Guantanamo guards embrace Islam

[PsychoDad]

Guantanamo guards embrace Islam
Tuesday 14 October 2003, 4:59 Makka Time, 1:59 GMT

A number of the US troops guarding the 660 suspected al-Qaida and Taliban detainees in Guantanamo Bay have converted to Islam, according to an Algerian mediator.

snip

He claimed that the freed detainees told him that some of their American guards had converted to Islam as a result of daily interaction with Muslim prisoners for the past two years.

More here:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/51BAD764-65E3-4F50-A490-F9C8B756C177.htm

Maybe this has something to do with the recent treason charges?

[Ellen Forradalom]

1. hmmm I'd like to see a second source for this

I don't dismiss it out of hand but would be more inclined to believe it if confirmed.

[DuctapeFatwa]

4. If by "confirmed" you mean echoed in a US paper

You will probably be more comfortable just dismissing it as enemy propaganda.

That's what I do with centcom and the CrusaderNets.

[PsychoDad]

7. I doubt centcom....

Is going to report on Guard Conversions.
Military brass is having enough problems dealing with the few american soldiers who are finding wives in Iraq.

[DuctapeFatwa]

2. Yeah, I wondered the same thing

This was on islamonline a while back, it'll be interesting to see if CrusaderNews picks it up...

[PsychoDad]

3. Heres the IOL article...

http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2003-09/25/article09.shtml

Looks like pretty much the same article

[Judi Lynn]

5. I knew I had heard that American guards had been converting

weeks ago, and found it really interesting.

UNDER GUARD AT GUANTANAMO
Gitmo GIs converting
to Islam?
Algerian lawmaker claims prisoners influencing U.S. security personnel

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: September 25, 2003
5:00 p.m. Eastern



© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

In the wake of the arrest of two U.S. Muslim troops at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp on espionage charges, an Algerian lawmaker is claiming the terror-related detainees at the facility have convinced several of their guards to convert to Islam.

Hassan Aribi says eight Algerian arrestees whose freedom he negotiated told him of the development, reports Islam Online.

"They told me that the American guards were very sympathetic with them to the extent of buying the detainees' needs of their pocket money," the Algerian lawmaker told a seminar in Cairo, the newssite reports.

The official maintains the freed Algerians reported some of the American guards had embraced Islam due to "daily interaction with Muslim prisoners for the past two years." Aribi did not indicate how many of the guards converted. (snip/...)

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=34783

I'm sure there have been multiple stories written on this starting when they first started noticing some of the guards were taking mental notes on their prisoners.

An article I read, which I can't locate right now, said that a guard interviewed revealed that he had been deeply moved by the attitude, or spirit of some of the prisoners he saw, and decided to try to find out more about their religion.

I'm not gullible, and I damned well believe this. Thanks for posting the article, PsychoDad.

[PsychoDad]

6. it is very interesting

And now with the cases of the Islamic military chaplin and the 2 translators who are being charged for treason.

Wonder if he may have been aiding in the conversion of american service men? Were the translators recent converts ?

In many ways the guards are also inmates at gitmo. They may be able to move around a little more, but they are isolated by secrecy, they cannot go home at the end of the day. There is nowhere to go off base, where they are watched as much as they watch, and are far from their families. Combine this with the fact that most of the prisoners are not anti-american killers but everyday "joes" who were perhaps simply defending their families and homes, and you have the potential of a great deal of sympathy between guards and prisoners.. All created by the government who imposed these conditions.

This gives the soldiers and prisoners chances to talk and observe each other closley over time. It gives the american troops an opertunity to learn that Islam is not the violent religion portrayed by US media, but a very human and caring religion. A religion that has helped these prisoners to cope daily with their ordeal.

Maybe the Chaplin helped to explain this to fellow soldiers who came to him, seeking the answers to the seeming dicotomy.

[DuctapeFatwa]

8. Yeah the only thing they have been able to charge him with is

disobeying an order, or some such, which I assumed was an order not to give food to victims that the regime had decreed should starve, remember the link about baklava?

But it could be that he had also been ordered not to discuss religion with the other guards, or allow the hostages to discuss it with them.

And as you say, it is a pretty enclosed little world down there, and most of the hostages are just rural farm people from a culture with a tradition of being very devout, never missing prayer, etc, and it is only natural that some of the kidnappers would start to ask questions about their faith, and some would progress beyond academic curiosity, and next thing you know, they're asking for more books,etc - for THEMSELVES! and hilarity ensues...