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Abdul Rahim Muslim Dost (
Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''
: عبد الرحیم مسلم دوست) is an Afghan journalist and jeweller and a former Islamist militant of
Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalist, militant Islamist, jihadist, and Pas ...
and member of ISIL Khorasan ProvinceSketches of Guantanamo Detainees-Part I
, '' WTOP'', March 15, 2006
in late 2015 he publicly disassociated himself from ISIL Khorasan and left militancy, condemning the killing of innocent people by ISIL in Afghanistan. He also was formerly held in
extrajudicial detention Administrative detention is arrest and detention of individuals by the state without trial. A number of jurisdictions claim that it is done for security reasons. Many countries claim to use administrative detention as a means to combat terrorism ...
in the United States
Guantanamo Bay detention camp The Guantanamo Bay detention camp ( es, Centro de detención de la bahía de Guantánamo) is a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, also referred to as Guantánamo, GTMO, and Gitmo (), on the coast of Guant ...
s, in Cuba. In 2014, he became a member of the militant
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...
s Afghanistan branch. He left the group in late 2015, claiming that Khorasan province became a tool of "regional intelligence agencies and started torturing innocent people." He described the Hafiz Saeed Khan, the emir of Khorasan province, as "illiterate" for approving attacks on civilians.


History

In 1979, Dost was among those, led by Juhayman al-Otaybi, who were involved in the
Grand Mosque seizure The Grand Mosque seizure lasted from 20 November 1979 to 4 December 1979, when extremist militants in Saudi Arabia calling for the overthrow of the House of Saud besieged and took over Masjid al-Haram, the holiest Islamic site, in the city of ...
in
Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow val ...
,
Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries by area, fifth-largest country in Asia ...
. He was arrested after the Saudi government stormed the Mosque, but was somehow freed and fled to
Peshawar Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...
, Pakistan.


2001 capture and Guantanamo

Muslim Dost and his brother were captured on November 17, 2001, and later released on 17 April 2005 with no charges held against him.Prisoner profile from cageprisoners.com

''
Guardian Unlimited TheGuardian.com, formerly known as Guardian.co.uk and ''Guardian Unlimited'', is a British news and media website owned by the Guardian Media Group. It contains nearly all of the content of the newspapers ''The Guardian'' and ''The Observer'', ...
'', April 3, 2006
His Guantanamo
Internment Serial Number An Internment Serial Number (ISN) is an identification number assigned to captives who come under control of the United States Department of Defense (DoD) during armed conflicts. History On March 3, 2006, in compliance with a court order from D ...
was 561. The allegations against Muslim Dost, in his
Combatant Status Review Tribunal The Combatant Status Review Tribunals (CSRT) were a set of tribunals for confirming whether detainees held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp had been correctly designated as "enemy combatants". The CSRTs were esta ...
, was that he was a member of the Jamaat al Dawa al Quran (JDQ) militant group, and served as a contact between that group and
Al Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military targets in various countr ...
. Muslim Dost acknowledged being a member of JDQ, but said he joined long ago, during the
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
. Muslim Dost's brother was also a journalist; was also a held in extrajudicial detention in Guantanamo; was also released by the Americans following his Tribunal. Their presence in Guantanamo was discussed in the press prior the Department of Defense released the official list of detainee identities. He has been noted for his
poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings ...
while detained by the American government and the lengths he went through to record it, ranging from scratching with a spoon onto
polystyrene Polystyrene (PS) is a synthetic polymer made from monomers of the aromatic hydrocarbon styrene. Polystyrene can be solid or foamed. General-purpose polystyrene is clear, hard, and brittle. It is an inexpensive resin per unit weight. It is ...
teacups to using rubbery pens, and has received much esteem in this regard. His account on his stay at Guantanamo, ''The Broken Chains'', is currently being translated into English.


Determined not to have been an enemy combatant

Abdul Rahim Muslim Dost was one of the 38 captives the Bush Presidency determined had not been enemy combatants after all. The Department of Defense refers to these men as No Longer Enemy Combatants. Abdul Rahim Muslim Dost was freed on April 20, 2005, with sixteen other Afghans whose Tribunals had determined they were not enemy combatants. The ''
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. n ...
'' reported that their release ceremony was addressed by Afghan Chief Justice
Fazl Hadi Shinwari Fazal Hadi Shinwari (1927 – February 21, 2011) was an Afghan cleric who served as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Afghanistan from 2001 until 2006. He was appointed to the post by Afghan President Hamid Karzai in accordance with th ...
.
Carlotta Gall Carlotta Gall is a British journalist and author. She covered Afghanistan and Pakistan for ''The New York Times'' for twelve years. She is currently the Istanbul bureau chief for The New York Times covering Turkey. Career Summary Daughter of ve ...
of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' reported that the Chief Justice encouraged the men to regard their detention as something sent from God. The reports stated that the Chief Justice warned the cleared men that a candid description of their detention could damage the chances of other Afghan captives to be released. Abdul Rahim Muslim Dost was one of the three captives who chose to address the Press. Carlotta Gall described him as openly disagreeing with the Chief Justice as to whether any Afghans should have been sent to Guantanamo: Both reports quoted Chief Justice Fazil Hadi Shinwari distinguishing three categories of captives:


Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Initially the Bush administration asserted that they could withhold all the protections of the
Geneva Conventions upright=1.15, Original document in single pages, 1864 The Geneva Conventions are four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish international legal standards for humanitarian treatment in war. The singular term ''Geneva Conv ...
to captives from the war on terror. This policy was challenged before the Judicial branch. Critics argued that the United States could not evade its obligation to conduct
competent tribunal Competent Tribunal is a term used in Article 5 paragraph 2 of the Third Geneva Convention, which states: ICRC commentary on competent tribunals The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) commentary on Article 5 of the Third Geneva Con ...
s to determine whether captives are, or are not, entitled to the protections of
prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of ...
status. Subsequently, the Department of Defense instituted the
Combatant Status Review Tribunal The Combatant Status Review Tribunals (CSRT) were a set of tribunals for confirming whether detainees held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp had been correctly designated as "enemy combatants". The CSRTs were esta ...
s. The Tribunals, however, were not authorized to determine whether the captives were ''lawful combatants''—rather they were merely empowered to make a recommendation as to whether the captive had previously been correctly determined to match the Bush administration's definition of an
enemy combatant Enemy combatant is a person who, either lawfully or unlawfully, engages in hostilities for the other side in an armed conflict. Usually enemy combatants are members of the armed forces of the state with which another state is at war. In the case ...
.


Summary of Evidence memo

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Abdul Rahim Muslim Dost's Combatant Status Review Tribunal, on 29 September 2004. The memo listed the following allegations against him:


Transcript

Muslim Dost chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal. On March 3, 2006, in response to a
court order A court order is an official proclamation by a judge (or panel of judges) that defines the legal relationships between the parties to a hearing, a trial, an appeal or other court proceedings. Such ruling requires or authorizes the carrying out ...
from
Jed Rakoff Jed Saul Rakoff (born August 1, 1943) is a Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Education Rakoff was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on August 1, 1943. He grew up ...
the Department of Defense published a sixteen-page summarized transcript from his Combatant Status Review Tribunal. According to Fox News, the US considered Muslim Dost "too old and sick to get back in the fight" and his intelligence value had been "maxed out".


2006 Pakistan arrest

On September 30, 2006, the Chinese news agency ''
Xinhua Xinhua News Agency (English pronunciation: )J. C. Wells: Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd ed., for both British and American English, or New China News Agency, is the official state news agency of the People's Republic of China. Xinhua ...
'' reported that Muslim Dost had been arrested by Pakistani officials.Pakistan arrests freed Guantanamo Afghan scholar
''
Xinhua Xinhua News Agency (English pronunciation: )J. C. Wells: Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd ed., for both British and American English, or New China News Agency, is the official state news agency of the People's Republic of China. Xinhua ...
'', September 30, 2006
The article quotes Muslim Dost's brother, who linked the arrest to criticisms of the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate's role in the capture of Guantanamo detainees. Muslim Dost's brother said he was arrested while leaving his Mosque. Local
Peshawar Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...
Police Superintendent Iftikhar Khan denied any knowledge of Muslim Dost's arrest, but acknowledged Inter-Services Intelligence officials may have executed a covert arrest. In 2008, Muslim Dost was released from detention as part of a prisoner swap between the Pakistani Government and the
Pakistani Taliban The Pakistani Taliban (), formally called the Tehreek-e-Taliban-e-Pakistan (Urdu/ ps, , lit=Student Movement of Pakistan, TTP), is an umbrella organization of various Islamist armed militant groups operating along the Afghan–Pakistani bor ...
, who had been holding Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan and others hostage.


Affiliation with Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant

In July 2014, Abdul Raheem Muslim Dost swore allegiance to the leader of ISIL,
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ( ar, أبو بكر البغدادي, ʾAbū Bakr al-Baḡdādī; born Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim Ali Muhammad al-Badri al-Samarrai ( ar, إبراهيم عواد إبراهيم علي محمد البدري السامرائي, ʾIb ...
, and began recruiting fighters and distributing propaganda for its Khorasan branch in the
Nuristan Nuristan, also spelled as Nurestan or Nooristan (Dari: ; Kamkata-vari: ), is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the eastern part of the country. It is divided into seven districts and is Afghanistan's least populous province, w ...
and Kunar provinces of
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bord ...
, parts of the Afghan-Pakistan tribal belt, and in some Afghan refugee camps in Peshawar. In a video released in 2014, Dost claimed to have had a vision about the reestablishment of the
Caliphate A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...
, while in an interview with a journalist, Dost admitted being a supporter of the group, while denying reports he held an influential position in it. In late 2015, Dost publicly disassociated himself from ISIL in Khorasan, condemning the group's leadership and killings in Afghanistan. He reportedly maintained his allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and his self-proclaimed Caliphate.


See also

* Poems From Guantánamo


References


External links


VIDEO: ANDREW MOTION READS POEMS FROM GUANTÁNAMO

In a Jail in Cuba Beat the Heart of a Poet: Afghan, Now Freed by U.S., Scribbled on Paper Cups but Never Stopped Writing
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...
, April 24, 2005
Ex-inmates share Guantanamo ordeal
BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
, May 2, 2005
Dismay at US Koran 'desecration'
BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
, May 8, 2005
Writing poetry was the balm that kept Guantanamo prisoners from going mad: Former inmates say they wrote thousands of lines
San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The pap ...
, July 17, 2005
DoJ Memorandum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Muslim Dost, Abdul Rahim Afghan expatriates in Pakistan Afghan extrajudicial prisoners of the United States Pashtun people Guantanamo detainees known to have been released Living people 20th-century Afghan poets Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant members 1960 births