Unholy things under holy mask

Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury
A group of ruling party men has set a very nasty example of ´unholy´ task under the garb of holy reason.

According to Bangladeshi press, Uttara Hindu Kalyan Sangha [Uttara Hindu Welfare Society] ook permission to use a piece of land measuring one hecter [3 acres] from Bangladesh government for a week for setting a temporary Puja [Hindu worship] pandel in Dhaka. Considering the divine reason, Bangladeshi government granted permission to use the land for using the land for seven days, during the just concluded Durga Puja [largest religious festival of Hindus].

Durga Puja [Worship of Durga´], also referred as Durgotsab [Festival of Durga] is an annual Hindu festival that celebrates worship of Hindu goddess Durga. Durga Puja is widely celebrated in West Bengal, Assam , Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Tripura where it is a five-day annual holiday. Not only it is the biggest Hindu festival celebrated throughout the State, but also the most significant socio-cultural event in Bengali society.

Subsequently a temporary pandel was set on the land. But, the organizers, at the end of the festival, instead of vacating the land are and immersing the Durga deity are continuing to keep the deities on the spot, with an ulterior motive of grabbing the piece of land. According to Hindu rituals, Durga deities are accorded farewell and immersed in a nearby river or lake.

Sensing the immoral attitude of the Hindu leaders who took the permission for setting the pandel, members of law enforcing agencies are already deployed on the spot and a criminal case has been lodged against the leaders of Uttara Hindu Kalyan Sangha [Uttara Hindu Welfare Society] most of whom are ruling party activists and leaders.

On the other side, a leader of Uttara Hindu Kalyan Sangha, Engineer Chandra Mohan Paul told reporters that the questioned land was not occupied illegally. He claimed that, they already have sought court injuction on the land, which stops Bangladesh government from removing the temporary pandel from the spot.

Meanwhile, it is learnt from the office of Bangladesh government that the leaders of Uttara Hindu Kalyan Sangha [Uttara Hindu Welfare Society] submitted an application with Rajdhani Unnayan Karitpakkha [Capital City Development Authorities] on August23 2009 with recommendation from Home Minister Advocate Sahara Khatun for using the aforesaid land for 10 days. The permission was granted with two specific conditions, which are:


1. Organizers wont allow any commercial establishments on the land during the period of using it,

2. They will vacate the land by September 29, 2009 and remove all materials of the temporary pandel from the spot.

On end of the Durga Puja, the leaders of Uttara Hindu Welfare Society, started constructing a temple on the land without any lawful rights. When Rajdhani Unnayan Karipakkha [Capital City Development Authorities] rushed on the spot and intervened, some influential Hindu leaders made phone calls to the Prime Minister´s office claiming, a Hindu Temple was attacked. Subsequently, police were deployed on the spot.

It is alleged by Rajdhani Unnayan Karipakkha that, some leaders of the ruling party are behind the entire episode of grabbing the land in the name of Hindu temple. They said, subsequently commercial establishments will be set alongside the temple, if they will finally succeed in grabbing the land and those leaders will cash huge amount of money from this place.

While everyone in the world are always in favor of protecting minority rights, it is also equally expected from the religious minorities in the world that they won´t use religious sentiment in covering any form of illegal activities, as some of the Hindu leaders in Dhaka [Bangladesh] have committed in the mentioned case.

It is also important to mention here that, although we have found just one example of grabbing land in the name of setting Puja Pandel, in Bangladesh alone, acres of land are grabbed by some crooks in the name of establishing mosques, shrines, temples etc for years. Especially the trend of grabbing property by establishing a mosque is a very common phenomenon in Bangladesh. There are at least hundreds if not thousands of cases of grabbing government property by setting a mosque right within the capital city in Bangladesh. And not to mention about the other cities and towns in the country.
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Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury

Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury is an award winning anti Jihadist Muslim journalist in Bangladesh.

He is the editor of Weekly Blitz. This newspaper has both print and online edition reaching mostly policymakers, politicians, entrepreneurs, students, think tanks, civil and military officials, clergies and cross section of people in the world.

