RSS

Category Archives: Risala

Letters from Prison

Babar Ahmad: The Earliest Recorded Extradition Request in History

British politicians frequently boast about how the foundations of ‘modern’ British law are rooted in the Magna Carta declaration of 1215.

The logic being that the world did not know justice until King John put his seal on the Magna Carta on 15 June 1215 and so ‘modern’ British laws derived from the Magna Carta deliver justice even today and they remain a shining example to the rest of the world, especially the ‘backward’ African and Asian countries. The Magna Carta essentially states that no man shall be deprived of his liberty (i.e. imprisoned) or exiled from the land (i.e. extradited) without the lawful judgement of his peers (i.e. a fair public trial in which he is allowed to give his side of the story). For medieval 13th Century England that was still deep in savagery and barbarism it can be said that the Magna Carta was a big achievement.

Yet the truth is that some 600 years earlier an advanced civilisation in East Africa had been practically implementing the principles of justice found in the Magna Carta. But you wouldn’t know it because black African ‘savages’ teaching justice to ‘sophisticated’ white earls does not look too good in a school History textbook. The basic principle of justice that this 7th Century black African civilisation realised is that you cannot punish someone without giving them a fair trial in which you allow them to give their side of the story.

One of the earliest recorded extradition trials in international case law is Jafar bin Abi Talib and others vs Government of Quraish in the Royal Court of Justice of Abyssinia, 615 C.E. In the year 615 of Christian era, a group of Muslims fled torture and religious persecution in Makkah and migrated to Abyssinia (modern day Ethiopia) to seek sanctuary in the kingdom of the righteous Christian King Negus. The 16 Muslims were led by Jafar bin Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him), the cousin of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). They had only just arrived in Abyssinia when the Government of Quraish sent an extradition request seeking the return of the group to Makkah. Amr bin Al-Aas QC (Quraish Counsel) with junior counsel Abdullah bin Abi Rabia were sent to Abyssinia to advocate for the men’s extradition.

The Negus of Abyssinia by Nayzak

The court convened one morning in the packed Royal Court of Justice of Abyssinia and presiding over the matter was the Honourable King Negus himself due to the seriousness of the matter. Amr bin Al-Aas QC, opening for the prosecution, laid out the basic facts of the case against the Muslim group. He stated that they were apostates who had abandoned the religion of their forefathers and so should be extradited back to Makkah.*He further added that since the Tribe of Quraish and the Kingdom of Abyssinia were major allies, under the terms of the Extradition Act 2003 Category 2 legislation no prime prima facie evidence had to be presented in order to seek the group’s extradition.*     Read the rest of this entry »

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on May 23, 2013 in Letters from Babar Ahmad, Risala

 

Tags: , , , , ,

Zachary Adam Chesser: May 2, 2013 (Dedicated in Hardship & Ease)

BismIllaah ir-Rahmaan ir-Rahiim,

22 Jumaad ath-Thaani, 1434

As-salaamu ‘alaykum wa rahmatUllaahi wa barakaatuh,

Akhi, forgive me if my response to such a well-thought letter is unduly short, but I have to save my money at the moment, and these e-mails are actually quite expensive.

Al-hamdu Lillaah, all of these things are true, but they are only true for certain people. There are many people whom prison brings them too much fitnah and so their iimaan gets broken by these fitan. If someone is patient with Allaah’s decree, sincere in his ‘ibaadah and they have taqwaa to keep themselves from getting sucked into sins, then prison will be like a religious retreat for them. However, if they do not have these things, then prison is simply a punishment from Allaah upon them, a test to expose them, and a hardship in this Dunya which is preceding further hardship in the Aakhirah.

