Dialogue is Dangerous

11/30/2003

If you like this post - click to Reddit!
add to del.icio.us	Add to digg - digg it

Original text copyright by the author and MidEastWeb for Coexistence, RA. Posted at MidEastWeb Middle East Web Log at http://www.mideastweb.org/log/archives/00000123.htm where your intelligent and constructive comments are welcome. Distributed by MEW Newslist. Subscribe by e-mail to mew-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. Please forward by email with this notice and link to and cite this article. Other uses by permission.

by Moderator @ 08:04 PM CST [Link]

Replies: 1 Comment

This is not a matter of dialogue or Jewish/Muslim issue. Salahuddin knew very well that Bangladeshi citizens are not allowed to visit Isarel and this was stamped clearly in his passport. Instead of seeking permission from the authorities for his visit, he took a sneaky path and was arrested as such.

What you all don't know is that he is no prominent journalist there. His weekly magazine didn't have proper permission either. He is a known fraudster who defrauded a lot of people financially and otherwise. Now is the most stunnign revealation - he is a known criminal of terrorist nature. He sent e-mail death threat to former Bangladeshi prime minister S. Hasina and few other officials and was later apprehanded in 2000. After spending seven months behind the bars, he came out on bail from the high court and the case is still going on in Dhaka district judge court. At the end, this "prominent columnist, journalist and advocate of dialogue" will most likely receive 7-12 years jail term.

The present government was particularly incensed not because of his travel to Israel but because of his anti-state and trecherous acitvities. In Jerusalem Post and few other Israeli media, he wrote articles describing his fantastically fantacised day dreaming stories about Islamic radicalism in Bangladesh. Nothing could be any farther from the truth. At a moment when the whole world is going through a turbulant time, such stories clearly unnerved the government because of its potential negative impact on the country's image. To show his moderate face before the Israelis, he tried to blacken the face of the whole nation. It is also possible that he was trying to suck some money from the Israelis in the name of promoting dialogue. By the way, Bangladesh government did not charge this guy with espionage. He was charged with anti-state activities. Espionage story was trumped up by the local media.

Imagine a Israeli coming to Bangladesh and telling us that the Jews there are dying for Muslim bloods and that he is a sane voice speaking from the wilderness!

I am sure Israeli intellectuals will be welcome to visit Bangladesh and promote understanding but they have to be open about Palestine issue and find the right person in Bangladesh to do the job. Involvement with such criminals simply cast doubt on the motive of the Israelis. Bangladeshi people are not dying to see the destruction of the Jews or the Jewish state but to see the birth of the Palestinian state.

Posted by Parvez @ 12/05/2003 07:03 AM CST

Please do not leave notes for MidEastWeb editors here. Hyperlinks are not displayed. We may delete or abridge comments that are longer than 250 words, or consist entirely of material copied from other sources, and we shall delete comments with obscene or racist content or commercial advertisements. Comments should adhere to Mideastweb Guidelines . IPs of offenders will be banned.