Abused and imprisoned... because of his religion

On 11 January 2002, the first group of 20 detainees arrived at the US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. It has been ten years since then and American President Barack Obama has failed to deliver on his promise to close the infamous prison. His signing of the National Defense Authorisation Act 2012 will ensure that it will continue to stay open. In Washington DC and other cities around the world, on 11 January 2012, human rights activists staged protests to mark the prison's tenth anniversary and to remind us of the fate of the illegally detained people there, "who can only leave Guantanamo in a coffin".

James Yee was a US army Muslim chaplain who was assigned to Guantanamo Bay in 2003 - "his duties required him to minister to the prisoners there, and he came to know their situation perhaps better than anyone else." However, his stint there resulted in him being called "a Chinese Taliban" and persecuted by accusations and innuendos. The West Point graduate "found himself faced with capital charges, subjected to abusive treatment, and imprisoned in solitary confinement - without any basis in truth." All the charges against him were eventually dropped but at great cost to his career and reputation.

Yee decided to tell about the "injustice... (which) has torn apart my family and put us into significant debt." His Syrian wife, Huda, "continues to struggle to understand how something like this could happen in America - her adopted country." His story is told in his memoir, For God and Country - Faith and Patriotism Under Fire, which was published in 2005.

It is a frightening story and makes you wonder - if the US could subject its own citizen to such injustice, what is it capable of doing to non-Americans?

In an interview with Democracy Now, an independent global news channel, after his book came out, Yee explained the reason for the book: "My story is one of principle and value, and why the values of diversity and justice, religious freedom, are so important to all people living in this country. And I hope in writing this book that if I can in any way help prevent what happened to me from happening to anyone else, then I think that is going to be my greatest contribution." He ended, "If it could happen to me, a third-generation Chinese-American who graduated from West Point, patriotically serving his country, being praised and awarded and recognised for great contributions, could land in prison for 76 days with these huge death penalty charges, it could happen to any one of us. And this is why we have to stand up for justice." 

  
Unfortunately, for these people, the future is very dim.