Excerpt, editing, commentary by Carolyn Bennett
“[U]sing sexual humiliation in order to undermine Muslim ‘enemies’
serves different purposes depending on the circumstance. The sad reality is
that this is not something new to the Muslim world. The current rape of Muslim
women in Syria, the mass rapes in Bosnia, and other degrading treatment meted
out over the years of repression and conflict in the Muslim world has seen the
use of sexual violence and humiliation as being a cornerstone in the method of subjugating
Muslim communities. (e.g., Ahmed Abou El-Maati in Syria, MoazzamBegg in
Afghanistan made to believe that their fiancé and wife were being violently
abused in the rooms next to them exposes the deepest fears that Muslims have:
that it is not just them but their families who will suffer the most depraved
degradation).
Sexual humiliation has become a part of the instruments of the ‘War
on Terror’, by preying on our sensitivities as Muslims, the U.S. decided to
play an extremely deadly game, one in which the horror of their actions will
only serve to alienate and disaffect Muslims worldwide. The honor and dignity
of Muslims is considered inviolable yet this very concept has been attacked
through the policies that have been practiced by the United States. This
continued humiliation will only last so long, for as the Arab Spring has shown
us all, there is only so much that the people can take.” [Writer: Asim Qureshi]
From Qureshi’s “Sexual Humiliation of Muslims in the ‘War on
Terror’”
Sex in Islam is a matter that
carries with it a great deal of modesty and shame [and] – the ban on
extramarital relations is clear and unequivocal.
[Sex] is considered a private matter
between husband and wife, whether in monogamous or polygamous relationship. … According
to the shari’ah (Islamic law), covering oneself to maintain a minimum level of
dignity, even when alone, is recommended. …
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he culture and practices of other peoples may not be what is
publicly known of Americans’ culture or practices or what they claim to be their
“culture” and preferences, but that does not mean that the culture of other
peoples is either wrong or inferior; and it certainly does not mean that it
should be used to torment people with different cultural or religious beliefs
or practices. The wrong in this situation is not one who embodies a particular cultural
trait but those who use it to inflict unspeakable harm. Whose is the perverted
behavior, at least in my view, is unambiguous.
U.S.-Guantanamo doubly abuses Muslims
Illegally abducts and detains them (denying due process of
any law)
Kills with impunity
Uses their culture to torment them
In “The Sexual Humiliation of Muslims in the ‘War on Terror,’”
Asim Qureshi reports (and re-reports), “The ‘Tipton Three’ (ShafiqRasul, Asif
Iqbal and Rhuhel Ahmed) were among the first to detail the forms of sexual
humiliation being suffered by detainees in Guantanamo. ShafiqRasul described a
cavity search that was conducted on him soon after his arrival in Guantanamo as
being, ‘both painful and humiliating.’”
On April 4, 2012, “the Zelikow torture memo (previously
thought to have been destroyed) was released. [It] effectively confirmed that
years after criticism of the way in which torture had been systematically used against
detainees — enforced nudity is still considered an acceptable practice in
interrogations:
‘The control conditions, such as
nudity, sleep deprivation, and liquid diet, may also be sustain[ed], depending
on the circumstances and details of how these techniques are used.’
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hese practices are not only perversions that only terribly sick
minds would endorse, practice, employ or order but they are unconscionable breaches of the
human dignity and rights of human beings as
human beings. Only a beast would do this,
but then a beast, a wild animal, would not; and if a leader or sundry animal
rights activists got wind of such acts being perpetrated on animals, there’d be
no end to their “righteous” outrage.
The report continues
“In their statement, the men highlighted the case of one of
the Algerians, one of whom was treated to a particularly horrific incident:
‘We were told by one Algerian (not
one of the Bosnian Algerians) that he had been taken to interrogation and been
forced to stand naked. He also told us he had been forced to watch a video
supposedly showing two detainees dressed in orange, one sodomizing the other
and was told that it would happen to him if he didn’t cooperate.’
