Or is he just trying to get out of Guantanamo? "Hicks sheds his Islamic beliefs," from Reuters, with thanks to all who sent this in:
AUSTRALIA'S Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks is no longer a Muslim.Hick was also publicly denounced by an al-Qaeda member at Guantanamo Bay for his lack of religious observance, a former British detainee has said.
Rumours that Hicks had abandoned his Islamic beliefs were confirmed by British Muslim Moazzam Begg.
Mr Begg shared a cell block with Hicks at the US military base in Cuba in 2004.
Mr Begg, who was released in January last year after the British government intervened, wrote about his experiences in a new book, Enemy Combatant: A British Muslim's Journey to Guantanamo and Back.
Mr Begg wrote that Uthman al-Harbi complained that Dawood, the name is Arabic for David, which Hicks adopted after converting to Islam in 1999, had not fasted during Ramadan.
He also wrote that Hicks had not prayed with others or undertaken his "duties".
"I wouldn't describe him as a dedicated Muslim," Mr Begg said to The Age.
"I don't think he was before and he certainly isn't now."
I smell a scam, now all the detainees will convert and then we will have no reason to detain them.
Hmmmmmm....maybe he realizes islam isn't what it's cracked up to be. No pun intended.
My guess is that both of them are lying,,,predictable as usual!
If Hicks thinks he is in Gitmo just for being a muslim then he is mistaken. I doubt this will get him out.
It would make the US look more anti-islam than ever.The wrong message will be sent.
(maybe that isn't a bad thing?)
Allowing for the possibility that Hicks is sick of Islam, it's a welcome development. Now if that leads him to spill his guts, so much the better.
I think he would be unlikely to be released, so as to demonstrate that the US is not anti-Islamic. That would be good for two reasons. One being that Islam isn't the reason these long haired maggot infested dopes are in Gitmo - it's their enemy combatant activities that brought them there. The other reason being that nobody will be under any illusion that apostatizing is the ticket out of Gitmo - so that if they are to bolt from the ummah, they might as well be genuine about it.
Isn't there something in the Koran or Hadith that states it's OK for a Muslim to lie about being a Muslim, following Mohammed, waging jihad, etc. as long as he believes in Allah and Mohammed in his heart? Maybe this guy is following that example, lying about not following Islam, but with the intent to get out and start jihad again?
Divide and conquer.
Mislead the enemy.
War is deceit.
Just because he is a lazy follower of the terror cult doesn't mean much.
Of course, the entire Gitmo p.r debacle would have been solved had the military held field tribunals in Afghanistan and shot the jihadists then and there.
No amount of "intelligence" gathered counterbalances the jihadist propaganda value against America caused by this idiotically-contructed mess nor does it make up for the pathetic failure of Rumsfeld, et al, to adequately defend the case for detaining such irregular prisoners- de facto terrorists, saboteurs and spies- during wartime. That the Adminstrations' mouthpieces haven't made the argument coherently, strongly, and using accepted legal precedents, has only compounded the swirling folly.
No Korans, no air conditioning, no coddling.
Firing squads and shallow graves.
Slit trenches lined with George Bush, Sr.'s favorite snack- pork rinds.
Pussyfooting to oblivion seems to be the current strategy.
IMHO that Gitmo should be shut down. After taking care of all the inmates in a rather permanent way. No use having a prison that is so widely advertised and therefore open to criticism. "Did the terrorists get their halal meat ? Was it fresh ? Did they get the korans and the skull caps ? Are they comfortable ? Is the air - conditioning adequate ?" Nobody asks what Daniel Pearl or those two soldiers who were butchered only this week went through.
Can a former jihadi truly be rehabilitated? Interestingly, in this case, he has not even been convicted of a crime. However, as an enemy combatant, he is deemed to be so dangerous that his release would endanger the public irrespective of the lack of criminal charges in his case, thus explaining the denial of habeas corpus. He should understand the situation. Moreover, he shouldn't expect to be given special treatment now even if he indeed has truly left behind the ideology of Islam.
I do hope those in charge of Guatanemo realize that if he indeed has become an apostate, he is likely to die at the hands of other inmates. His safety is important. However, I doubt the US authorities know that or care about his alleged apostasy. After all, they don't care that inmates in the US are almost daily exposed to physical assault, sexually attacks and even killed by fellow inmates while in prison. Why would they care about a jihadi?
So if Hicks renounces Jihad and Islam, confesses what his crimes were, does his time. would you accept him then?
You know I always thought one of the purposes of sitting in gaol was for one to realise their mistake. Maybe we should consider that possibility?
Ive spent some time for the last few months reading the opinions. I have also spent some time trying to wade through the Koran. Ive developed the view that Islam is a political doctrine hiding behind a religion.
So many writers on here reflect such emotion about these people's beliefs, and using insulting language. (How do remarks about pork rinds elevate the discussion?).
The simple facts are, its a political doctrine wrapped in a fake religion and it has taught a swag of people to think its a reasonable thing to plot to kill a lot of other people.
The Nazis from the third reich could have had a similar result if they had declared Hitler as the last prophet of Natzism and therefore it should be followed by all true believers.
If you just get our societies to realise Islam isnt a religion, and merely a political doctrine, it loses all its protection under the law. Then it can be banned like any other extreme hate doctrine.
Enjoy your evening...
payingattention that was spot on. This is not meant to be a hate website as some seem to think.
Hicks is a socially dysfunctional attention seeker, who had problems at school, bit of a loner, the usual story. Forget facial tattoos, or shooting speed, nothing is going to shock the relatives round the Christmas table more than coming up with this wild stuff. Auntie Flo, I'm a mujaheddin. A mujah heh what? The joke has gone too far, and it's dawned on him the hole he is in is because of his own self glory. Knowing his background, and listening to his father, an honest man, who is occasionally on Australian TV, and clearly cares for his son come what may, I have sympathy for the chump.But he put himself there. Before Afghanistan he was posing for photos with RPGs in Bosnia ( or Kosovo? ), so he has previous. But look, anyone who slacks off on Islam gets a little gold star in my book. We should be encouraging this indolence. Too slack to pray, 5 times a day. Cheesh, and all those rules about personal hygiene.
payingattention-
I was refering to burying terrorists, not elevating the discussion.
If you read the preceding part of my argument, you might understand what I was saying, and forget about fixating on a throwaway sardonic recommendation for something that hasn't been followed since Black Jack Pershing used it against the Muslim jihadists in the Phillipines, over 100 years ago. (Although his methods were messier.)
To defeat an enemy you must break their will.
One of their core "religious" superstitions is: if their corpse is rendered "unclean", they will not achieve paradise.
If they are discouraged from committing terrorist acts by the threat of something so simple as being entombed with pork rinds (99 cents a bag at any local grocery store), then let the psyops pork chops begin.
Or are we not to fight the enemy with their own irrational 'haram' fears? (As they try to use the slightly more real existential/biological/psychological fear of being horribly tortured and then beheaded -all while recording the act on video and then broadcasting your 'humilation' to the world, over the internet and al-Jazeera?)
Spare me the quasi-"high-toned" posturing.
Fight the jihad, not stylistic allusions. (Or low humor.)
Charcuterie versus Islamic Imperialists, now!