Of course if Muslims had shame they would not adhere to such a barbaric ideology. Bruce
http://mathaba.net/0_index.shtml?x=536622 Human Rights _____ Islam Channel special awareness campaign on torture Posted: 2006/04/29 By Sr Yvonne Ridley Political editor We know Agenda attracts a huge army of supporters but the international pressure group Cage Prisoners says it was overwhelmed by the positive reaction from viewers recently. Scores of you from Islam Channel contacted the Cage Prisoner website to offer help and support after tuning in to a harrowing, week-long special awareness campaign into torture. Victims of torture, human rights experts, prisoners from both overseas and the UK came together to discuss the issue which brings shame on many Muslim countries around the world. Viewers could not fail to be moved as ex-Guantanamo detainee Moazzam Begg described how he was kidnapped from his home in Pakistan as his pregnant wife and three young children lay sleeping. Although he spent several years in the notorious Guantanamo Bay, Cuba the focus of Moazzam's story was on the inhumane and often horrific conditions he was held under first by Pakistan intelligence and then at the hands of the US military in Bagram, Afghanistan. His whole dramatic story is relayed in his best-selling book Enemy Combatant published by Simon and Schuster. And of course the brother reminded us of the plight of the remaining Guantanamo detainees including the eight British residents. We all winced as Iraqi brother Ahmed Shabib talked for the first time about his own two-month ordeal in a Jordanian prison at the hands of torturers who later tried to recruit him as a British spy. His stories of being jammed into prison broom cupboards to keep him hidden from visiting, international human rights observers were almost unbelievable. But the fine detail of his story and the ability to articulate it in such chilling detail gave huge credibility to a drama which could have come straight from a Hollywood script. Every one of us was moved as Maajid Nawaz talked candidly at how the men who routinely tortured him over four years in a Cairo prison would break off to perform salat. He was one of three British citizens arrested in Egypt and given five year sentences for promoting a so-called banned Islamic group in the holiday hotspot much favoured by the British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his family ... a point of irony not lost on Maajid or his cellmates. And then we had a political prisoner called Moustafa sneaking a call from one of Morocco's hell holes where, he revealed, one inmate dies every three weeks from torture and abuse. His views were supported a few days later by Moroccan-born British citizen Abdulatif Merroun who was released from prison in Morocco just days earlier after being pardoned by the King of Morocco. Islam Channel viewers may remember Agenda first highlighted the plight of Adbulatif when his wife Leila came on to the show last year saying he was the victim of a miscarriage of justice. Another prison inmate, known to viewers only as Detainee I, called from Long Lartin prison in the UK to talk about the mental torture he said the British Government were inflicting on him and other brothers. He told Agenda how he and five fellow Algerians, being held without trial or charge, were demanding to be returned to their homeland rather than remain in the uncertain legal limbo they found themselves under in Britain. As a result of allegedly breaking prison rules, the Home Office banned the Algerian prisoners from making further calls to Political Editor Yvonne Ridley. At the time of writing this article news smuggled out from HMP Long Lartin revealed some of the Algerian inmates had gone on hunger strike in protest at their treatment. But perhaps one of the most gripping moments of Torture Week was provided during an overseas call to Iraq to hear from the prisoner who became the gruesome but iconic symbol of US-inflicted torture from within the walls of notorious Abu Ghraib. Ali Shalal Abbas Al'Kaissi will forever be remembered in the gruesome hooded image of a man standing on a box holding on to electrical wires in the Iraqi jail. He revealed to Agenda viewers how he believed torture was continuing and that children were also being held in Iraq's prisons. He is now using his own horrific experience to help others and has launched a prisoner aid group. Asim Qureshi from Cage Prisoners was a regular guest on the show during Torture Week and because of your amazing response to the Cage website, we at Agenda decided to join forces and launch a weekly spot highlighting the plight of a Cage political prisoner. Every Friday, insh'Allah, Asim will highight a case of injustice and ask you for your help in trying to campaign for their release. Details of the first political prisoner were heart-breaking as Asim Qureshi identified mother-of-three Aafia Siddiqui who was last seen in Karachi getting into a taxi with her three young children in April 2003. Not only is Cage Prisoners determined to secure the freedom of this brilliant academic, but they want to find out exactly where she is being held and by who. Reports surrounding her disappearance are confusing to say the least, but it is widely speculated that she was picked up by Pakistan's intelligence agency, the ISI, and handed over to US custody after the FBI accused her of being a major player in the War on Terror. It seems, according to Asim, that bungling American intelligence thought the former Boston, US resident was a microbiologist. The reality is Aafia is a highly valued and qualified medical scientist specialising in neurology. Now there are fears she has become one of the so-called Ghost Detainees ... there are said to be thousands of 'Muslim Ghosts' hidden in prisons around the world away from the scrutiny of human rights organisations. Readers are being asked to use all their networking and contact skills to try and track down the sister and we hope to have some positive news coming soon. If you want to help in the search for Aafia or have news of her whereabouts please send an email to <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] We are still receiving many enquiries from those of you who want to know more about victims of torture. Here are a few useful addresses. * Cage prisoners: <http://www.cageprisoners.com/> http://www.cageprisoners.com; * Moroccan political prisoners: http://www.maroc-realites.net <http://www.maroc-realites.net/> ; * Details of Maajid Nawaz of the Cairo Three: <http://www.hizb.org.uk/pressnew/index.php?id=3134> http://www.hizb.org.uk/pressnew/index.php?id=3134; * Ali Shalal Abbas Al Kaissi and the Association of Victims of American Occupation Prisons: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ; or <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * For latest news on Omar Degayhes and other British Guantanamo residents: * <http://www.save-omar.org.uk/> http://www.save-omar.org.uk; * Human rights group Reprieve run by Clive Stafford Smith: <http://www.reprieve.org.uk/> http://www.reprieve.org.uk; * Human Rights Watch: <http://www.hrw.org/> http://www.hrw.org; * The Burma Campaign website: <http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/> http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk; * Amnesty International website: <http://www.amnesty.org/> http://www.amnesty.org http://islamchannel.tv <http://islamchannel.tv/> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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