Why are All Inmates at Guantanamo Muslim?

The deaths of three Arabs – two Saudis and one Yemeni – at that American detention facility of ill repute at Guantamamo, may have been suicides, as the official American version of events claims, or might have been the result of torture, as claimed by a Saudi lawyer and a number of young Kuwaiti men who were released recently from that military base from hell. But whatever the reason for their deaths, the undisputed fact is that the three victims were detained in an illegal way, at an illegal place.

However, more importantly, the incident is the most recent in a series of deliberate assaults directed against Muslims in the name of the “War on Terrorism.” And an end to the aggression doesn’t seem to be on the horizon any time in the near future.

This incident comes against the backdrop of raids carried out by a group of American soldiers and Marines, which targeted families in three adjacent homes in the Iraqi city of Haditha. The outcome was that 24 Iraqis were killed in cold blood, among them women and children.

Even as the echoes of this repugnant incident continue to reverberate, Israel, America’s greatest partner in its “counter-terrorism” project, killed members of a Palestinian family, including children, some of whom were infants, picnicking on a Gaza beach. None survived except Huda, a girl of 10 years, who was found in a state of hysteria after witnessing the horrific attack.

The Haditha massacre is a microcosm of what occurred during the massacre at Fallujah, where Marines killed hundreds or thousands of civilians and made hundreds of other families homeless, and the latest news being reported is that American forces are preparing to commit yet another massacre in the city of Ramadi, possibly in a matter of days.

In the meantime, the international press has revealed European collusion with the United States on torture operations, secretly practiced on Muslim detained in East European countries, and of covertly transporting them in flights organized by American intelligence.

This brings to mind the repulsive practices of torture at Abu Ghraib prison and at the prison on Bagram air base in Afghanistan.

These events and incidents illustrate a pattern and beg the question for the thousandth time, a question which the American administration has yet to answer: What is the definition of terrorism?

After the events of September 2001, the U.N. General Assembly failed to agree on a global definition of terrorism, because member countries were divided against themselves. While the Bush Administration emphasizes from time to time that the American war on terrorism is not specifically directed against Islam and Muslims, events on the ground in all areas of the world, from the detentions and prosecutions of the security services to torture operations, demonstrate to Islamic peoples that it is they alone who are targeted.

Even outside of the area of security, the United States is pursuing a discriminatory policy toward the Islamic community. The great American fuss being raised over Iran’s nuclear program has no other purpose but to keep the Islamic countries in the Middle East at the mercy of Israel’s nuclear deterrent.

Is it mere coincidence that the unfortunate residents of Guantanamo are all Muslim?