Surviving in extreme adversity

I was arrested on November 29 2003 for attempting to visit Israel to attend a peace conference in Tel Aviv, organized by Hebrew Writers Association. Later the government brought sedition, treason and blasphemy charges against me for confronting militant Islam, for advocating inter-faith harmony and for demanding relations between Bangladesh and Israel. According to Bangladeshi law, sedition bears capital punishment.

Trial into the case is still continuing and Bangladeshi government is not dropping the false charges, which were brought against me by the previous Islamist coalition government.

I was detained in solitary confinement for seventeen months. At that time my Jewish brother Dr. Richard L Benkin, who hails from Illinois pursued by case. He knocked the doors of his senator Barack Hussain Obama [now American President], other members of Senate as well as a large number of esteemed members of United States Congress. But, one congressman, Mark Steven Kirk, who is from Mount Period Prospect stood in my defense and finally set me out of prison on 30 April 2005. Since then, he has been vigorously trying to get the false charges dropped. He introduced a resolution in the US Congress in 2006 [HR 64] which was passed with 402 votes. One member of US Congress, Ron Paul opposed to this resolution. In this resolution, US Congress said:

1. The Government of Bangladesh should immediately drop all pending charges against Bangladeshi journalist Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury,

2. The Government of Bangladesh should immediately return all of Mr. Choudhury´s confiscated possessions; and,

3. The Government of Bangladesh should cease harassment and intimidation of Mr. Choudhury, take steps to protect Mr. Choudhury and hold accountable those responsible for attacks against Mr. Choudhury.

But, it is already three years that the US Congress passed this resolution, and Bangladesh government is continuing to completely ignore this. It may be mentioned here that, Bangladesh received roughly US$ 64 million each year from US and aid while Bangladeshi textile sector is greatly surviving with export worth hundreds of millions of dollars each year.

Bangladesh government in May 2008 withdrew police protection from my residence and my office was attacked a number of times [latest on February 22, 2009] and in each cases, the government and the members of law enforcing agencies completely ignored these incidents and showed total reluctance in taking any action against the perpetrators.

During the December 29, 2008 general election, though a secular party won and came in power, the year-old harassment and intimidation on me never stopped. Rather, almost on a regular basis, I am facing various forms of adversities.

Since I was released on bail in 2006, I resumed the publication of Weekly Blitz, the only newspaper confronting militant Islam and Jihad. Though Blitz has already turned into the most influential newspaper in Bangladesh and only anti-Jihadist newspaper in the Muslim world, local advertisers are afraid of placing their advertisements in it fearing reaction from the Islamists.

Those who are in publication industry will surely be able to realize the degree of challenges we are facing in continuing the publication of our newspaper without even a single dollar earned from advertisement. One year back, one of our supporters from United States contributed a few hundred dollars through advertisement in Blitz. It is also one year back. And, since then, we in Weekly Blitz do not have any income from advertisement. The only source of income for Weekly Blitz is the small publication and printing business we are running. Occasionally we are publishing various types of books, which surely would have never been published by any of the publication houses in the Muslim nation.

In October 2009, Blitz Publications published two books one by me and the other by Dr. Richard L Benkin.

Inside Madrassa, a book written by me is the result of my six years research and study on rise of Jihadists inside Islamic education schools. Many of my readers opined that this is one of the best informative books on the mentioned topic.

Dr. Richard Benkin´s book is Battle Beneath Jerusalem, which surely will also attain attention and interest of the readers.

But, like my case, books published by Blitz Publications never got media coverage in the West. Only a few newspapers like Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Times, New York Sun etc in United States while Berliner Zeitung in Germany wrote editorials on me on a number of occasions. In fact New York Times published only one editorial in 2004 right after my arrest. Beside, Voice of America had two programs on me in 2006. Since then, none of the television channels in United States showed any interest in covering my case. Though I was contacted by Fox News in 2006 for an interview, they finally just went silent.

So, for me and for Blitz Publications, the only means of spreading our works as well any of the publications of Blitz is my friends and supporters around the world, especially those in the facebook. I hope, my friends here will kindly circulate the information about my book named Inside Madrassa amongst everyone they know, so that people can buy copies, which will surely help Weekly Blitz as well as my peace activities to continue.