We all know that the current state that the world is in is sad and pathetic. But today I read an article in the March 4 issue of the New York Post newspaper, that further illustrates the depth of the depravity that the world has sunk into. And more specifically, it is a pitiful reminder of the ghastly condition and impotence of the Muslim world today.
I read in utter horror and disbelief as this article discussed for the whole world that American law enforcement officials have the 7 and 9-year old sons of the so-called Al-Qaeda mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and plan to use them as “leverage” against him.
This report went on to say that officials will use “all appropriate measures to convince the just-captured mastermind of the 9/11 attacks to talk — including dangling freedom for his two young sons, who are in US custody” and have been since September of last year.
Regardless of what this man is accused of, what use could a 7 and a 9-year old child be to law enforcement officials except to try to inflict the cruelest of torture on a man using whatever methods their perverted minds can come up with? What kind of world do we live in when young children can be used as pawns or as negotiating chips for interrogation tactics of governments who claim to be the leaders of the civilized world? Have they no sense of decency?
This report went on to say that their prize prisoner would be put on 24-hour suicide watch. He is not the only prisoner who is on suicide watch. Apparently, there have been five attempted suicides in the past three weeks by Muslim prisoners at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. This brings the number to 10 this year. However, 19 inmates have tried to kill themselves since the detentions at Guantanamo Bay started. Many of the men have been held for more than a year under interrogation conditions without being charged, or without access to lawyers or their families.
As human beings shouldn’t we realize that regardless of the crimes that these men are accused of committing, they are still human beings and deserve to be treated with basic human dignity and not like caged animals? But, in fact, we know from various news reports that they are being treated worse than animals for, at least under American laws, animals have much more rights and protection than these men are getting.
After the war in Afghanistan, President Bush declared that he would “change” the status of the captives of the war in Afghanistan, from prisoners of war to that of “illegal combatants.”
By designating the prisoners as ‘illegal combatants” there are no limits on the ways and means that can be used to interrogate them. Amnesty and other human rights organizations have sounded the alarm expressing their protests and objections to the treatment of these prisoners. However, where is the protest of Muslim leaders?
From Chechnya to Bosnia to Kashmir to Afghanistan to the Philippines to Palestine to Iraq, never has the Muslim world witnessed such humiliation, oppression, and injustice. Never before has Muslim leaders been so impotent, apathetic, and subservient.
On Jan. 30, 2003, Eric Margolis published an article with a title that spoke volumes, called, “The Arab World on its Knees”. However, I beg to differ with him — I think a more suitable title to sum up the current state of Muslim affairs would be: “Muslim World on its Knees.” And may God help us all.
