Remember Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury? Maybe this will refresh your memory. Or this.
Well over a year ago, Choudhury was arrested in his native Bangladesh (a putative democracy) for the crime of promoting better relations between Muslims and Jews and for encouraging better relations between his country and Israel.
Unbelievably enough, he's still in jail.
An article in today's Jerusalem Post describes his situation.
Shoaib Choudhury is a Muslim who had the courage to condemn radical Islam's growing power in Bangladesh. The newspaper he published and edited, The Weekly Blitz, gave his people their first unbiased news about the Middle East before police grabbed him in 2003 as he prepared to address the Hebrew Writers' Conference in Tel Aviv on "The Role of Media in Creating a Culture of Peace" (see excerpt on this page).
Shortly after his arrest, police raided his home and business, seizing computers, files and other material. A mob then sacked the premises with impunity. His family was threatened, even attacked. His brother twice fled the capital. Mobs gathered in front of their home, and police blamed it all on the Choudhurys' "alliance with the Jews."
The government said Choudhury was "spying for the interests of Israel against the interests of Bangladesh," then orchestrated a vilification campaign. They called Choudhury's undelivered speech their strongest evidence of his perfidy and said he broke Bangladeshi law by trying to visit Israel.
Since at least one member of the U.S. Congress is now involved in the latest efforts to get him out, you can probably help by contacting your own representatives and/or linking to the story on your own blog.
