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Nov 20, 2008 3:54 PM CST |
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A recent Newsweek report—that military investigators confirmed that prison guards at Guantanamo dumped the Muslim holy book into a toilet—fueled riots in Afghanistan. Seventeen people died; more than a hundred were injured. After the Pentagon denounced the Newsweek report as “irresponsible” and “demonstrably false,” Newsweek retracted “our original story that an internal military investigation had uncovered Koran abuse at Guantanamo Bay.” Newsweek may well have committed a journalistic peccadillo. It based its story on a senior military source who had proved reliable in the past, and it published only after showing the story to two other senior military officers, neither of whom denied it. Now the original source says he is no longer sure of his claim. Newsweek might have been smarter to await better corroboration of its single source. But the Newsweek tail should not obscure the Pentagon dog: even if military investigators have not yet confirmed disrespect for the Koran, they should have. Since at least March 2004, former prisoners have made numerous allegations of disrespect for the Koran and Islam by American prison guards at Guantanamo and in Afghanistan. Their allegations have since been corroborated in part by FBI memos, by accounts of former guards and translators, and by statements to lawyers by current prisoners at Guantanamo. Few Americans appreciate the special status of the Koran. Unlike the Bible, which most Christians consider divinely inspired, Muslims believe that the Koran is the literal word of God, transmitted directly to the Prophet Mohamed by the archangel Gabriel. The Koran must be treated with devout respect and must not be touched by nonbelievers. In some Muslim countries, defiling the Koran is a serious crime. The Pentagon says it provides copies of the Koran to all Muslim prisoners at Guantanamo, sounds regular Muslim calls to prayer throughout the day, and respects the Muslim religious diet. Even so, many former prisoners allege that American military guards defiled the Koran. While the only oft-reported incident of dumping the Koran in the toilet took place in Afghanistan, other forms of defiling have been alleged at Guantanamo. Some allegations come from former British prisoners who were returned to Britain after the United States Supreme Court ruled that American courts had jurisdiction to review their cases. Upon arrival in Britain, they were released and now live as free men. British citizen Moazzam Begg, for example, alleges “the desecration of the Koran began from the outset, as I learned in February 2002, with the notorious incident in Kandahar, where it was widely known that a soldier of the U.S. Marine Corps had torn up a copy of the Koran and thrown it into a bucket used for urination and defecation. In Bagram, that same year, I saw incidents that provoked fury, including the placing of Korans in an area used as a latrine.” Several former prisoners, including British citizen Feroz Abbasi, report that the first hunger strike among prisoners at Guantanamo in 2002 “started specifically because an M.P....was alleged to have stamped on the Koran...” Other prisoners claim to have been eyewitnesses to the kicking of the Koran. The Pentagon discounts such prisoner reports as unreliable, arguing that al- Qaeda trains its people to lie about prison abuse. But given the military track record at Guantanamo and Afghanistan, one must ask, “Who is more credible—the prisoners or the Pentagon?” After all, serious reports of mistreatment made by prisoners, initially dismissed by the Pentagon, were later confirmed by an FBI agent on the scene. And a Pentagon memorandum dated January 19, 2003, is suggestive. Among other guidance on how to handle the Koran, it directed U.S. personnel to ensure that the Koran not be placed in “offensive areas such as the floor, near the toilet or sink, near the feet, or dirty/wet areas.” Pentagon memoranda do not float down from the clouds. Little imagination is needed to envision what sort of mishandling of the Koran must have generated that memo. Instead of deflecting attention toward Newsweek, the Pentagon would enhance its own credibility if it told us what it knows about American guards defiling the Koran and when it knew it. Unless all the public reports are false, what is needed is an apology to Muslims, not an accusation against journalists. Unfortunately, defiling the Koran may be only part of a broader pattern of religious disrespect. Former prisoner Tarek Dergoul describes “standard interrogations consisting of ‘swearing at Allah, swearing at the Prophet, and the Koran.’ They used to read the English translation of the Koran, with their feet up, mocking, for example saying, ‘There are more questions in it than answers.’” And that captures precisely the import of the Pentagon's response to Newsweek: it poses more questions than answers. Now that Newsweek has retracted, how about the truth—the whole truth—from the Pentagon? Doug Cassel is Director of the Center for International Human Rights of Northwestern University School of Law. Views expressed are those of the author, and not necessarily those of Northwestern University, the Center of International Human Rights, or Chicago Public Radio. |
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