery. If only enough brave liberals like him had stood up years ago, it could have made such a difference. Now the whole thing may be too far gone for a lone voice or even a lot of voices to make much of a difference.
If anyone out there is interested, I found something truly amazing. A Muslim "Mother Theresa." I don't know if he's very religious (he seems to have a keen eye on women's liberation) but his name is Abdul Sattar Edhi. I couldn’t find a homepage--given his “vow” of poverty, I doubt he even has a computer--but here is a URL that describes him:
http://www.thesouthasian.com/February2002/AbdulSattarEdhisocial_worker.htm
http://www.sarahn.com/mfi/presidentsmessege.html
This is a now-broken link that USED to go to a website called "Muslims For Israel." As I recall there was a young lady that ran the site and dared to stand up to 1.2 Billion fanatics (not to mention a couple million Israel-bashing hippies, right-wingers, and sundry other misfits.)
I hope nothing happened to her. Does anyone know what became of the site and the lady that ran it? If so please contact me. I may not check back in here, on this particular comments page, so please write me at fanorollins@yahoo.com if I don't acknowledge you here.
Yeah, kj - it'll be "spying for Israel". That's my bet. If it weren't that I would go fooooor..."public indecency/improper morality"? Bangladesh is a bit far, though, for even that charge. Maybe "libel". But espionage does seem the most likely.
Geoff
Kepha:
I would refer you to the Israpundit site for Palazzi's bona fides as a Muslim, written about a year ago in response to the egregious Mohammed El-Masry's spurious claims about him. http://www.israpundit.com/archives/2004/03/prof_palazzi_re_3.php You can also see what Daniel Pipes has written about Palazzi's bona fides at http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/166
Although Irshad Manji is most definitely a lesbian, and some Muslims may reject her on that count, she was most definitely born and raised Muslim, and still hasn't left Islam. She may, some day, but for now, she still calls herself a Muslim.
And while Nonie Darwish converted to Christianity from Islam, she "sponsors" a site named "Muslims for Israel", and does get some posts from Muslims all over the world who admire Israel and Israelis.
kj -- i couldn't get the link about the male Mother Teresa to work.
Is this an example of the "tiny number of extremists that have hijacked Islam" for which we really have little to fear? We now have hundreds of millions of up-and-coming jihadists to contend with from the religion of peace that won't be satisfied until we are "reverted", subdued, or dead.
About Arafat, Ramaz...
Maybe they meant lightsabers? They must have Arafat confused with that movie character who also wore strange headgear and ran a despotic government.
You know, Darth Whats-His-Name.
Geoff
"I have not read the Koran, but people have pointed out to me that there are like 151 verses of Jihad, and that terrorists use it as a "manual." -- from a posting by Ramaz, born in Bangladesh in 1986 (15 years after the war for independence)
Ramaz, do read the Qur'an, but with notes that explain it further, and the Hadith (in Bukhari's recension) and the Sira (if you can afford a $50 reprint, I would recommend the Life of Mahomet by Sir William Muir, but the books by Arthur Jeffery and Tor Andrae will also do). In other words, if you want to find out, outside a Muslim society, one which is pervaded by, suffused with, Islam -- very sermon, every textbook, every converstational allusion, every shared "background" -- you would, in the United States, have to create for yourself this world.
If you go into the archives, and put "Bangladesh" into the Search box, you will find a number of articles, and in postings below you will find a good deal of cut-and-paste material about the murderous razakars and their behavior, in siding with the army of West Pakistan, during the 1971 war. There are also several Bangladeshi websites that provide this material -- at least one is on the Jihadwatch list of linked websites.
How, under what conditions, the Hindus and Buddhists of Bangal, or some of them, were forcibly converted -- for conditions that are so onerous as those imposed by the Muslim conquerors naturally led some people, over time, to convert -- is something you might investigate. And then you might ask yourself this question: why should I necessarily abandon those ancestors, that long line of Hindus or Buddhists (some of the latter still live in the Chittagong Hills region of Bangladesh) and stick with Islam? Why should I not identify rather, with those who were forcibly made to embrace a Total Explanation of the Universe that, wherever it took over, subjugated non-Muslims and either killed, forcibly converted, or imposed on them a system of dhimmitude that naturally, over time, proved so painful that to escape the condition some continued to convert -- which of course meant a different kind of "forcible" conversion.
Sites run by ex-Muslims -- such as www.secularislam.org and www.faithfreedom.org, are worth going to. There are also sites run by Bangladeshis. Take a look. See what you think.
And since you have alluded to the Arab supremacist ideology embedded within Islam, why not investigate that matter too?
As Yeats might have said (if he had happened to feel a bit more Gaelic-y) to Rabindranath Tagore:
So Ramaz a chara (as Yeats, we can pretend to believe, might once have written to Tagore), I hope some of those suggestions prove useful.
"I have not read the Koran, but people have pointed out to me that there are like 151 verses of Jihad, and that terrorists use it as a "manual." -- from a posting by Ramaz, born in Bangladesh in 1986 (15 years after the war for independence)
Ramaz, do read the Qur'an, but with notes that explain it further, and the Hadith (in Bukhari's recension) and the Sira (if you can afford a $50 reprint, I would recommend the Life of Mahomet by Sir William Muir, but the books by Arthur Jeffery and Tor Andrae will also do). In other words, if you want to find out, outside a Muslim society, one which is pervaded by, suffused with, Islam -- very sermon, every textbook, every converstational allusion, every shared "background" -- you would, in the United States, have to create for yourself this world.
If you go into the archives, and put "Bangladesh" into the Search box, you will find a number of articles, and in postings below you will find a good deal of cut-and-paste material about the murderous razakars and their behavior, in siding with the army of West Pakistan, during the 1971 war. There are also several Bangladeshi websites that provide this material -- at least one is on the Jihadwatch list of linked websites.
How, under what conditions, the Hindus and Buddhists of Bangal, or some of them, were forcibly converted -- for conditions that are so onerous as those imposed by the Muslim conquerors naturally led some people, over time, to convert -- is something you might investigate. And then you might ask yourself this question: why should I necessarily abandon those ancestors, that long line of Hindus or Buddhists (some of the latter still live in the Chittagong Hills region of Bangladesh) and stick with Islam? Why should I not identify rather, with those who were forcibly made to embrace a Total Explanation of the Universe that, wherever it took over, subjugated non-Muslims and either killed, forcibly converted, or imposed on them a system of dhimmitude that naturally, over time, proved so painful that to escape the condition some continued to convert -- which of course meant a different kind of "forcible" conversion.
Sites run by ex-Muslims -- such as www.secularislam.org and www.faithfreedom.org, are worth going to. There are also sites run by Bangladeshis. Take a look. See what you think.
And since you have alluded to the Arab supremacist ideology embedded within Islam, why not investigate that matter too?
As Yeats might have said (if he had happened to feel a bit more Gaelic-y) to Rabindranath Tagore:
So Ramaz a chara (as Yeats, we can pretend to believe, might once have written to Tagore), I hope some of those suggestions prove useful.
Thanks Ramaz for your input.
I think that there is little hope of islam adapting to moderation, though your 'new hadith' is great idea, and i see little reason for you to put your life, and those of your family at risk.
As Hugh suggests, as i read his input, why not find the faith your ancestors had before they were forced by the sword, or repression, to accept islam.
ie Leave islam, to heck with it.
Your forebearers, likely not that long ago, say 300 to 400 years back, converted in order to survive.
The strategy was successful, because here you are in 2005.
Now, you can do what they would have wished, which is choose your own belief system, whether Hindu or Buddhist, which were likely your forebearers, or Christianity or Judaism, or ...?
Saying goodbye to islam is the strongest statement you can make, and the healthiest for you and the world.
And on thread,
what a truly brave person Mr. Choudhury is, and what can we do to support him.
My name is Richard Benkin. I am Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury's friend and colleague, and I have been leading the fight to free him. People who want to help should go to our web site, www.freechoudhury.com. There you can learn more about the case, sign a petition that needs as many signatures as possible, and your visit alone will give us more "hits," which helps, too. You can also contact me through the site for speeches or writing, or for more information.
We are entering into a period that has taken this matter to higher levels. So, as you will read at the site, it would help if you urge your own Senators or Members of Congress to get involved. Notify your local media. Refer them to the site. Refer them to me.
This is a terrible tragedy for one family, but it is part of a dangerous trend in the non-Arab Muslim world, and together, and with brave men like my friend, we can overcome it. We must not let the good people of Bangladesh be overwhelmed by the radicals.
Thanks.
OK, Waterdragon. I went to the links you suggested, and now see that Sheikh Parazzi was born Muslim. Still, that last name doesn't look very Arab, or Farsi, or Turkish, or Malay, etc. My guess is that he probably has a lot of sensitivity to the beliefs and feelings of people outside the Ummah.