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June 23, 2006
Australia: Guantanamo Muslim Detainee Has Become An Apostate
The man pictured left is David Hicks, who is one of two Australians who have been incarcerated in the US military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. We reported in October that he had tried to gain UK citizenship, as his mother had been born in Croydon, South London.
Hicks had fought for the Kosovo Liberation Army and had also been a fighter in Kashmir, before arriving in Afghanistan in 2001. He was subsequently captured in Islamabad, Pakistan, and declared by US forces as an "enemy combatant" in early 2002, and sent to Guantanamo. His reasons for seeking UK citizenship were related to an agreement with British authorities to have UK detainees extradited back to Britain. The Australian authorities had no objection to Hicks being tried by a US court.
His "faith" in Islam is said to be lax, and he joined up for the adventure. Such a thirst for "adventure" is probably morally worse than those who go to kill others for a cause they believe in. Hicks had converted to Islam in Adelaide in 1999, and had adopted the name "Dawood"
Now, according to the Melbourne Age, and also the Australian Daily Telegraph, Moazzam Begg, a UK citizen who was incarcerated in Camp Papa cell block with Hicks and four others in 2004, states that Hicks was denounced as an infidel. His accuser was a Yemeni Al Qaeda member, Uthman al-Harbi, said Hicks was not a Muslim, and swore before Allah that he would not communicate with him.
Begg claims in his book, "Enemy Combatant" that he had advised Hicks to not give up his faith, as it would make him more isolated. He told the Age from his home in Birmingham, UK: "I wouldn't describe him as a dedicated Muslim. I don't think he was before and he certainly isn't now."
He claimed that the guards did not regard 30-year old Hicks as a threat.
Begg said that Hicks became increasingly depressed, and would read his lawyers' paperwork endlessly, trying to understand them. He still writes to Hicks, and states that Hicks has said: "When I go back home I'm going to be spending a lot of time in my toilet, because the cell is the same size as a toilet, and I think I will be afraid of open spaces for a very long time."
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at June 23, 2006 8:12 PM
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