Where is Bangla who ?.

Kurt Knoll.
=
"Leonard Pulver" <redlink@gta.igs.net> wrote in message
news:3FCCF69D.28059AD1@gta.igs.net...

Brother Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, a pro-dialogue
anti-fundamentalist Muslim journalist from Bangladesh,
was arrested at the airport while leaving for Israel
and is presently detained. We attach the text of a
recent article of his and ask all of you to support our
courageous brother Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury with
your supplications.

The Board of Governors of the Italian Muslim
Association asks the authorities of Bangladesh for the
immediate liberation of our detained brother.



INCUBATING ULTRA-RADICALISM

By Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury

Bangladesh is known as a 'moderate Muslim country' and
its people have the reputation of 'moderate Muslims,'
free of rancor against other faiths. However, our
society, like many others, is being subverted by the
efforts of Muslim extremists.

We must admit that most of the people of Bangladesh
still lack the opportunity for modern, scientific
education and are therefore open to persuasion by
religious extremists. In recent years there has been a
strong upsurge in activities of religious extremist
groups in a number of countries, including Bangladesh.
Recently, law enforcement agencies in Bangladesh have
captured members of quite a number of such groups in
various parts of the country. These were operating
under the umbrella of "Islamic Kindergarten Madrassas"
or madrassas financed by Afro-Arab organizations.
Islamic Kindergarten Madrassas are supposed to be
innocent institutions where young boys learn the
elements of Islamic faith, but these madrassas have a
different program.

In the capital city of Dhaka, even now such
organizations are quite in evidence and have large
memberships. Promoters of these organizations hire huge
buildings in posh areas and target boys from the
semi-affluent middle class. Previously, madrassa
education was mostly confined to lower income and less
affluent groups. However, following the emergence of
these so-called Islamic Kindergarten Madrassas in
Bangladesh, the students are drawn from richer
segments, and even include boys of the richest class.

One of the accused arrested from one such institution
confessed to Bangladesh police that they were planning
to have an Islamic revolution in the country, and that
they were anxiously looking for boys from the affluent
class since they mostly control politics. The accused
admitted that they were heavily funded by a number of
African and Arab countries.

The arrest and statement of the accused have been
widely carried by local press. According to these
reports, these belligerent people under the covering of
various 'Deen' (true path) training organizations
intend to coach a section of ill-educated and
prejudiced people to be their followers. . Through
their clandestine campaigns they are plotting to wage a
'Holy War'. As instruments to induce rage and delude
people, they are using different recorded tapes with
extremist provocative speeches and songs. They also
include messages from Osama Bin Laden.

A few months ago a Syrian teacher was arrested. He had
belonged to a similar organization named the
'Al-Haramine Institution'. According to records of
police intelligence in Bangladesh, members of this
organization use the kindergarten madrassa as
camouflage. They regularly communicate with various
underground-armed groups in the country and even
recruit locals and send them to Palestine as guerilla
fighters. Each recruit gets US$ 1500-2000 as an up
front payment for their 'new job'. Later family members
or legal representatives or spouses of these guerilla
fighters will receive US$ 150-200 per month as salary.
If any of them were killed during the war, their family
would get US$ 5,000 as compensation.

According to the police report, Al-Haramine
Institution maintains a secret training camp inside the
compound of its kindergarten madrassa. The recruits are
given theoretical and practical training for seven
weeks before they proceed to their destination. During
training, they are given an elementary idea of their
responsibilities and a practical knowledge about some
of the weapons used by Palestinian fighters and other
extremist groups.

Al-Haramine Institute is gradually spreading its wings
in other parts of Bangladesh too. Recently they have
established their offices in eastern and southern
Bangladesh. One of the main objectives of this
organization is to sell the idea of jihad (in the sense
of violent holy war) to the masses. The organization
maintains very good relations with some extremist news
dailies including Inqilab, Ittesal, Al-Mujadded, and
Sangram etc. Owners of these dailies are regularly
compensated by this organization and in exchange, these
newspapers give quite open support to its activities.

Al-Koran Academy is another such organization run by
one Hafez Munirul Islam. He was a teacher in a local
madrassa with the monthly salary of US$75 only. Just
recently an office of Al-Koran Society has been
established in Bangladesh with Hafez Munirul as its
Executive Director in Bangladesh. Office of the
organization is located at city's top most posh area
costing US$ 2000 per month. Hafez Munirul also receives
US$ 1000 as a monthly salary. This organization claims
that its main activity is printing and distributing the
Koran. However, in fact, Al-Koran Academy is mostly
engaged in providing political coordinators for various
mosques in Bangladesh. The local tax department raised
questions about the sudden change in fortunes of this
poor madrassa teacher, and investigated the sources of
the funding. They found that most funding for this
organization comes from the Middle East.

The Daily Inqilab acts as a mouthpiece of the
fundamentalists in Bangladesh. . It is an extremist
sort of provocative newspaper spreading the theme of
jihad amongst the local population Inqilab was
initially funded by Iraq's deposed autocrat Saddam
Hussain and presently it receives regular cash support
from a large number of hidden organization in
Bangladesh and abroad. One of the owners of this daily
is based in Dubai where from global activities of this
organization continues. It is believed that Inqilab
enjoys very close contact with Osama Bin Laden, and it
has extremely good relations with a large number of
small and medium ranking organizations and parties in
Bangladesh. Some of these organizations are on the
regular pay roll of the daily.

Pressure to conform to extremist opinion is intense.
Since my newspaper, the Weekly Blitz, published several
articles that were favorable to Israel, we have been
subject to various threats from local fanatics as well
from the Palestinian ambassador in Dhaka. Our newspaper
was black listed by some of the local companies
financed by the Islami Bank, another organization that
patronizes and nourishes extremist groups here. There
were a number of applications to the Deputy
Commissioner of Dhaka to cancel the registration of our
newspaper. Hackers entered our Web site and tried to
disrupt it, but were foiled by our technicians.

I received numerous threats from the local extremists
and from the editor of an extremist daily, and in one
case I had to lodge a written complaint
with the local police station. Under the instructions
and inspiration of Islami Bank, Ibn Sina Trust and some
other religious extremist groups, I was thrown out of a
private television company where fanatics suddenly
acquired the major portion of the stock. Until now I
have not been paid the price for my 20 percent share in
that company.

Destruction, fanaticism and terror are not the way to
bring about positive changes in the minds of people or
in any society. Such attempts have always met a grim
fate in the past, whether perpetrated by organizations
or states.

World leaders, government and various organizations
have started to make people aware of vicious designs of
the extremists and to combat them. Governments, along
with the law enforcing agencies should strengthen their
efforts to isolate these destructive elements before it
is too late. Various media can also serve to
disseminate messages to counter extremist propaganda,
to generate awareness, and to organize people in favor
of peace and against all sorts of religious and other extremism.
___________

Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury is editor of the Weekly
Blitz in Bangladesh,
http://www.weeklyblitz.com. This article has been put
online by Mideast Web Page on October 19, 2003:
www.mideastweb.org