Allaah says:

(وَلَنَبْلُوَنَّكُمْ حَتَّىٰ نَعْلَمَ الْمُجَاهِدِينَ مِنكُمْ وَالصَّابِرِينَ وَنَبْلُوَ أَخْبَارَكُمْ ﴿٣١

“And we shall test you all until We know the Mujaahidiin from among you and the Saabiriin, and We test your report.” (Suurah Muhammad, 47:31)
Read the rest of this entry »

 

Tags: , ,

Zachary Adam Chesser: May 21, 2013 (Good News on Prayer Lawsuit)

In the Name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy:

I am just writing to all of you to inform you of some good news on a lawsuit I have filed in the Southern District of Illinois over our prisons’ denial of our ability to pray in congregation, as I believe each of you are interested in these proceedings in one way or another. To clarify, there are two CMUs, but only people at the one in Terre Haute, Indiana are now allowed to make congregational prayer, and the Muslims in the CMU where I am incarcerated (Marion, IL) are still prohibited, so this is different from the suit by John (Yahya) Walker Lindh.

My suit recently passed screening, although I had some errors I am trying to correct to get some dismissed defendants back in the case, which is a very important hurdle. The judge took judicial notice of the suit filed by Yahya Lindh, and also ordered a magistrate judge to hold an evidentiary hearing for a preliminary injunction as soon as possible. This is of course important, but I just received some news which is actually a better sign of how the court is likely to behave in this case than even these matters.

Today, I received an order granting my motion for appointment of counsel, which means that the court is going to pay for me to have an attorney. Courts rarely do this in cases filed by prisoners, and it is almost unheard of when the case is at such an early stage as this one is. In fact, the defendants have not even made an appearance in court yet, much less have they filed any of the different types of motions to dismiss all or part of the case that normally occur before a court will even entertain a motion for appointment of counsel (literally it is apparently for “recruitment,” not appointment, but they are effectively the same thing). Thus, the order granting this motion is a strong indication that the court views this as a highly meritorious case, which deserves the professional expertise of a licensed attorney to make sure the right verdict is reached.

Allah knows best when I will actually obtain counsel, but this should also literally save me hundreds of hours of work, so it is a great blessing in that regard to, for which I thank my Lord.

We ask for your prayers and your support going forward.

Anyone who has questions should feel free to send them.

Zakariyya Chesser

Zachary Adam Chesser #76715-083
USP Marion
U.S. Penitentiary
PO Box 1000
Marion, IL 62959
USA
 

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Babar Ahmad: July 2008 (No Man, Let Alone a Prisoner, Can Live Without Hope)

I have now spent nearly an eighth of my life in prison. Life in prison is a journey into the unknown. Unlike other journeys it is one of those things that you can never plan ahead for. You don’t plan to have a car accident. You don’t plan to get cancer. You don’t plan to die. And you don’t plan to go to prison. Prison is just one of the many tests that you must pass in order to succeed in life.

The Prophet (saw) said, There is some magic in words.” Tyrants use the magic in words to control people’s thoughts and deeds by making evil appear acceptable to them. So kidnap is known as “arrest”, brutality becomes “reasonable force” and torture is nothing more than “enhanced interrogation”. When an innocent man is kidnapped from his home by bearded Arab gunmen and locked indefinitely in a room he is a “hostage”. But when an innocent man is kidnapped from his home by uniformed white gunmen and locked indefinitely in a room he is a “terrorist”. The world causes uproar over the former but is silent over the latter. “In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends,” observed Martin Luther King.

Fear is a disease that consumes the soul of the one who embraces it. Man’s total capacity to fear is fixed: the more he fears one thing the less he fears another. People fear standing up to a tyrant because they are afraid of some harm that he may cause them, even though that harm is limited to the life of this world. Such people have little or no fear for any harm that Allah will cause them in the Hereafter. However, if these same people were to fear the Day when they shall return to stand before the Lord of the Worlds, they would not fear any tyrant on the face of the Earth. {Do they fear them? Allah is more worthy for you to fear if you are indeed believers.} (Quran 9:13)

We survive in life by wearing a variety of faces that disguise our true inner selves. We have one face for our families, a face for our friends, a face for our colleagues, and a face for strangers. Since we are always switching between faces others hardly get to see who we really are. Sometimes we ourselves forget who we are. The harsh reality of prison life relentlessly files away at your external faces and personae to reveal the true you. There are no secrets in prison. Sincerity, hypocrisy, bravery, cowardice, good, evil, all are laid bare. Prison brings out the best, and worst, in people.

