Justice takes a sweet course

It’s been a refreshing past two weeks in the media. The tonal change in the North American papers ever since Obama’s Cairo oratory is tangible. So perhaps one day we’ll forget the term ‘Muslim Terrorists’ ever existed and will be using instead the phrase, ‘Bush Crusades’ to describe post 9/11 scenario.

Whatever may his reasons be, we definitely owe Obama this one. ‘He needs the goodwill of the Muslim world for economic stability,’ says one analyst while another points out that ‘he wouldn't be addressing the Christian world, or the Jewish, Hindu or Buddhist worlds so why the exception for Muslims?’

For my part, the heck with such pontification! He came, he spoke, he conquered and he definitely left a lot of goodwill in his wake. But he was bound to. With charisma oozing out from every facet of his personality; knowing the art of oration to the last effective pause and above all, with the vast team to work for him (which reportedly was grammatically analyzing and evaluating every syllable in his speech for its combined effect from Jerusalem to Tehran to Washington!), success was bound to be his. One die-hard Republican almost sneered at me and commented, “Obama should stop giving speeches as if he’s still campaigning!”

What would be amusing if it wasn’t so distressing is the sudden eruption of newly established opinions of many latter day news analysts on television and in print. Ever since Obama has taken up the Palestine-Israel conflict as a major foreign policy issue it has become the urgent business of the newer breed of reporters to educate themselves on the conflict. But when you are living in an environment where the Holocaust is the most-repeated historic fact and where only Israel’s ‘beleagured residents’ can be seen being ‘fired upon with rockets by those terrorists Hammas,’ it eclipses the predicament of the Palestinian refugees unable to return home, living under siege with no supply of food and who are made to look like petulant but dangerous delinquents. The easiest argument becomes the anti-Semitic chant which the neo-analysts allege is the same as anti-Zionism which the Palestinian and other Muslims are using to persecute Jews. The western media really needs a few home truths and some history lessons to be shown.

One thing is there though, that Obama has proven himself undaunted by disagreeable consequences of his decisions. While his sangfroid to the rather pithy backlash from Conservatives at home following his salaams to the Muslim world is one case in point, his take on the closing of Guantanamo is another example. Despite the monumental issue of what to do with all those detainees following the closure of ‘Gitmo’ (as Guantanamo is now called in more loving terms!) and its multiple legal ramifications, he went ahead to seal his first presidential order and is now coming up with solutions for it too. And in a true ‘happy ending,’ the first batch of prisoners were relocated a little over a week ago landing from there hellish abode directly into the lap of heavenly luxury.

Four Muslim Uighur detainees from a group of seventeen – ranging in age from 30 to 38 – were sent to Bermuda after UK and Canada refused to keep them and when proposals to resettle them in the United States ended in a political furor. The Uighurs’ background is rather heart-rending. They were a group of men which had fled Chinese persecution of Muslims in western China and landed in Afghanistan in 2001. But as luck would have it, they had to run for their lives yet again when the Americans bombed their camp. Despite being unarmed, they were thought to be dangerous with terrorist links and were eventually turned in to the authorities by Pakistani villagers in return for American prize money.

When a litany of accusations was created for all Guantanamo detainees, the Uighurs were accused of training at Al Qaeda-linked camps too.

Now, after seven years of life in the Guantanamo prison – the conditions of which is public knowledge – these four detainees have officially been cleared by American officials and courts of any ties to global terrorism. Their obvious reaction at this point should be outrage and a barrage of legal suites filed for violation of human rights. Instead, they have said, “There's absolutely no hard feelings toward the U.S.” Because the ex-prisoners are happy to just (literally) bask in their freedom – under the Bermuda sun – diving deep into the blue waters to cleanse themselves from all their past worries.

Reports of their release and landing in Bermuda were reported in detail in Canadian papers particularly because Canada had considered them as a threat to national security, refusing to accept them. Incidentally Britain is still seething because Bermuda is the self-governing British overseas territory and the UK maintains that Bermuda’s Premier, Ewart Brown should have first consulted with the UK government before accepting the men. As for China itself – which incidentally wanted them back – it would probably have been the worst end to their nightmare because they would doubtless have landed to face extreme accountability (torture or execution).

The Toronto Star’s National Security Reporter, Michelle Sheppard, who met and spent the day with them on their island retreat, gave a touching account of their reactions. She wrote, “After almost eight years of captivity, each step of Khelil Mehmut's freedom is a little overwhelming… People call him by his name, not 278, his internee serial number… they seemed insulated in their ocean-side pink cottage, enjoying a fish lunch, a sunset swim and fielding the occasional media call,” (not to mention getting accustomed to the bikini clad damsels who roam the resort island!).

What with the turning sentiments against Muslims and now this miraculous change of circumstances for condemned individuals, I have become a believer again that justice will be done; it just takes its own time coming!

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