Moazzam Begg in Conversation with Binyam Mohamed, Part 2

from Caged Prisoners

For Part 1, click here.

CP: Despite many people thinking about the terrible things that have happened in Guantanamo, some things out of it, many things, I see have come out of it that we couldn’t have expected.  Many of the prisoners- myself included- memorised a lot of the Qur’an in Guantanamo and Bagram and so forth.  What do you think would be the percentage of the people that have almost completed the whole memorisation of the Qur’an in Guantanamo now?

BM: I would say it’s about ninety percent who memorised the Qur’an, and even the other ten percent, they have memorised it, it’s just they may have forgotten because the situation that they’re in Guantanamo- it’s not very easy to keep yourself to yourself.

CP: There was a time when the Qur’an was being taken from the cells and being abused and thrown away, and some prisoners decided that they didn’t want the Qur’an in their cell anymore.  How did these prisoners then continue their...the knowledge of the Qur’an?

BM: It was amazing- even I didn’t have a Qur’an most of the time, and what I would do was, I would get a person who’s memorised Qur’an to read me a verse and memorise that verse from him, and just repeat it the whole day.  And it’s just amazing- you may think it’s time-consuming, but at the end of the year, you’d find you’d memorised nearly half of the Qur’an that way.

CP: In fact, this is how the Qur’an was revealed to the Prophet (Salla Allahu alayhi wasallam- peace be upon him), and how it was distributed to the Sahaabah (his companions, may Allah be pleased with them)- the Prophet (Salla Allahu alayhi wasallam) was an-Nabee al-Ummee- he couldn’t read or write, and it was done by word of mouth, and in fact had it not been for all the huffaadh (memorisers) of the Qur’an who were getting killed in the early battles, the Qur’an wouldn’t have been put in book form, so it seems so amazing that people have returned to this form of learning the Qur’an.  Was it also like this in terms of other Islamic sciences, and other general sciences that people would discuss with one another, or was it just the Qur’an people taught one another?

BM: People used to do this very thing with the Hadith (reports about the Prophet, Salla Allahu alayhi wasallam), any other kind of knowledge was there.  And mainly in Guantanamo was just knowledge through word of mouth- there was no writing

CP: One of the things that happens for convicted prisoners, in fact, some of the worst convicted prisoners in the world I have to say, is that they can study PhDs, doctorates, their bachelor’s degrees and so forth.  Were you given any access to this, despite not having been charged with a crime?

BM: I had access on doing a PhD on torture and abuse, and I graduated from Guantanamo with a PhD in that...that’s all we got.

CP: You’re now a free man, or relatively free man- relatively free, because there are conditions still in your case.  What are your hopes for the future- what do you want to see happen- in your own situation, and in the situation of the prisoners still there?

BM: I would hope that my case is resolved, whichever it be- if it be with the Home Office, or the Foreign Office, and for the prisoners, I would like to see justice, and not propaganda.  The release of all the prisoners in Guantanamo and the other prisons.

CP: We- all the former Guantanamo Bay detainees, or lots of us - have a case against the British government for complicity in our torture.  Do you think that the British government or the intelligence services should be held to account, or should they be able to say sorry and walk away?

BM: I would say a lot more than sorry- sorry is not enough- maybe sorry and change their policies.

CP: Coming out now a lot, just over the past couple of weeks, is that there are allegations against the British intelligence, for torture of British citizens in countries as wide and diverse as Egypt, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Morocco in your case- in my case, Afghanistan and Pakistan.  I think the problem is much bigger than they’re admitting- do you think they’re going to admit it at some point?

BM: I think the British government would admit a lot of this sometime in the future, unlike the Americans, who have...I would think the British are more intelligent that the Americans when it comes to this kind of stuff.

CP: JazakAllah khair (may Allah reward you with good) Binyam Mohamed: may Allah accept all your struggles over the years, and replace them with a heavy balance for you on the Day of Judgement.  Baarak Allah feek (may Allah bless you)

BM: Wa iyyakum (and to you).