Helping the brave

This is a copy of an important CAMERA press release about a brave Muslim man who is being persecuted to death for taking a stand against Jihad:

Letters and calls do matter; they can save a life. Even if you rarely write letters due to a busy schedule, we urge you to take the time today to write or to make a quick phonecall to save the life of Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury.

Last year, the tireless efforts of just a few people helped get Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, a moderate Muslim and brave proponent of peace and dialogue with Jews and Israel, released on bail in Bangladesh, after 16 months of undeserved and inhumane imprisonment. He had been arrested and incarcerated for simply trying to fly to Israel to speak at a conference about how the media can help foster religious tolerance. He is a newspaper editor and has published essays supporting relations with Israel.

According to Bret Stephens of the Online Wall Street Journal (see article below), Mr. Choudhury’s newspaper’s office was bombed in July of 2006 and this past week, his newspaper’s office was ransacked and Mr. Choudhury was badly beaten by an extremist mob. Yet, he is due to go on trial on October 12th on the old charges that had never been dropped: blasphemy, sedition, treason and espionage. Salah Choudhury faces death if convicted.

In the past, intervention by Congressman Mark Kirk (R., Ill.) helped tremendously. Please read the articles below for details. Please do whatever you can to get more of the mainstream media to cover Mr. Choudhury’s story and to get your elected officials to put pressure on Bangladesh to drop the unreasonable charges or to find Mr. Choudhury not guilty . Public pressure on Bangladesh can make a difference.

Go here for more information, which I copied from a CAMERA action email, about Mr. Choudhury’s situation and tne ways in which you can help.