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Some
Iraqi detainees said they were pressed to denounce Islam or were
force-fed pork and liquor
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By
Angy Ghannam, IOL Staff
CAIRO,
May 27 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Human rights groups
said they strongly condemn U.S. soldiers' practices of forcing Iraqi
prisoners to denounce Islam as a way to avoid torture in the U.S.-run
Abu Gharib prison, if such reports were true.
"We
condemn these acts in the strongest way just as we condemn all other
types of abuses and human rights violations that have allegedly taken
place in Abu Gharib," said Nicole Shoueiry, Middle East press
officer for Amnesty International.
The
Washington Post reported Saturday that in addition of being beaten and
sexually humiliated by U.S. soldiers, some of the Iraqi detainees at
Abu Gharib "were pressed to denounce Islam or were
force-fed pork and liquor."
According
to the Islamic Shari’ah, Muslims are prohibited from eating pork
or drinking liquor.
Shoueiry
said that if it turns out to be true that U.S. guards forced Iraqi
detainees to curse or denounce their religion, this should be
seriously dealt with.
"This
is a very serious violation to Geneva conventions as well as all other
humanitarian laws, that's why it must be urgently addressed," she
added.
In
previously secret sworn statements, Hussein Mohssein Mata Al-Zayiadi,
detainee No. 19446, recalled that American investigators how he was
taunted by U.S. prison guards.
"'Do
you pray to Allah? '" one soldier asked him. "I said yes.
They said, '[Expletive] you. And [expletive] him.'"
Zayiadi
said another soldier continued to abuse him by striking his broken leg
and ordered him to curse Islam.
"Because
they started to hit my broken leg, I cursed my religion," he
said. "They ordered me to thank Jesus that I'm alive."
"Do
you believe in anything?" Zayiadi said the soldier asked. "I
said to him, 'I believe in Allah.' So he said, "But I believe in
torture and I will torture you.' "
'Justice'
"This
kind of information only adds to the urgency of investigating this
whole issue of abuses and bring those responsible to justice no matter
how high ranking they are," Shoueiry said.
Asked
for reasons that make people use religious abuse against others she
said for "any human being – whether a Muslim or belonging to
any other religion – insulting religion is a very humiliating thing
that is totally unacceptable".
The
same view was upheld by Jose Diaz, spokesperson for the office of the
U.N. High Commission on Human Rights (UNHCHR).
"It's
obvious that people who did that know very well what things are very
sensitive to the people they are abusing, they know that religion, for
example, is very dear to them."
"It
is one kind of humiliation that they know is very effective,"
Diaz added.
"We
have called on the U.S. and the 'Coalition' authorities to investigate
these reports and to bring those responsible to justice as quickly as
possible," he said.
"This
is absolutely unacceptable, but we must wait for our report on human
rights in Iraq before talking this specific issue of religious
abuses," he said.
The
UNHCHR is currently putting together a report concerning human rights
in Iraq and the situation in the war-torn country over the past year.
"We
have a team who is doing this in the region now and we will issue the
report probably by the end of this week," Diaz said.
"So
we can't rule out or confirm that we have received specific
information about this".
The
U.N. commission has a special investigator on religious intolerance
who will probably be also receiving this kind of information, the
spokesman said, adding that this investigator issues an annual report.
The
53-member UNHCHR has adopted several resolutions on religious
intolerance, one of them was specifically on Islamphobia to
condemn acts of discrimination against Islam, Diaz said.
Tamara
Al Rifai, ICRC Chief Communication Support Center said he could not
comment on such type of abuse "as it didn't appear anywhere on
our report".
"As
far as we are concerned, this was not something the detainees told us
about, she added.
"Battling
Satan"
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Boykin
came under fire last October after saying the god of Muslims is
nothing but an idol
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In
a related development, a U.S. Army general under investigation for
anti-Islamic remarks has been linked by U.S. officials to the Iraqi
prisoner abuse scandal, according to Reuters.
A
Senate hearing into the abuse of Iraqi prisoners was told that Lt.
Gen. William Boykin, an evangelical Christian under review for saying
his God was superior to Muslims', briefed a top Pentagon civilian
official on recommendations on ways military interrogators could gain
more intelligence from Iraqi prisoners.
"Critics
have suggested those recommendations amounted to a senior-level
go-ahead for the sexual and physical abuse of prisoners, possibly to
"soften up" detainees before interrogation -- a charge the
Pentagon denies," Reuters said.
"This
will be taken as proof that what happened at Abu Ghraib is evidence of
a broader culture of dehumanizing Arabs and Muslims, based on the
American understanding of the innate superiority of Christendom,"
Chris Toensing, editor of Middle East Report, a U.S.-based quarterly
magazine, told Reuters.
Boykin
came under fire
last October from inter-faith groups and Muslim advocacy watchdogs
after saying the god of Muslims is nothing but an idol.
During
speeches while in uniform, he referred to the war on terrorism as a
battle with "Satan" and said America had been targeted
"because we're a Christian nation."
He
said later he was not anti-Islam
or any other religion.
To
read more about Boykin's comments click here:
