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7 June 2004
His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales
St James’s Palace
London SW1
Dear His Royal Highness
Re: Delwar Hussain Sayadee
While the great majority of Muslims in general, and Bangladeshi Muslims in
particular, are highly appreciative of your efforts towards reconciliation
and mutual understanding between Muslims and other faiths, we are extremely
concerned by your proposed visit to the formal opening of the London Muslim
Centre in Whitechapel on 11 June 2004. A principal guest on this occasion is
to be 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 Your Royal Highness
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 the 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, 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 Moinuddin, 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, earnestly
request Your Royal Highness to reconsider bestowing legitimacy upon these
people by your presence at this function on 11 June. There is, it 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 appreciate your support and cooperation.
Yours sincerely
Sunahwar Ali
Chairperson
UK Committee for Resisting Killers & Collaborators of Bangladesh Liberation
War of 1971
Signatories:
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 Mostafa, Gen Secretary, Communist Party of Bangladesh
23. Abdul Gaffar Choudhury, Writer & Columnist
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