SAVING HUMAN LIVES

THE CLAMOUR TO EXECUTE AND TAKE LIVES

Iran executes hundreds of political detainees deemed terrorists. Saudi executes political opponents as terrorists. Bangladesh executes opposition party leaders one after the other. Egypt sentences to death their first democratically elected president and hundreds of his political supporters.

These regimes are simply uncivilised. Where developed nations rule and treasure liberty, these nations uphold fear as the key. They rule in the darkness holding their people in contempt, always expert on managing discontent by repression and masquerading their citizens’ staunch loyalties to the regime.

PRISON AND TORTURE

Thousands of prisoners have no access to anything that could even remotely be called defence counsel. Death sentences are decided and carried out without ever given a chance to obtain legal counsel.

Some countries even cane interned economic migrants under immigration laws fully knowing the root cause of abject poverty and deprivation of their home countries.

In the name of homeland security and the battle against terror, extrajudicial methods and torture were covertly outsourced by the West to these client despotic regimes. Suspects were kidnapped and rendered by US and Western intelligence agencies to these countries hidden under the radar. These regimes specialise in the macabre and brutally extracted almost useless confessions and “dross” information from helpless detainees.

Faisal Mostafa, a UK dual national, was rendered to the TFI Dhaka and tortured.  He was beaten and subjected to electric shocks.  He was blindfolded and strapped to a chair while a drill was slowly driven into his right shoulder and hip.

An unfortunate detainee once recalled a deep dungeon somewhere in Jordan where he was shocked to find what looked like Jinn (spirits) being shackled to the walls. They were in fact old prisoners who had been kept there for years to be forgotten. The gruesome relic of the dark ages were still much alive inside the darkest holes of Jordan.

Shivers would run through people’s spines at the mention of Guantanamo, Khiam, Abu Ghraib, Tora, Abu Za’abal, Abu Salim, Tadmur, Evin, TFI Dhaka, 1391 (Israel) and al Ha’ir which are rated as some of the most notorious prisons on earth for political prisoners.

Inside police stations and prisons, torture is rife, and the number of deaths in custody is rising. Intentionally causing hurt and murder becomes mundane and insanely amusing to those in charge.

The regimes continues to substantially wield so much power and coercion to rule, even those countries without the rich oil and gas resources. They have the Mukhabarat or Mabahith (Secret Police). Being sadistic, described as a snake pit, its very name is synonymous with a heathen, an incarnation of evil that the Arab streets are familiar with.

They do not make any distinction between reformists or terrorists, political opposition or criminals.

Amnesty International and others report on primary instruments of abuse of political prisoners and for the obtaining of forced “confessions”. Methods of torture and ill-treatment suffered by detainees in places of detention included falaqa —whereby the soles of the victims’ feet are repeatedly beaten with a stick, cables, plastic pipes, ropes or whips  and shabeh (phantom), whereby the victim is suspended for up to several hours by his handcuffed wrists, and then beaten.

These practices had even spread into the prison system, where prison guards indulge in flogging defenceless prisoners with knotted electric cables, beating them with hoses and truncheons or kick them with them with fists or boots.

Prison guards torture inmates with near impunity because prosecutors and judges do too little to pursue cases. Prison conditions remain poor, especially health, food, and visitation provisions.

Islamists accused or convicted of crimes against national security (Tanzimat) face greater abuse than ordinary prisoners.

People have disappeared for over a decade, and when families tried protesting, many were forced to remain silent. There is harsh repression of any form of protest or are intimidated even when inquiring the  whereabouts of their loved ones in prison.

The public concern and assurances at the highest levels of leadership has not produced any changes or lasting effects on the ground. Prisons routinely torture or ill-treat inmates for perceived infractions of prison rules or for requests, such as access to doctors, the telephone, or visitation, but also in retaliation for complaints.

The world may never know the true extent of how many people perished in underground dungeons, how many were incarcerated for long periods, and the numbers who took the brunt of its sadism. When will be the day when investigators uncover these dungeons and freely expose the nasty barbarism sanctioned by regimes considered allies of the liberal West?

These are the dungeons with terrible memories and dreadful grievances which spawn militant extremists and outfits like ISIS.

STAYING POWER OF THE CORRUPT

Some say the factors that still sustain these decrepit regimes are oil, regional influence, arms and economic deals and close alliance with the West since the Cold War era. They have become untouchable unless and until they have lost their expediency as happened to poor Saddam and Gaddafi.

This cover allows regime authorities to act with great impunity, shrugging off most criticisms that do come their way – not only in prison practices, but seeping into how corruptly they handle other sectors such as public service, financial, social and economic issues.

In an interview with a Saudi ambassador to the US, he responded to the issue of financial corruption by saying:

“There are so many countries in the Third World that have oil that are still 30 years behind. ... What I'm trying to tell you is, so what? We did not invent corruption, nor did those dissidents, who are so genius, discover it. This happened since Adam and Eve. ... I mean, this is human nature. But we are not as bad as you think.”

Every human has two faces, one, which is saintly and the other, which is dangerous. Situations and circumstances in life highlight one of the two characters of the human. We are social animals where any indecent act can cause discomfort to another. We need to seek and to be governed by the higher ideals of human dignity, honour, ethics and justice in order for sanity and humanity to prevail.

ISLAM AND THE SANCTITY OF LIFE

As Tariq Ramadan points out, in resigning ourselves to having a superficial relationship to the scriptural sources, we betray the message of justice of Islam. Foremost and primordial in the objectives of Shariah (maqasid) is the protection of human life and integrity (al nafs) and the promotion of justice.

It is our faithfulness to the message of Islam that leads us to recognize that it impossible to remain silent in the face of unjust applications of our religious references. We need assurance that people would be protected from repressive and unjust treatment. It is imperative to promote equality before the law and justice among humans. Muslim conscience the world over should not remain untouched.

The ulamâ’, as guarantors of a deep reading of the texts, the guardians of fidelity to the objectives of justice and equality and of the critical analysis of conditions and social contexts, should contribute to provide real solutions to the daily injustices.

The crises of closed and repressive political systems, religious authorities upholding contradictory juristic positions and unknowledgeable populations cannot legitimize our silence. We need to denounce the failures and the betrayals being carried out and fight for the required conditions in terms of political systems and legislation ensuring freedom of expression, equality before the law, public education, eradication of poverty and social inclusion. The education of Muslim populations should go beyond the mirage of the formalism and appearances.

Societies will never reform themselves by repressive measures and punishment but more so by the engagement to establish civil society and the respect of popular will as well as a just legislation guaranteeing the equality before the law. We have to regain our conscience, our integrity, our liberty and our rights.

Note:

Convention against Torture (CAT) defines torture as

any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.[UNHCHR]