Our World

Canadian Muslim Falsely Imprisoned

A recently published judicial report states that Maher Arar, a Muslim citizen of Canada, was wrongly imprisoned and tortured by U.S. agents. Citing false intelligence and bad warnings given to them by Candian officials, U.S. military officials secretly took Arar to Syria and tortured him.
The report also states that Arar was wrongly put on a "dangerous radical" list after the 9/11 attacks. He is a computer consultant in Ottawa. He and his wife were both put on a watchlist for potential al-Qaeda suspects. On top of all that, Mr. Arar was listed as "an Islamic extremist individual" who was in Washington the day of the attacks.
After being detained in 2002, Arar was questioned for 12 days. He was then flown to Jordan, and then to Syria. He was beaten, kept in solitary confinement, and forced to confess to acts he had never committed.
This report is based on a 2.5 year inquiry into Mr. Arar's case, and frankly I am surprised we do not hear about many others. So far, the U.S. has captured almost 3,000 people in the war on terrorism, trying to dismantle terrorist cells and networks.
Ever since the attacks of 9/11, the Muslims of the world have suffered innumerous and unwanted predjudice simply because they share the religion of those responsible for the attack. The key difference is the attacks zealous feelings toward their religion, and their wishes to inflict harm on all who were not deemed rightly living. The normal Islamic people of the world are the same as you and I, even if we do have different religious beliefs. They deserve the same basic freedoms as everyone else. However, there are a select few in the world who have made a bad name for Islam. Hopefully, we can see cases like Mr. Arar's disappear, and that the people that are arrested really do have a reason.

posted by Anonymous @ 9/19/2006 09:26:00 PM