12 February 2002

Muslim Chaplain Sees to Detainees' Needs at Guantanamo

Washington -- In his first three weeks as the Muslim chaplain assigned to "Camp X-Ray" in Cuba, Abuhena Mohammad Saiful-Islam has developed a rapport with many of the detainees, who seek his religious counsel and his ear. The soft-spoken U.S. Navy lieutenant says the assignment has been his most challenging one yet.

"They all want to speak with me," he said in an interview February 12 from the Guantanamo Bay naval base. Calling his role "physically, professionally and emotionally demanding," the chaplain says he is busy ministering to the needs of the 254 detainees.

With 24-hour access to the facilities, Saiful-Islam visits the detainees and leads calls to prayer five times daily, either in person through a bull-horn or on a recording broadcast over the public-address system. Many were "happily surprised" to wake up and hear him on his first call to prayer at dawn three weeks ago, he said.

The detainees, suspected of having ties to al-Qaida and the Taliban, have generally grown accustomed to the chaplain's presence, he said. Most often the detainees ask him what will happen to them and how soon it will happen. "Some of the things I simply don't know," Saiful-Islam said, "but I assure them that if they are honest and innocent, we have a system that will fairly judge them, so that's my response, not knowing who's guilty and not guilty."

Saiful-Islam often speaks to the detainees one-on-one, in Arabic, his native Bengali, Hindi or Urdu, and he assures each his promise of confidentiality. His highest priority in ministering to the detainees, he says, is "to give them an understanding of what the real Islam is." While he doesn't lecture on Islam, he listens to the detainees and responds by asking questions and sometimes offering advice.

"They bring up issues of 'jihad,' and their understanding is that going to this kind of war will lead them to heaven," he said. "And I ask them how they were before they went on this jihad - did they consider themselves to be a good human being or a good Muslim? They don't have an answer for me."

"They were looking for a shortcut to heaven, without realizing that they need to be a good human being first, and a good Muslim," he said.

Since the chaplain's arrival at Camp X-Ray, each detainee has received a copy of the Koran in both Arabic and English. Saiful-Islam is also in the process of procuring copies of the Koran in larger fonts for those who have difficulty reading and copies in other languages, including Urdu and Pashto. In addition, he has ordered collections of prophets' sayings called "Hadith."

"I don't have a great deal of hope that I will be able to make a difference to everybody," he said, "but if I can make a difference in one, that may have been my purpose for coming here."

The chaplain sees to some of the physical needs of the detainees, by ensuring that they have adequate water and towels for the purification "wadu" before prayers. He also makes sure their meals adhere to Muslim "halal" standards.

"I wouldn't say it's a comfortable place, or a place to be happy in," he said, "but it is a place where you can live under the circumstances." The detainees can move freely within their units, can talk among themselves freely, and "even laugh at times, joke with each other," he said.

"Some have told me they are somewhat happy about being here rather than in Kandahar, because it's cold there, and in one tent there are many people, and they couldn't shower for a month," he continued, "but here they can shower a few days a week and they get two hot meals a day."

Before arriving in Guantanamo, Saiful-Islam worried that the detainees would not accept him as a chaplain. To his surprise, he said, chuckling, "that was not the case. They're very forthcoming and ask me many questions."

While the chaplain admits that seeing to the spiritual needs of 254 detainees is challenging work, he says his fellow servicemen guarding the facilities have a more difficult job. "They're on their feet for 10- or 12-hour shifts, out in the sun. They're taking care of the detainees in every aspect, from feeding them to taking them to their showers, cleaning the facilities, taking them to their medicals, looking out for their welfare - they're all working harder than me."

Previously stationed at the Marine Corps Base in Camp Pendleton, California, Saiful-Islam, 39, is one of 14 Muslim chaplains in the U.S. military's Chaplain Corps. When he received word that he would be assigned to minister to the detainees at Guantanamo Bay, he had mixed feelings.

"I felt it was an honor and a privilege to come and serve the country at this juncture, but I was concerned and my wife was concerned, knowing I would be dealing with potentially dangerous people," he said. "There are so many detainees here, and I don't need all of them to be deadly; one would be enough."

On September 11, Saiful-Islam, who worked in the Pentagon from 1993 to 1996, said he felt "angry at those people who took the name of religion" and orchestrated the terrorist attacks against the Pentagon and World Trade Center. "I knew just where the plane hit the Pentagon, and I knew some of those people [who were killed]," he said. Still, as a chaplain, he says he puts his personal feelings aside when talking with the detainees.

"That's why the role of the chaplain is unique," he said. "I struggle with my own feelings, but professionally, when we approach them as chaplain, we approach them as human beings. How we treat others is a reflection of our own dignity, and I do not go there leaving that dignity anywhere else but with me."

Saiful-Islam, a native of Bangladesh, says he "was always a religious person," although he originally chose a different career path. He studied finance in his home country and came to the United States in 1989 to earn his Masters in Business Administration (MBA). After joining the U.S. Navy in 1992, he was recruited by the Department of Defense to become a Muslim chaplain for the armed forces. He obtained his U.S. citizenship in 1997 and completed a Master of Science degree in Islamic Studies and certification as an Imam in 1998.

"I will be a student of religion until the day I die," he said. "I don't know what I bring to the job, but the job brings a lot to me - it brings comfort to me, and it also gives me the opportunity to help others spiritually."

As one of about 15,000 Muslims in the U.S. Armed Forces, the chaplain finds his solace these days in practicing his faith. "I don't know whether there's any better place to practice religion than with the U.S. military," he said. "Here it's a constitutional right, and the military has a very strong and open policy toward religious observation and practices, regardless of what faith we belong to. This is something that I think would be an amazing, eye-opening experience for other countries to see."