Citing Religious Beliefs, Muslim Gitmo Inmates Object To Female Guards

[cbayer]

http://www.npr.org/2015/05/02/403572938/citing-religious-beliefs-muslim-gitmo-inmates-object-to-female-guards

MAY 02, 2015 7:57 AM ET
DAVID WELNA


A shackled detainee is transported by guards, including a female soldier, at Camp Delta detention center, Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, Cuba, in this photo from December 2006.
Brennan Linsley/AP

A clash between Muslim inmates and the female soldiers assigned to guard them has led to a standoff at the lockup in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

A judge has blocked female guards from shackling and escorting five Muslim men being tried for plotting the Sept. 11 attacks. Soldiers, in turn, have filed Equal Opportunity complaints against the judge.

Walter Ruiz is the lawyer for one of the Guantanamo detainees who object to being escorted by female guards.

During the first six years he represented him, Ruiz says, only male guards had touched his client — that is, until last fall, when female members of a National Guard unit became part of the team that shackled him.

more at link

[LostOne4Ever]

1. Tough Shit

[font size=4]Women have rights in the US, including the right to be a guard. She doesn't have to follow HIS beliefs.

If he can't touch a woman then don't touch her. She, however, can touch him as much as she needs too. She is under no obligation to conform to his beliefs.

The judges order should be rescinded. [/font]

[cbayer]

2. Should we force them to eat pork, too?

I am really ambivalent about this.

They are incarcerated without trial and have already lost all their rights despite not having been found guilty of anything.

Is it really that big a deal to accommodate them in this area.

While I understand the complaints of the female guards, I'm not sure I agree that this is "tough shit". What if the tables were turned on you?

[LostOne4Ever]

3. Not the same thing

No one is making them touch the female guards. Rather the guards are touching them. It is more like complaining the guards are eating pork.

I don't like gitmo any more than the next liberal, but I also don't approve of religious based sexual discrimination especially when it is trying to force others to conform to a religion that they themselves do not observe.

If they want to object that they deserve their at trial I would support that. But that is not the objection here. Rather, it is that female guard watching over them at all.

[cbayer]

4. Their beliefs prohibit them from being touched by women outside their family.

It's more like if they were forced to have pork on their plate.

Like I said, I am ambivalent, but when people have been stripped of pretty much all of their rights, I tend to lean towards accommodating them when possible.

Where do we draw the line?

[pinto]

5. (somewhat tangential) The state prison here has a specific trans cell block, for safety reasons.

The prison screens guards for the unit pretty carefully to support some measure of sensitivity to the context of incarceration beyond the usual guidelines. The purpose isn't to afford trans inmates any special rights or such.

The focus is on the fact that they are in prison for what they did, not who they are. Inmate complaints are followed up by administration. I was not privy to any resolutions, so that's the limit of my knowledge. Yet I do know they were addressed.

[cbayer]

6. Good for them.

Most prisons have rules about men monitoring female inmates. Would it be ok if women were to be supervised showering by male guards?

That has nothing to do with religion, just with what provides a feeling of safety or comfort. Should we no accommodate others just because their wishes are religiously based?