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| Letter to the Muslims from Macomer |
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13/07/2009
To all the muslim ummah assalamu’alaikum wa rahmatullah wa barakatahu.
Wa salatu wa salam ala rasulillah and his companions and all the followers of the muslims.
My dear brothers and sisters, we ask all of you in the name of Allah(swt) and in the name of his prophet (saw) and in the name of Islam, our deen. We ask your help for what we are supporting us and other brothers around Italy in prison. Of hate and discrimination from all the prisons and guards around the country. This calamity is the result of this government policy against Islam and Muslims.
Dear brothers and sisters this is a scream of desperation to all of you men and women of Islam who praise Allah(swt) five times a day.They imprisoned us here we are nearly 25 brothers from different nationality
all with a false accusations of terrorism where the Italian secret service do whatever they want and no one stops them. They have a green light from the Italian fascist government and their allies “The Northern League”, the extreme right wing. We think some of you have heard of what this party is doing against Islam and Muslims. They insult Muslims and they ridicule our religion with all the power they have. We can’t tell you all the details dear brothers and sisters, as it will take me much longer than just a small letter. Instead, we will give you one small example that with the cartoons, it resulted in 13 deaths in Libya and still one MP from the northern league goes around the country with a t-shirt insulting the Prophet (saw) and the Holy Qu’ran.
Now brothers and sisters we will let you know what is going on in this country against your brothers in prison. Under order from the department of justice, they transferred us all from different prisons around the country from prisons which were already harsh, and they brought us to a place called Macomer, We call this place The Italian Guantanamo because it is in Sardinia, far away from everyone and every city, in the middle of the mountains. The nearest small town is about 50 or 60 km away. It is very difficult for our family and children to visit, and very expensive. We accept all this.
What we cannot accept though is that they treat us worse than animals, right from the first moment we came here. They beat one of the Moroccan brothers, then they threatened the rest of us telling us we have to go along with the regime or they will beat us all.
With one brother, they took hs qu’ran, searched it three times and with no respect they threw it on the table whilst laughing and ridiculing the religion. He shouted at them to stop doing this to the qu’ran, but he was alone with 6 or 7 guards. They took his prayer beads, and said “this is a small bomb” then threw it on the floor with all the clothes and everything else he had.
They then tried to do the same thing to another brother, and to search him naked which our religion prohibits us to be naked in front of other people. He refused to obey and then they surrounded him with 3 or 4 guards and at that moment he started hitting his head on the glass four or five times whilst shouting for a confrontation, and they thought he might kill himself so they stopped. Every other brother they did the same.
Now we will talk about the wing and the cells. We are in an isolation wing, because the government has classified us as dangerous to other
normal prisoners. We can’t talk to each other when we go to the exercise yard or shower. We are subjected to body searches and cell searches
every day. In Italy, everyone is allowed 4 hours exercise but we always have less than that. We have no sports activity, every prison in Italy has sports activity but not us.
Every human being has the right to have medical assistance, but we don’t
have that. we will tell you my dear brothers and sisters some of what happens with regards to this. we personally have many heath problems,
including asthma, stomach problems, kidney problems as well as back and leg problems.
From day one, we have asked to see an orthopaedic doctor because of my back and knee injuries. we have still not seen such a doctor and this is
my fourth month here in Macomer. we still ask for the specialist, but get the same answer : “don’t worry we are trying to get you one.”
One brother has a big file of my medical history which all the doctors from the other prisons have said about his condition. He have a skin allergy and a nose bleed, which when untreated the allergy causes my asthma to worsen. Sometimes in the night or in very hot weather hecannot
breathe. Plus, he sometimes have pain over my body to such an extent that he need cortisone injections.
The problem is that in this prison they ignore his health problems. They don’t give him adequate health care. Every day he have to fight with them to have some attention regarding my conditions, and it is not only him who suffers in this prison. There are many people with different medical conditions. Example, there is one diabetic brother, the first day he arrived they told him they did not have his medication and to wait 24 hours. The most important tablets that the brother needs they did not even have in the prison.
