Salauddin
Quader Chowdhury joins the brigade of
Israel
bashing
What
is the favorite pastime of the world's majority of the
Muslims, who call themselves as part of "Ummah"? The
answer is plain and simple. Jew bashing and
Israel
bashing.
Starting
from the cause of the 9/11 tragedy to the recent defeat in
OIC's Secretary General position,
Israel
is the main
culprit behind these mishaps. Someone may argue, politically
less enlightened people could be the only conspiracy
theorists. Many ignorant expatriate Bangladeshi
Muslims may logically fit into this pattern. So, when in
any social gathering in
New York
,
Falls Church
,
Los Angeles
or Baltimore a
group of native born Bangladeshis of Islamic heritage gossip
about the genesis of
September 11,
2001
blaming the Jews
for the tragedy - that is understandable. The vast majority of
them are not sophisticated enough who fail to erase their
upbringing of bigotry and hatred against Jews. But what about
Mahathir Mohamed of Malayasia? Isnt he an enlightened man? Or is
he the ultimate epitome of hate and viciousness? His despicable
speech before representatives of Islamic countries at the
end of last year drew condemnation from many sensible
quarters
http://www.yad-vashem.org.il/about_yad/press_room/press_releases/Malaysian.html
Now,
we see a parallel to Mahathir's bigoted rhetorics. Most
recently a prominent Islamist leader from
Bangladesh
, Salauddin
Quader Chowdhury lost the nomination for OIC's Secretary
General. The Turkish candidate won overwhelmingly. I was
reading an interesting news report in today's [
June 18, 2004
] Bengali
daily Prothom Alo.
The title of the report is "Salauddin Quader Chowdhury's
comment on
Turkey
drew
condemnation in diplomatic circle". The report says,
Salauddin Quader Chowdhury told news agency UNB last
Wednesday, "The pro-Israeli lobby in OIC has won. Now,
Israeli flag will be hoisted in
Ankara
". Mr. Chowdhury, who is a powerful man in Prime
Minister Khaleda Zia's inner circle (he is supposedly an
advisor to her) may not be aware that Israeli flag is already
pretty visibly hoisted in
Ankara
http://ankara.mfa.gov.il/mfm/web/main/missionhome.asp?MissionID=65&
How can
such outrageous comment come out from the mouth of such a
high profile politician in
Bangladesh
is everybody's
guess. Sadly, such off-the-cuff remark can only undermine the
image of a "image conscious" state like
Bangladesh
.
-Jamal
Hasan
Washington
DC
|