The retraction of a Newsweek story claiming that Americans had desecrated copies of the Koran is not the end of the story. There is widespread evidence that the United States has engaged in systematic torture and religious humiliation of Muslims. Human Rights Watch reports:

(New York, May 19, 2005)—U.S. interrogators have repeatedly sought to offend the religious beliefs of Muslim detainees as part of their interrogation strategy,

Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch said that the dispute over the retracted allegations in Newsweek that U.S. interrogators had desecrated a Koran at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, has overshadowed the fact that religious humiliation of detainees at Guantánamo and elsewhere has been widespread.

“In detention centers around the world, the United States has been humiliating Muslim prisoners by offending their religious beliefs,” said Reed Brody, special counsel for Human Rights Watch.

On December 2, 2002, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld authorized a list of techniques for interrogation of prisoners at Guantánamo, which included “removal of all comfort items (including religious items),” “forced grooming (shaving of facial hair, etc.),” and “removal of clothing.” Each of these practices is considered offensive to many Muslims. These techniques were later applied in Afghanistan and Iraq as well.

The purpose of these techniques, Human Rights Watch said, is to inflict humiliation on detainees, which is strictly prohibited by the Geneva Conventions.

Several former detainees have said that U.S. interrogators disrespected the Koran. Three Britons released from Guantánamo have alleged that the Koran was kicked and thrown in the toilet. A former Russian detainee, Aryat Vahitov, has reportedly made the same claim. A former Kuwaiti detainee, Nasser Nijer Naser al-Mutairi, has said that the throwing of a Koran on the floor led to a hunger strike at Guantánamo that ended only after a senior officer expressed regret over the camp's loudspeaker. Human Rights Watch also interviewed detainees who described a protest at a U.S. detention site at Kandahar airbase in Afghanistan in early 2002 that was set off by a guard’s alleged desecration of the Koran.

Click here for more.

The National Council of Churches USA has issued several statements calling for the protection of the human rights of prisoners in Guantánamo. The most recent statement issued this week reads:

NCC General Secretary Bob Edgar, in a letter to Newsweek editor Mark Whitaker, has urged a second look into allegations that the Qur'an has been desecrated on U.S. military installations. Newsweek retracted a report that Guantanamo Bay interrogators flushed a Qur'an down a toilet after the magazine's source proved unreliable. But Edgar said there are similar stories documented in the press, including the New York Times. In his May 19 letter to Newsweek, Edgar urged "the Secretary of Defense to immediately inquire into these allegations and appropriately and officially reprimand those who are responsible for the desecration of the Qur'an." He also urged President Bush to clearly echo the remarks of Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice "that the desecration of holy books is not in keeping with the values this country holds dear."

Click here to read the full text of the letter.

All people of faith should be concerned over the on-going pattern of human rights abuses fostered by the United States government. This is a moral and spiritual crisis. We should pray to God for forgiveness and work for justice.