Another brother fell down in the exercise yard, injuring his arm which was quite serious. He needed an x-ray and it was shown to be fractured. They left him with no painkillers or treatment until 7pm.
Three brothers have serious asthma problems. we asked the director and
his senior to allow the second gate of our cell to be open day and night so that we can have some air circulating. We did a hunger strike and some of us nearly died here. We told him we wanted this because people with Asthma always need good air circulation so they do not have an asthma attack.
After our hunger strike, they accepted to open the second gate only 30cm with a hand of steel to block the gate. In other prisons in italy these
second gates are left open 24 hours a day. The cells consist of 2 gates, the first has big solid bars whilst the second one is a solid steel door which is extremely big and heavy, through which no air circulates and it
is very difficult to breathe. They have a small circle of glass in the door so they can see you from outside.
Anyway, after some hunger strikes and problems they agreed to leave the
door open slightly (30 cm), and we were ok with it. During the first night though, they closed it completely at 10pm and it was nearly 35 degrees celcius. One brother started shouting and screaming about his health but no-one cared, so he started to offend and threaten them just so they would open the cell. he threatened to burn the cell down after he broke everything inside. They eventually came with a doctor when he had a breathing attack.
The brother had a meeting with the director of the prison the next day, and he said if the doctor says you need the door open then they will leave it open. The doctor though is one of the people who hate muslims. He said “he and the others have no health issues.
Can you imagine brothers and sisters what we are dealing with? There is no respect for the basic human rights, because at the moment in Italy they think all the muslims are terrorists and they have the right to do anything. My brothers and sisters it will take us many many pages to let you know every single issue that happens in this prison.
We will give some examples of other people with me in this prison. One brother had a skin problem and asked for a specialist but they continue to say “we are trying to get you one”. It has already been three months for this brother and nothing.
One other brother he had breathing problems and he asked the doctor for an oxygen machine, which is essential for him. The doctor said it is
essential he has it, but he must await permission from the judge first. There is another brother with a skin allergy, they took a urine sample
from him for analysis after three months, then they claim they lost the sample.
We are also not allowed to take our prayer mats out to exercise, and there is nowhere for us to pray, e.g. a prayer room or area. Just two days ago one of the brothers asked if they can be permitted association for Ramadan, and it was refused. Normally association in other prisons is every day.
Dear brothers and sisters we are still fighting for our rights to be treated as human beings and as muslims, for the prison to have respect for our deen and our dignity. We are in the worst of the country in terms of the Italian government policy against muslims, and we are in the first line for their anti muslim agenda. May Allah(swt) give us the strength to continue in his path.
Dear brothers and sisters, whenever we even start the adhan for prayer, the guards turn the tv up full volume and laugh to disturb us. They behave in a nasty and threatening manner towards us in an extremely bad way.
My dear brothers and sisters we need your help in any way, write in internet make some noise, protest in street, do what you can to highlight these problems.
Brothers and sisters, the people in Italian prison all of them have been victimised and are accused of many things because they look at things on
internet or just because they wear muslim clothes and have a beard.
People of Islam, where are you people, seeing and hearing this happening to your own brothers and sisters. May Allah(swt) give you the reward to
help us in our calamity and we pray to Allah(swt) for every single Muslim woman and man, young and old to not have anything to do with this
country. They hate Islam and muslims and they are doing everything to put Muslims behind bars.
My dear brothers and sisters if you love Allah (swt) and his Messenger (saw) stand up to these people and make them stop this oppression of not only us but also our kids and families. May Allah (swt) give all of you what you want in this world and on the day of Judgement.
We rely upon Allah(swt) and you people to do something for us.
Asalam alaykum,
Prisoners from Italian Guantanamo
SOURCE: Help the Prisoners |
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