America’s Ivy League implicated in unconscionable perversion
“The notion that Arabs are particularly vulnerable to sexual
humiliation became a talking point among pro-war Washington conservatives in
the months before the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. One book frequently cited
was the 1973 The Arab Mind, a study of
Arab culture and psychology” written by Columbia University and Princeton
University professor in cultural anthropology, Raphael Patai.
Referencing reporter Seymour Hersh, Qureshi writes that an academic
told Hersh, “The Patai book … was the ‘bible’ of the neocons on Arab behavior.”
In their discussions, he said, two themes emerged – ‘one, that Arabs only
understand force; and, two, that the biggest weakness of Arabs is shame and
humiliation.’
“The government consultant said that there might have been a
serious goal, in the beginning, behind the sexual humiliation and the posed
photographs.… ‘I was told that the
purpose of the photographs was to create an army of informants, people you
could insert back into the population.’ The idea was that they would be
motivated by fear of exposure and [would] gather information about pending
insurgency action…. [However] If so, it wasn’t effective. The insurgency
continued to grow.’”
Former interrogator U.S. Army Sgt. Erick R Saar referenced
A female interrogator fails in the use of sexual perversion
to get what she wants from a prisoner so she leaves the room and consults “a
Muslim linguist,” asking “how she could break the prisoner’s reliance on God”.
The “linguist” tells her “to tell the detainee that she [is] menstruating,
touch him; then make sure to turn off the water in his cell so that he cannot wash.”
Strict interpretation of Islamic
law forbids physical contact with women other than one’s wife or family; and forbids
contact with any menstruating women — ‘who are considered unclean’.
The interrogator smears ink from a red pen on her hands to fool
the detainee, the reports continues Saar’s account. She returns to the
interrogation room and starts “to place her hands in her pants” as she walks behind
the detainee. She moves around the detainee and he can see that she is taking
her hand out of her pants. He then sees what appears to be “red blood on her
hand” and she returns to her earlier interrogatory, “‘Who sent you to Arizona?’”
The man glares at her “with a piercing look of hatred.” The female interrogator
then wipes “the red ink on his face” causing
the man to shout “at the top of his lungs.” He spits at her and “lunges forward
— so fiercely that he breaks loose from an ankle shackle.” The prisoner
reportedly then cries “like a baby” as the interrogator leaves the room lobbing
a final cruelty: “‘Have a fun night in your cell without any water to clean
yourself.’”
Asim Qureshi concludes noting the U.S. government’s denial
of this incident; but, he writes, “the reporting of the incident by Saar
matches perfectly an incident that was described by Juma al-Dossary (another
prisoner) who was eventually released to Saudi Arabia.”
Qureshi says, “Sexual humiliation has become part of the
instruments of the ‘War on Terror’, by preying on our sensitivities as Muslims.
The U.S. decided to play an extremely deadly game, one in which the horror of
their actions will only serve to alienate and disaffect Muslims worldwide.
The honor and dignity of Muslims is
considered to be inviolable, but it is this very concept that has been attacked
through the policies that have been practiced by the U.S.
This continued humiliation will
only last so long, for as the Arab Spring has shown us all, there is only so
much that the people can take.
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hen moral conscience fails to constrain, what societal mechanism
serves redress, to right the wrong? Given
the state of affairs Qureshi describes, who is more deserving of a horse
whipping?
Of course, we Americans don’t horse whip, do we? Horse whipping
went out with barbarisms in the eras of slavery, lynching and the Wild, Wild
West. But those who have endorsed, ordered, performed barbarous acts on
prisoners must be brought to defend themselves before an independent court of law.
If citizens of the world fail to indict and publicly judge offenders at the highest
levels of governments, related organizations, and industry, the deterioration of human rights and rule of law will become
total. There will be no more universal rights and law; society itself, global and
domestic, will break down entirely. I don’t know about you but I don’t want this
ever to happen.
Sources and notes
“The sexual humiliation of Muslims in the War on Terror” written
by Asim Qureshi, http://www.cageuk.org/article/sexual-humiliation-muslims-war-terror
See also
http://ccrjustice.org/files/report_tiptonThree.pdf
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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy
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