Read the rest of this entry »

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on May 21, 2013 in Letters from Babar Ahmad, Risala

 

Tags: , , ,

Fulan: 2010 (A Witness & A Call)

A Witness and a Call

From your imprisoned brothers in the Guantanamo of Britain (Belmarsh Prison)
To the Muslims all over the World:

This is the second letter in which we describe to you the oppression we experience at the hands of the British, as a result of what you know of the policies of this country and its engagement in all forms of oppression as done by other countries like Israel and US against the Muslims, but (this oppression is done) in a manner that fools the weak and simple minded.

We had mentioned to you before that the situation here in Belmarsh is akin, without any difference except in its portrayal from that which occurs to your Muslim brothers in Guantanamo, and their newspapers, and some of the more truthful journalists testify to this; but the government tries to conceal all this from the media and strives to do as it wishes in a secretive manner.

When the government began to find out that the knowledge of its oppression had begun to leak into the public domain it brought a TV crew which began to take photos of Belmarsh prison which had become a source of shame for it, like Guantanamo became a shame on US, in an attempt to enhance its image. It further took photos of some of the short term benefits, such as the provision of good food and interviewed some of the prisoners who were benefiting from some of these benefits, and likewise photographed some of activities that occur within the prison, making the prison out to be a paradise that someone outside it would desire.

Frankly, your brothers here didn’t know of this deception that was happening in this land, nay, they thought it was restricted to our home lands, but it became clear that all the lies that are told in our lands, were taken and derived from the policies of this country and its government.

The situation of your brothers has become unacceptably bad, for some of your brothers almost lost their minds, and others have begun to suffer from psychological diseases. This is not as a result of nothing; rather this was a pre-planned evil and malevolent policy to cause your brothers to reach these levels.

Read the rest of this entry »

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on May 19, 2013 in Letters from Fulan, Risala

 

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Shaker Aamer: May 2013 (They Try to Reduce You to Nothingness)

I began my hunger strike on February 12, 2013. There was a time when I worried about a whole lot of medical problems that were causing me suffering: the knee that has caused me pain since I was beaten up early in my detention; my back which gets re-injured each time the FCE Team [the Forcible Cell Extraction team, formerly known as the Emergency Reaction Force] comes in and beats me up some more; the kidney trouble that  is made worse by the yellow water that comes through the taps round here; the swelling in my ankles caused by wearing shackles every day.

But since I started the hunger strike, my concerns about all this have pretty much been overridden by the endless desire for food.

My treatment was bad before, but since the beginning of April I have been treated with particular venom. They started by taking my medical things. I had an extra blanket to lessen my rheumatism, but that was soon gone. My backbrace went at the same time. The pressure socks I had to keep the build-up of water down did not last long. Then they came for my toothbrush. Next, my sheet was taken, along with my shoes. My legal documents vanished soon after, leaving me only my kids’ drawings on the wall. They were the last to go.

And now I am left alone. Since 8am Monday, April 15, I have had nothing, not even my flip-flops. I am meant to sleep on concrete, and when I say alone, I mean alone in a very lonely world. The bean hole is what they call the small hatch on the door through which they normally pass my food. Recently they have started using a padlock to close it all day long. The OIC [Officer In Charge] keeps the key so no one else can open it.

One reason they do this is that, despite my being on hunger strike, they were making me take the meals through the bean hole at lunchtime, and then refusing to take the clam shell [the polystyrene platter] back until the evening meal. I couldn’t throw it out of my cell, since the bean hole is locked. So it just sat there. I used to think the food round here smells disgusting, but when you’ve not eaten for two months or more, having any food sit around in the cell is pure torture. But then that’s the point, isn’t it?

I often quote 1984 by George Orwell (it’s probably the book I’ve read more than any other but the Holy Koran): ‘Torture is for torture, the System is for the System.’

