Muslims Maltreated in "UK's Guantanamo": Report

[sonz]

LONDON, March 8, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The chief inspector of prisons in Britain raised concerns on Wednesday, March 8, over the treatment of Muslims at Britain's "Guantanamo", Belmarsh maximum-security prison, saying inmates were denied prayers and feel unsafe.

"The situation in relation to Muslim prisoners, in a prison holding many of those suspected of involvement in the recent terrorist incidents, was particularly sensitive and complex," Anne Owers said in her report, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters.

"It was noticeable that half the prisoners we surveyed ... said that they had felt unsafe at Belmarsh. This appeared particularly strong among the small number of Asian prisoners."

The report said around a quarter of Belmarsh inmates were foreign nationals, half were black or minority ethnic prisoners and over 100 were Muslims. There are around 900 prisoners held at the jail at any one time.

The prison is currently holding four men accused of trying in vain to bomb the London transport network last July.

"The prison's high security and special security units were at full stretch, holding, among others, those suspected of the failed suicide bomb attempts of July," the report said.

Owers made her unannounced inspection of Belmarsh last October.

"Little Understanding"

Owers said staff at Belmarsh in east London did not understand Muslim inmates' social and religious behavior and said there were few relationships between staff and detainees.

"Young Muslim prisoners were concerned that ordinary social and religious behavior on their part was misinterpreted by staff as being problematic," the report said.

"What was clear was that there were few sturdy relationships, and little mutual understanding, between staff and this group of young prisoners."

Owers said it was vital that officers understood the prisoners they held in order to manage them safely.

"We did not believe this was the case for staff in relation to Muslim prisoners at Belmarsh," she said, adding that Muslim inmates felt their treatment by staff had worsened since the July 7 London bomb attacks which killed 52 people.

The 1.8-million Muslim minority, making up just under three percent of Britain's population, has been suffering increasing harassment since the bombings and constantly felt under suspicion.

A Guardian/ICM poll published two weeks after the odious attacks showed that nearly half a million Muslims contemplated leaving Britain with one in five saying they or a family member have faced abuse or hostility since the attacks.

A statement issued by over forty leading mosque imams, muftis and scholars representing all sections of Muslims in Britain condemned the attacks and stressed that the four Muslim bombers can not consider themselves martyrs.

Prayers Denied

A file photo of demonstrators in front of the Belmarsh prison, demanding respect of human rights.

Owers also highlighted concern that four remand prisoners on terror charges were only allowed to associate in pairs and were banned from communal Friday prayers.

Another prisoner charged with terrorism offences was held on his own with his own dedicated group of staff but the unit provided a "very poor quality of life" inspectors said.

The Belmarsh prison is a grim reminder of the US prison of Guantanamo in Cuba, where the US holds up to 500 terror suspects arrested in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

Human Rights Watch expressed concern Monday, March 6, that the United States was secretly holding unacknowledged "ghost detainees" at Guantanamo even as it identified hundreds of other detainees last week.

"Even though we now have names of some of the Guantanamo detainees, that is only a small piece of the picture and there are more people that are being held," HRW's Katherine Newell Bierman told AFP.

Secret CIA detention camps have been further discovered at the Bagram air base in Afghanistan, Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, and at Guantanamo in a zone separate from the major Pentagon holding facility for "war on terror" detainees.

Several people who were released from the notorious Guantanamo prison spoke about torture, sexual humiliation and deliberate insults to the Muslim faith by guards and officers.

[root]

Interesting spin in that post, by making no seperation or distinction between the US Guantanamo report, human rights and the British high security jail,

Another issue that the "report" failed to mention was that Staff & prisoner working staff stayed up all night to ensure the "Muslim" minority were fed after observing the Islamic Ramadan, yet the christian majority were denied midnight mass. You also fail to mention that Muslim prisoners (including the ones held for the london bombings) have been given laptop computers.