The US Military Lesson Of Intolerance & Hate

"My cell was 8ft by 6ft, the same size as the detainees’ cages at Guantanamo. Barely a week ago I had received a glowing evaluation for my work as the US army’s Muslim chaplain among the “Gitmo” prisoners. Now I was the one in chains.

It was my turn to be humiliated every time I was taken to have a shower. Naked, I had to run my hands through my hair to show that I was not concealing a weapon in it. Then mouth open, tongue up, down, nothing inside. Right arm up, nothing in my armpit. Left arm up. Lift the right testicle, nothing hidden. Lift the left. Turn around, bend over, spread your buttocks, knowing a camera was displaying my naked image as male and female guards watched.

It didn’t matter that I was an army captain, a graduate of West Point, the elite US military academy. It didn’t matter that my religious beliefs prohibited me from being fully naked in front of strangers. It didn’t matter that I hadn’t been charged with a crime. It didn’t matter that my wife and daughter had no idea where I was. And it certainly didn’t matter that I was a loyal American citizen and, above all, innocent........

......I knew why I had been arrested: it was because I am a Muslim. I was just the latest victim of the hostility born the moment when the planes flew into the twin towers and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

My real "crime" had been that I had tried to ensure that the suspected Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters detained in the Gitmo cages were given every opportunity to practise their religion freely, one of the most fundamental of American ideals."

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It makes me sick how intolerant and hateful people are. It seems to me like the United States Military is encouraging this appalling behavior. An old high school friend of mine came back from an 18 month stint in Iraq. After a few days of hanging out with him I could tell that he was changed, and not for the better. Some of his views were honestly scary. He told me that he may re-enlist and go back over to Iraq because "America is just so full of bullshit. At least over there I have power. Those Habibs know that I can fill them full of holes and get away with it." I didn't know what to say. I don't know if I will be looking my old friend up the next time he gets back.

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