They have taken to sending the FCE team in for everything. That’s if I’m lucky. Normally, if I ask for something, I just don’t get it. That includes my medicine. Then, if I want water — and I have to ask for a bottle, as you can’t drink the stuff that comes out of the tap — they don’t bring it until the night shift.

The FCE team comes in, some 22-stone soldier puts his knees on my back while the others pin my arms and legs to the floor, and they leave me a plastic bottle. You’re allowed only one bottle at a time, as having two is somehow a threat to US national security. That means from morning until night, I have nothing to drink unless I conserve it carefully.    Read the rest of this entry »

 
 

Tags: , , , ,

Fulan: August 18, 2012 (What a Strange World)

44:27 ١٤٣٣/١٨/٩

To the one who’s heart is in my chest…

With a broken pen I write, in a month of Mercy and Victory half fled, I sit– the nights, I strive to stand – but weakened and slacked has become my state. What sweet scents I sift through a cool breeze, brought from a home long unseen. What perfumed garments speak of days when attar flowed and fasts fled in the company of dear ones, near in blood and close of heart.

So in the land of each as he pleases, I sit– in a strange world where one day what is given is taken and what is forbidden is free… What a topsy-turvy place, where to write is wrong, and words are buried beneath crimson strands– sticky and sickly.

To our Lord I speak, in gratitude for All He has Blessed us with. And to our Lord I complain– as He is swift to call to account. And let it be known with certitude that every deed is recorded, every word written, and the hearts, like these pilfered pages, are lain bare; the secrets unknown here are there clear– so know that for each action shall you find your reward, and Allah الله is not in the least way unjust.

Every eye shall be dotted and every “t” shall be crossed. By the One Who Sent the Quran in this month, we shall soon meet again, Yaa Samad, Ameen.

(The Itcher in the Dark)

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on May 17, 2013 in Letters from Fulan, Risala

 

Tags:

Seifullah Chapman: 2009 (Alhamdulillah, for Allah’s Mercy These People Have None)

As salaamu alaikum. I pray that you receive this while in the highest of emaan. Alhamdulillah, you have always been there with us during our years of incarceration, supporting us and letting others know of our situation. As I have not written to you in a while, this is the latest update of our current situation; I hope that you can inform people about our situation, your readers, and also incarcerated Muslims who might end up in the Bureau of Prison’s (BOP) new Special Management Unit (SMU) program, where I am currently being housed.

Prior to arriving at United States Penitentiary (USP) Lewisburg’s SMU program on April 20, 2009, I spent twenty-three months at FCI Terre Haute in the Communications Management Unit (CMU). There has been much reported about that Department of Justice program, its illegality, and its targeting of the Muslims. The CMU program is basically designed to keep a certain group off the prison compounds, and to restrict their communications in an attempt to completely cut them off from the rest of the world. Many a relationship had been harmed or destroyed by this program. May Allah forgive us and help us.

Early this year, Ismail Royer, Sabri Benkhala and I filed a law suit against the BOP over the CMU program. Prior to that, and for the entire duration of my time spent in the CMU, I never had any problem with prison staff, but all of that ended abruptly when the law suit was filed. It was not much more than a month later that I was transferred to USP Lewisburg’s SMU program in retaliation for our law suit.

For a year and a half at CMU the administrative staff had permitted all of us to pray in small groups of three. A short time after filing the law suit, Ismail and I (and one other brother) were given incident reports for praying in a group of three and not cutting our prayer when we were told that we needed to go pray in our cells.

There was no emergency that would have necessitated us leaving the prayer, and we were praying in the same out-of-the-way corner that we had prayed in for months. There is no staff member that had not seen us pray there in the past and this was the first mention of the “pray alone in your cell policy”. The BOP claims that this is the reason for my disciplinary transfer to the SMU – for praying in a group of three. Subhanallah. So, I was transferred to USP Lewisburg.

