We’ve got lately – imam and lawyer – joined forces, together with so many unsung heroes, to demand respect for the humanity of Dr Aafia Siddiqui. She is usually referred to as the “Most Oppressed Muslim Girl within the World” – and with good trigger. There isn’t a different girl who went by way of the total US Rendition to Torture program. There isn’t a different instance of a case the place a lady was kidnapped by the CIA and their Pakistani co-conspirators alongside together with her three babies.
And is there a mum or dad on this planet who doesn’t tremble on the destiny that befell these children? Suleman, aged 6 months, was apparently killed when he was dropped on his head through the abduction. The CIA has by no means let Aafia know, however this occurred on March 30, 2003, in Karachi, so it appears unlikely that the kid remains to be alive. But which destiny could be worse for the mom – to know the toddler who was so lately part of your physique is lifeless? Or to carry out a faint hope 20 years later that he lives?
It may appear apparent that Suleman did die when you hear what our authorities – the US – did to the opposite two. Mariam, aged 3, was taken all the way in which to Afghanistan, a conflict zone, the place her identify was modified to Fatima and she or he was involuntarily put in a household of white Christian Individuals for seven years. She would nonetheless be there however for former President Hamid Karzai, who later helped get her residence.
Then there may be Ahmed, who was taken to Kabul and put in jail, on the age of six! He was advised his identify henceforth was to be Ihsan Ali and that he could be killed if he mentioned it was anything. Ahmed and Mariam are each US residents, and it’s mind-boggling that the CIA, sworn to uphold the US Structure, would do that to 2 kids from anyplace, not to mention children carrying US passports.
Aafia was herself taken to Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan the place she endured 5 years of torture. Finally, by way of an agonizing path, she ended up in FMC Carswell, a federal girls’s jail in Fort Value, Texas, serving what is actually a life sentence.
This text is just not the discussion board through which to contest her guilt – no matter our well-founded doubts – so allow us to fake she actually did attempt to kill an American soldier, though she was the one particular person to be shot. Regardless, it’s a widespread thread in most faiths that we should always bear in mind these in misery, and that’s a part of what brings the 2 of us collectively on this battle for Aafia. Within the Quran we’re advised, “And so they give meals from their sustenance, despite their love for it, to the needy, the orphan, and the captive…” (Insaan “The Human” 76:8). The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) famously taught that “no one among you believes till he loves for his brother what he loves for himself” (Bukhari). Within the Bible, a verse reads that we should always “proceed to recollect these in jail as should you have been along with them in jail, and people who are mistreated as should you yourselves have been struggling”. (Hebrews 13:3)
Empathy is a pronounced worth in our traditions, and if ever there was somebody who wants spiritual solace proper now, it’s Aafia Siddiqui. So when she advised her volunteer lawyer (Clive Stafford Smith) that she had not had an imam throughout her 16 years in jail, not to mention the 5 years of torture earlier than that, Clive reached out to Imam Omar, who instantly agreed to go to her each couple of weeks to offer her religious help.
This was months in the past, and every time we chased up the jail authorities, they got here up with a brand new purpose to do nothing. First, they needed their type crammed out. We did that. Then they mentioned they wanted a driver’s licence and proof of being an imam. Then they mentioned they didn’t have the paperwork they wanted, and we requested what else they wanted. Months glided by they usually requested unusual documentation that demonstrated they’d no intention to facilitate Aafia’s request.
Final month Clive’s workforce demanded to know when this was going to get resolved. We have been advised nothing. Then this week we have been advised that they’d denied Omar’s proper to assist Aafia: “This memorandum is to advise of the denial of visiting for Imam Suleiman.” The memorandum is dated September 26 – that means it was written two months in the past, however they’d not bothered to inform us till now.
No purpose is given. The Biden administration has laboured lengthy and laborious to alienate Muslim Individuals in its blinkered help for Israel’s conflict crimes in Gaza, however it’s obscure why this request could be denied. Is it due to different human rights advocacy? May it’s precipitated by earlier tweets and protests demanding that there ought to be justice for Aafia? Or may it’s that demanding an finish to the atrocities towards the Palestinian individuals has as soon as once more alienated us from yet one more primary house through which to operate?
As we speak Clive and his colleagues have filed a go well with in federal courtroom to pressure the problem, but it shouldn’t take a lawsuit for the Carswell authorities to respect elementary spiritual rights – they might simply learn the Bible, the Quran or possibly even simply the First Modification to the US Structure.
The views expressed on this article are the authors’ personal and don’t essentially replicate Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
