Shoaib's attempt to find nail in a haystack
The controversial journalist Salah Uddin Shoaib Chowdhury’s energy to start storm over a teapot is well-known. So, I am not too surprised to see his latest salvo against the Bangladesh government. He bewails the fact that Awami League is not the kind of “secular” party that his kind likes to see. To him, secularism ought to be modeled after European atheism. He forgets that even the western countries like the USA and UK are not fundamentalist secular either where God has no place in society. Thus, in the American dollar bill there is the logo “In God We Trust” imprinted. Every presidential speech ends with chants of “God Bless America.” Elected reps and even high-ranking government officials take their oaths of allegiance by placing their hands on the Bible. The last president Bush Jr. even claimed to have a direct hotline with God!
More interestingly, the last week's GQ magazine has exposed the hawkish use of scripture in 2003, when then-defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld forwarded secret intelligence memos to Bush that were embroidered with biblical passages. "Therefore, put on the full amour of God," a verse from Ephesians, and "Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter," from Isaiah, are among the messages that adorn reports prepared for Bush by Rumsfeld's Pentagon.
Lest we forget it is Shoaib’s mentor Richard Benkin who approves a party like the Islamic Democratic Party (IDP), which wants to introduce Shariah law “only for the Muslims” in Bangladesh. All indications are that the IDP was floated with Israeli/Jewish money. [http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world-news/bangladesh-islamists-float-political-party-with-government-nod_100101358.html] Are we therefore to remain nonchalant as long as the Islamist party is financed by the Zionists?
Shoaib mentions about the signing of a treaty between the Bangladesh Awami League and Khelafat Majlish on December 23, 2007 in which the two parties agreed that “No law shall be enacted contrary to the Qur'an, Sunnah and Shariah; Government Recognition to Qaumi Madrasa Certificate will be duly implemented; Laws will be enacted as follows:
“Muhammad [S] is the Last and the Greatest Messenger of Allah”; Certified Righteous Ulemas reserve the right to issue Fatwa (one who is not certified shall not have the right to issue Fatwa); Defamation or criticism of Messengers of Allah and Sahabas is punishable crime.”
Supposing that Shoaib’s statement is true, can any rational person find fault with those clauses in a country with 90% Muslim population? Bangladesh is not an atheist country and in all likelihood will never embrace fundamentalist secularism of the sort Shoaib may be proposing. As an ardent admirer of the Zionist state he knows better that the so-called secular parties in Israel have no problem tangoing with religious parties in forming government, and when it comes to justifying the illegal annexation of Palestinian land even a pork-eating atheistic Jew quotes the Bible. So why apply a different formula for Bangladesh?
It is obvious that to many anti-Muslim bigots and activists everyone can have their religion but when it comes to Muslims they can’t have theirs. If they do, they are promptly branded as “fundamentalists”, “Islamists”, “fanatics”, and even “terrorists.”
Who can forget that Shoaib was one such journalist who claimed not too long ago that the Qaomi madrasa system (with only 5,230 schools) has been breeding terrorists? A recently completed comprehensive study by the World Bank has put to rest all such exaggerated claims and vicious attacks made by paranoid secularists about the Qaomi madrasa system. The system is supported mostly by local communities, and not from foreign donations. It does not breed Talebanism and is not a recruiting platform for militants into the Armed Forces. One can only take pity at propagandists like Shoaib who after the publication of the WB report still continues to discover Jihadists within the Qur’anic madrassas, whose number he deliberately exaggerates to 69,000. He audaciously claims that by endorsing the system the current government “is set to give recognition to the breeding grounds of Jihadists as part of their strategy of gaining support from the radical Muslims in the country.” Guys like him ought to be taught that there was nothing inherently wrong with the traditional madrasa system during the Mughal period. The same madrasa that produced an Islamic luminary like Shaykh Ahmad al-Sirhindi (RA) also produced the architect of the Taj Mahal and Akbar’s most trusted and wisest of the viziers Abul Fazl. Which Bangladeshi Muslim family can deny its heritage with the madrasa system? If during the British Raj we lost that rich vibrant and nourishing heritage that was once the envy of the world, we ought to rediscover and regain it now, and not uproot it.
I am also concerned with Shoaib’s twisted logic when he concludes that the statement “no anti-Shariah law shall be enacted in Bangladesh” is equivalent to “saying that the government of Bangladesh Awami League will enact Shariah Law.” So, Bangladesh must be an Islamist state! He calls the Ba’athist Syria an Islamist state. I should have guessed! By the same token, the Ba’athist regime in Iraq must have been a greater Islamist state! With such friends of the Zionist state, it is not difficult to understand what must have excited Bush Jr. into invading Iraq. Nor are we surprised to learn what Bush Jr. had told French President Chirac, “This confrontation [with Iraq] is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people’s enemies before a New Age begins.”
Shoaib is uncomfortable about recognizing Prophet Muhammad’s (S) high status in Bangladesh. He finds the Muslim belief at odds with secular notions but has no problem accepting equivalent Jewish and Christian claims uttered by western world leaders like Sr. & Jr. Bush, Carter, Clinton and Reagan, let alone the past and present war criminals ruling the Zionist state. He may like to advise his mentors before lecturing us as to how we ought to conduct our business.
For centuries our enemies have known that if Muslims can only be made to abandon Islam that would be the day that they can have full control over us. Thus, they tried through various means and methods, and paid agents to strike at our roots. Shoaib’s crusade against the madrasa system and Islam shows that such conspiracies are still going on.
What is also troubling is that these foreign agents are reportedly financing militant groups so that through their potential anti-social activities Bangladesh could be dumped as a failed state where terrorism rules, thus justifying foreign intervention to root out terrorism. It is no accident that we find blueprints of our disquieting future in exaggerated claims of Shoaib.