Read the rest of this entry »

 
1 Comment

Posted by on May 12, 2013 in Letters from Seifullah Chapman, Risala

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Your Brothers in the Prisons of the UK (In What State Does this Letter Reach You?)

All praise if to Allaah Alone, Cherisher and Sustainer of the universe and Peace and Blessings be upon His Messenger, his Family, His Companions and all who follow them in righteousness until the Last Day.

{Indeed those who fear Allaah from amongst His slaves, they are the (true) scholars.}
(Al-Faatir:28)

This is an open letter from your Muslim brothers imprisoned in British prisons for the sake of their deen!

To the scholar and student of theoretical knowledge!
To the student of Islamic universities and Arabic language institutes!
To the author and translator of glossy books!
To the worshipper of the books of fiqh and Arabic lexicology!
To the orator, teacher, speaker and lecturer!
To the one whose opinion is sought and lectures are listened to!
To the one whose name lives on posters, leaflets, books and magazines!

As-Salaamu Alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.

Praise be to Allah who said:

{Remind, for indeed the reminder is of benefit to the believers}
(Adh-Dhaariyaat: 55)

Peace and Blessings be upon His Messenger (saas) who said: “The Scholars are the inheritors of the Prophets’” May Allah be pleased with Ali bin Abi Taalib, who is reported to have said: “We do not judge the truth by the people but we judge the people by the truth.”

In what state does this letter reach you? Is your stomach full and posture comfortable? Is your garment soft and perfumed? Are your wives and children near you to bring coolness to your hearts? Do you feel at ease in the expanse of your dwelling? Is your skin supple and smooth?

We write to you from a cold, bare cell that has a toilet in one corner. We write to you seated upon wooden chairs and hard beds. We write to you with hungry stomachs awaiting our next meal at the wings of our captors. We write to you clothed in coarse prison garments with unperfumed bodies and rough, chapped skin. We write to you whilst we are far estranged from our families, children and loved ones. We write to you from behind bars.

Read the rest of this entry »

 
3 Comments

Posted by on May 11, 2013 in Letters from Fulan, Risala

 

Tags: , , , , ,

Establishing al-Hukm Shari’a fi Sijin

Question 3:
In some facilities the Muslims are given a great deal of leeway in policing themselves. It is to the point where some aspects of the Sharii’ah can be implemented in the community without the kuffaar interfering, and the leaders of the Muslim community can enforce these matters.

For example, in a typical facility a Muslim caught drinking khamr by his brothers will receive some kind of physical punishment, and the guards will not interfere. Sometimes the Muslims exceed the limits set in the Sharii’ah in such matters, because many of them have things left over from jahiliyyah. A brother mentioned that before he became a Muslim he knew a brother who used to stab people (non-lethally, I believe) if they did not attend the five prayers in jama’ah.

However, even this did not lead to repercussions from the guards. What is the ruling on implementing the things from the Sharii’ah which Muslims are able to implement without fear of the guards interfering or harming them? Should the community do those things or should they leave them all, because they are not completely in power? In our unit we are not able to do these types of things, but in a typical facility this is how the community is run.

20130509-155041.jpg

In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate;

I asked the third [question] where he [the questioner] stated that the brothers and some Muslims [in prison] may exceed the limits of the Shari’a, such as drinking alcohol and committing other haram actions, and his [the questioners] saying of the brothers, that it is possible to implement the hadud, and carry out what is prescribed of corporal punishment without having interference from the prison guards.

The Sheikh [Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi] says it should not be upon the brothers to do so because by doing this, such is the condition of the brothers in dar al-Harb and the brothers [in prison] who are now in a position of vulnerability, and by doing this they may alienate the hearts of the people, and instead of causing the people to abandon them [the sinful actions] or turning away [from sin] those who commit these haram things [they may repel him, and not the sin]. And regarding the person who did as the brothers said: that he was stabbing people non-fatal stab wounds who did not pray the five daily prayers in congregation, this [the stabbing] is forbidden in Islam.

 

Tags: , , ,

 
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 251 other followers