Weekly Blitz is the largest and most influential English language newspaper published in Bangladesh. Online edition of the only anti Jihadist newspaper in the Muslim world is available on www.weeklyblitz.net

Journalist, writer, poet, lyricist, author, film director, political analyst and peace activist, Choudhury, started his career in journalism in 1989 as the Correspondent of TASS, state news agency of Soviet Union. Later he was promoted as the Chief Correspodent of Itar-Tass in Bangladesh.

On November 29, 2003, he was arrested at Zia International Airport in Bangladesh on his way to Israel to attend a peace conference. Choudhury was tortured, imprisoned and denied medical treatment in prison. Government brought sedition, treason and blasphemy charges against him for confronting religious extremism, advocating inter-faith dialogue and demanding relations between Dhaka and Jerusalem. He was released on April 30, 2005 after imprisonment of seventeen months.

Although released on bail, Choudhury continues to face sedition, treason and blasphemy charges and the trial continues in a court in Dhaka. Sedition bears capital punishment [death penalty] according to law in Bangladesh.

Choudhury is the recipient of PEN USA Freedom to Write Award in 2005; American Jewish Committee's Moral Courage Award in 2006; Monaco Media Award in 2007 Key to Englewood City [NJ, USA] in 2007 and Key to Cherry Hill [NJ] in 2007 alongwith numerous local and international awards.

He has written a number of books on various issues. His book titled 'Injustice and Jihad' was published in October 2007. Italian publication house Neftasia Editore has published Choudhury's book titled 'Non Sono Colpevole' in May 2008.

Choudhury's latest book titled 'Inside Madrassa', which contains descriptive and elaborate information on condition of Madrassas in Bangladesh, Pakistan and other Muslim nations has been published in October 2009. This book is a result of comprehensive research by Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury for several years. Interested people can buy a copy of this book by contacting Blitz Publications, ediblitz@yahoo.com

In today's world, Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury is perhaps the most quoted Bangladeshi journalist in the international media.

The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Sun, The Washington Times, The Australian, The Berliner Zeitung, The Jewish State, The Jewish Week, The Guardian and many other leading international and regional dailies and periodicals have published numerous editorials on Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury.

Office of Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury's newspaper, Weekly Blitz was bombed by Islamist militants in Dhaka [Bangladesh] in July 2006. On October 5, 2006, armed terrorists attacked the his office and physically assaulted him. On 18th March 2008, members of Rapid Action Battalion [infamous of extra-judicial murders] abducted Mr. Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury at gun point from his office. He was blind-folded and physically assaulted. Because of quick actions by US Peace Activist Dr. Richard L Benkin and Rep. Mark Steven Kirk and other esteemed members of United States Congress, Choudhury escaped RAB's deathtrap.

On February 22, 2009, Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury's newspaper office was once again attacked by the armed thugs belonging to ruling party. He and his staffs were physically assaulted and the attackers looted his laptop along with two manuscripts of his un-published books.

US Congress, European Parliament, Australian Senate passed resolutions demanding dropping of the false case of Mr. Choudhury and to give him proper security and stop all forms of harassments. But, Bangladeshi authorities in Dhaka, instead of showing minimum respect to such calls, withdrew police protection from the residence of Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury in May 2008.

He writes of several international newspapers and research sites.

Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury is regularly invited by numerous prestigious institutions in the world for giving lecture on various topics of his work. He is considered to be one of the very few counter-terrorism experts working on Islamist militancy, Jihad, Sharia rule and Jihadist funding. His efforts have been recognized by the United States Congress, Australian Senate, Canadian Parliament, European Parliament and other governmental bodies in the world.

Yale University [New Haven, USA], Rutgers University [New Jersey, USA] and Hudson Institute [NYC] invited Choudhury to lectures. He also has given lectures at AIPAC, American Jewish Committee, and Synagogues in USA etc.

Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury has been interviewed in a recently released [2010] feature length documentary film named AMERICA AT RISK, which is produced by Citizens United Production, USA.

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