Text References:
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/642352
http://www.newagebd.com/2009/may/09/front.html#2
http://www.modernghana.com/news/208749/1/madrassa-breeding-ground-of-jihadists.html
http://www.newagebd.com/2009/may/10/edit.html
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/642352
More interestingly, the last week's GQ magazine has exposed the hawkish use of scripture in 2003, when then-defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld forwarded secret intelligence memos to Bush that were embroidered with biblical passages. "Therefore, put on the full amour of God," a verse from Ephesians, and "Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter," from Isaiah, are among the messages that adorn reports prepared for Bush by Rumsfeld's Pentagon.
Lest we forget it is Shoaib’s mentor Richard Benkin who approves a party like the Islamic Democratic Party (IDP), which wants to introduce Shariah law “only for the Muslims” in Bangladesh. All indications are that the IDP was floated with Israeli/Jewish money. [http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world-news/bangladesh-islamists-float-political-party-with-government-nod_100101358.html] Are we therefore to remain nonchalant as long as the Islamist party is financed by the Zionists?
Shoaib mentions about the signing of a treaty between the Bangladesh Awami League and Khelafat Majlish on December 23, 2007 in which the two parties agreed that “No law shall be enacted contrary to the Qur'an, Sunnah and Shariah; Government Recognition to Qaumi Madrasa Certificate will be duly implemented; Laws will be enacted as follows:
“Muhammad [S] is the Last and the Greatest Messenger of Allah”; Certified Righteous Ulemas reserve the right to issue Fatwa (one who is not certified shall not have the right to issue Fatwa); Defamation or criticism of Messengers of Allah and Sahabas is punishable crime.”
Supposing that Shoaib’s statement is true, can any rational person find fault with those clauses in a country with 90% Muslim population? Bangladesh is not an atheist country and in all likelihood will never embrace fundamentalist secularism of the sort Shoaib may be proposing. As an ardent admirer of the Zionist state he knows better that the so-called secular parties in Israel have no problem tangoing with religious parties in forming government, and when it comes to justifying the illegal annexation of Palestinian land even a pork-eating atheistic Jew quotes the Bible. So why apply a different formula for Bangladesh?
It is obvious that to many anti-Muslim bigots and activists everyone can have their religion but when it comes to Muslims they can’t have theirs. If they do, they are promptly branded as “fundamentalists”, “Islamists”, “fanatics”, and even “terrorists.”
Who can forget that Shoaib was one such journalist who claimed not too long ago that the Qaomi madrasa system (with only 5,230 schools) has been breeding terrorists? A recently completed comprehensive study by the World Bank has put to rest all such exaggerated claims and vicious attacks made by paranoid secularists about the Qaomi madrasa system. The system is supported mostly by local communities, and not from foreign donations. It does not breed Talebanism and is not a recruiting platform for militants into the Armed Forces. One can only take pity at propagandists like Shoaib who after the publication of the WB report still continues to discover Jihadists within the Qur’anic madrassas, whose number he deliberately exaggerates to 69,000. He audaciously claims that by endorsing the system the current government “is set to give recognition to the breeding grounds of Jihadists as part of their strategy of gaining support from the radical Muslims in the country.” Guys like him ought to be taught that there was nothing inherently wrong with the traditional madrasa system during the Mughal period. The same madrasa that produced an Islamic luminary like Shaykh Ahmad al-Sirhindi (RA) also produced the architect of the Taj Mahal and Akbar’s most trusted and wisest of the viziers Abul Fazl. Which Bangladeshi Muslim family can deny its heritage with the madrasa system? If during the British Raj we lost that rich vibrant and nourishing heritage that was once the envy of the world, we ought to rediscover and regain it now, and not uproot it.
I am also concerned with Shoaib’s twisted logic when he concludes that the statement “no anti-Shariah law shall be enacted in Bangladesh” is equivalent to “saying that the government of Bangladesh Awami League will enact Shariah Law.” So, Bangladesh must be an Islamist state! He calls the Ba’athist Syria an Islamist state. I should have guessed! By the same token, the Ba’athist regime in Iraq must have been a greater Islamist state! With such friends of the Zionist state, it is not difficult to understand what must have excited Bush Jr. into invading Iraq. Nor are we surprised to learn what Bush Jr. had told French President Chirac, “This confrontation [with Iraq] is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people’s enemies before a New Age begins.”
Shoaib is uncomfortable about recognizing Prophet Muhammad’s (S) high status in Bangladesh. He finds the Muslim belief at odds with secular notions but has no problem accepting equivalent Jewish and Christian claims uttered by western world leaders like Sr. & Jr. Bush, Carter, Clinton and Reagan, let alone the past and present war criminals ruling the Zionist state. He may like to advise his mentors before lecturing us as to how we ought to conduct our business.
For centuries our enemies have known that if Muslims can only be made to abandon Islam that would be the day that they can have full control over us. Thus, they tried through various means and methods, and paid agents to strike at our roots. Shoaib’s crusade against the madrasa system and Islam shows that such conspiracies are still going on.
What is also troubling is that these foreign agents are reportedly financing militant groups so that through their potential anti-social activities Bangladesh could be dumped as a failed state where terrorism rules, thus justifying foreign intervention to root out terrorism. It is no accident that we find blueprints of our disquieting future in exaggerated claims of Shoaib.
Text References:
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/642352
http://www.newagebd.com/2009/may/09/front.html#2
http://www.modernghana.com/news/208749/1/madrassa-breeding-ground-of-jihadists.html
http://www.newagebd.com/2009/may/10/edit.html
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/642352
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