Shoaib Choudhury resigns from Forcefield NFP

by Blitz Desk
September 14, 2010

http://www.weeklyblitz.net/986/shoaib-choudhury-resigns-from-forcefield-nfp

Weekly Blitz editor and internationally acclaimed award winning journalist Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury has recently resigned from the post of Vice President of Forcefield NFP, a non-profit human rights group registered in United States. Mr. Choudhury was one of the three founding members of Forcefield.

Forcefield started its journey a couple of years back with the objective of raising voice against persecution of religious minorities in the world as well as human rights and democracy.

Justifying his resignation, Shoaib Choudhury said that his repeated suggestions of raising the issue of the persecution of Bahais in Iran, Ahmadiyas in Pakistan and Bangladesh and Christians/Sikhs in India were totally ignored by the organization, while it continued to act as a mere anti-Bangladesh group.

"I will not remain in any organization which will try to one-sidedly criticize Bangladesh only, while ignoring important cases of minority persecution in other countries especially the Mullah Regime in Iran. Current board members in Forcefield were unwilling even to table the case of Bahai persecution in Iran for discussion, which certainly left enough messages for me to decide to leave this organizations board of directors. If any organization will try to appease nasty figures like Ahmadinejad and the Mullahs in Iran, I will not be a part of that!"

Following his resignation, one of the recently joined board members of Forcefield NFP, Mr. Amitabh Tripathi, who runs a website named South Asian Forum, harshly criticized Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury for raising the case of persecution of Christians in India. Mr. Tripathi denied the fact of any such persecution of Christians in India and termed Mr. Choudhury's allegation as 'outrageous'.

Dr. Richard L Benkin is the President of Forcefield NFP. He is a former college professor, who fought for release of Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury from prison. Dr. Benkin continued to fight for Choudhury for years along with Republican Congressman [now contesting for Senate from Illinois], Mr. Mark Steven Kirk. During this fight for the release of Mr. Choudhury from prison, Dr. Richard Benkin launched a website www.freechoudhury.com, which was subsequently changed to Interfaith Strength www.interfaithstrength.com. Dr. Benkin is the owner of this website.

In 2009, Dr. Benkin initiated forming Forcefield NFP together with Ms. Miriam Jones [Australia] and Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury [Bangladesh]. The organization got registered in the United States as non-profit entity in 2009. The organization has its website www.forcefieldnow.org.

Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury faces sedition, treason and blasphemy charges in Bangladesh for confronting Islamist militancy; advocating relations between Bangladesh and Israel and opposing Jihad and Holocaust denial. He established the Weekly Blitz newspaper in 2003 with the aim of providing un-molested and un-twisted news and commentaries on Israel and Judaism in the Muslim world. Weekly Blitz has already turned into the most influential newspaper in the Muslim world.

Due to its non-stop efforts through publication of editorials and commentaries, Bangladeshi government banned a notorious Islamist militancy group named Hizbut Tahrir in 2009. Anti Semitic book and DVD named 'Dajjal' published by another Islamist militancy group named Hizb-Ut-Towhid was also stopped from open circulation in Bangladesh due to efforts of Blitz.

Weekly Blitz took firm stand in favor of persecuted Ahmadiyas in Bangladesh. It is currently continuing fight against the Mullah Regime in Iran.

Notorious and anti-Semitic figures like Dr. Zakir Naik was refused entry to United Kingdom and Canada because of continuous editorials and commentaries published in Weekly Blitz for years.

Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury was arrested on November 29, 2003 at Dhaka International Airport in Bangladesh on his way to Tel Aviv to attend a Peace Conference. Later he was placed on remand for interrogation, tortured and sent into isolated prison for 17 months. Choudhury was denied bail of parole to attend his mother's funeral by the BNP led Islamist government in Bangladesh. The false sedition, treason and blasphemy charges were brought against Mr. Choudhury at the personal initiatives of few Jamaat-E-Islami leaders [who were part of the government] as well as the then Home Secretary Mr. Omar Faruq, who is also a member of this Islamist group. A large number of leaders of Jamaat-E-Islami are accused of committing war crime during 1971 [War of Liberation of Bangladesh].

Mr. Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury said, "If I remain in any organization or group, it must have certain mission of combating Islamist militancy as well as anti-Semitism. The group should also combat religious militancy in the world. Unfortunately, Forcefield has not shown enough sign of working in that direction. So, I have resigned from the post of board of directors of Forcefield."

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