Trevor Phillips Chairperson CRE St Dunstan’s House London SE1 1GZ 14 June 2004 Dear Mr Phillips, Sharing platform with Muslim fundamentalist alleged war criminals While the great majority of Muslims in general, and Bengali Muslims in particular, are highly appreciative of your efforts towards reconciliation and mutual understanding between Muslims and other faiths, we were extremely concerned by your visit to the formal opening of the London Muslim Centre in Whitechapel on 11 June 2004. A principal guest on this occasion was Moulana Delwar Hussain Sayadee MP. This man was stripped of his membership of Parliament in September 2003 by the Bangladeshi High Court for alleged violation of election rules. But our real anxiety centres on the fact that he is an avowed sectarian and fundamentalist. As a member of the Jamaat e Islami, a party opposed to the independence of Bangladesh in 1971, he is alleged to have committed war crimes against men, women, children and minority faith groups during the Bangladesh War of Liberation in 1971. We believe that you should be aware that five people died in January 2004 at the shrine of Hazrat Shahjalal in Sylhet, shortly after Sayadee spoke against shrine culture in Sylhet. This, as you doubtless know, was the same shrine where the British High Commissioner in Bangladesh was injured in May 2004. It is, equally, no accident, that a prominent writer, Dr Humayun Azad was attacked, following a verbal attack upon him by Sayadee. Neither have the activities of this individual been confined to Bangladesh. According to local police and press reports, on 23 May 2000, followers of Sayadee attacked and assaulted five Muslim elders in Oldham. On June 13 in the following year, five of his followers attacked a local journalist in Oldham with knife, sticks and iron rods in his home at 3am in the morning. On 18 June of the same year, his supporters attacked and assaulted a number of elderly people in Altab Ali Park, Whitechapel, in London. Tower Hamlets police have a record of this incident. It should also be recognised that the United States of America have black-listed Sayadee as a danger to that country, and in consequence, he is on the ‘no fly passenger list’ and is forbidden to enter the USA. The London Muslim Centre is a project of the East London Mosque, which is itself linked to the Jamaat, and is known in the local community to be a source of fundamentalist activism. The Vice-Chairman of the Mosque is Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin, also an alleged war criminal, whose activities were exposed in a Channel Four Dispatches programme, ‘War Crimes File’, in 1995. The case is pending with Scotland Yard and with the Bangladeshi authorities. In the light of these facts, we, as representatives of the peace loving and loyal majority of Muslims in Tower Hamlets, and in Britain, seems to us, a significant and delicate distinction to be made between the urgent work of conciliation between peoples and the appeasement of those who promote hostility and hatred. We would appreciate your cooperation and seek a meeting with you & our groups. Yours sincerely Sunahwar Ali Chairperson UK Committee for Resisting Killers & Collaborators of Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 1 Anwara Syed Hoque, Vice Chair Central Committee for Resisting Killers & Collaborators of Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 2 Shafiqur Rahman Chowdhury, President Bangladesh Welfare Association UK 3 Shamsuddin Khan, President UK Awami League 4 Syed Samsul Hoque Writer 5 Sarob Ali UK Jubo League 6 Abdul Mannan Sorab Ali, Commander Bangladesh Liberation Force Council UK 7 Jeremy Seabrook Writer 8 Shamsuddin Ahmed Chowdhury Former Justice (In Bangladesh) 9 Aminul Haque Badsha Freedom Fighters Unity Council 10 Bangladesh Left Alliance 11 Ishaque Kajol Bangladesh Workers Party 12 Cllr Khalil Kazi, OBE, Chairperson National Union of Bengali Association 13 M A Rahim All Party Resistance Committee 14 Ahmed Kamal Community Activist 15 Ansar Ahmed Ullah & M A Rouf National Coordinating Committee for the Realisation of Bangladesh Liberation War Ideals & Trials of Bangladesh War Criminals of 1971 16 Goyasur Rahman Bangladesh Socialist party 17 Sujit Sen, Gen Secretary Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council 18 C S Kabir, Chairperson Nagorik Mancha 19 Ansarul Hoque, London Awami League 20 Syed Mansur Ahmed Lilu Greater London Secretary National Socialist party 21 Syed Nurul Islam, President Bangladesh Labour League 22 Golam Kabir, President Communist Party of Bangladesh 23 Abdul Gaffar Choudhury Writer & Columnist 24 Patricia Bairagee, Teacher 25 Dr Zaidul Hasan Zahid, Secretary General All Europe Bangabandhu Society
Posted on: Wed, 29 Oct 2014 20:24:27 +0000
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