User:Geo Swan/Guantanamo/My 2005 & 2006 contributions to Tablighi Jamaat
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See User:Geo Swan/Stale drafts#Scaffolding
An alleged association with the Tablighi Jamaat movement is a justification that Joint Task Force Guantanamo analysts have offered to justify the continued extrajudicial detention of dozens of Guantanamo captives.
In late 2005 I came across the allegation that ties Murat Kurnaz had to the movement was one of the main reason that he was sent to Guantanamo. I added that information to the Tablighi Jamaat article.
Admirers of the movement didn't like having the article cover the suspicions the movemnet triggered for Western counter-terrorism analysts. They kept removing that material even though:
- It was written from a neutral point of view;
- It cited verifiable, authoritative sources.
Admirers of the movement exicsed the allegations because they thought the allegations were flimsy; were baseless; were insulting; showed the JTF-GTMO analysts were unaware that the movement was non-political, and was founded on a principle of non-violence. I argued that none of this mattered. That the existence of the allegations was documented, from verifiable, authoritative sources. I argued it wasn't our place to try to interpret the sources for our readers, that we should simply provide the information, as neutrally as possible, and let our readers reach their own conclusions.
Timeline of my contributions to the Tablighi Jamaat article
| date and link | edit summary |
| Revision as of 23:58, 2005 December 22 | m (?Politics - capture of Murat Kurnaz) |
| Revision as of 13:39, 2005 December 27 | m (ref-note) |
| Revision as of 04:43, 2006 January 4 | (reverting unexplained edits) |
| Revision as of 01:03, 2006 February 18 | (revert vandalism) |
| Revision as of 00:54, 2006 April 3 | (Restoring material about US intelligence allegations against the movement -- was removed by a vandal who is now under permanent block.) |
| Revision as of 12:51, 2006 April 29 | (Start a separate article about the US allegations?) |
| Revision as of 10:10, 2006 June 14 | (reverting unexplained edit) |
| Revision as of 11:45, 2006 June 14 | (?The U.S. allegations of ties to terrorism) |
| Revision as of 09:16, 2006 June 29 | (?reverted unexplained excision) |
| Revision as of 09:09, 2006 June 29 | m (?Allegations from U.S. counter-terrorist officials) |
| Revision as of 18:05, 2006 July 9 | m (?Allegations from U.S. counter-terrorist officials) |
| Revision as of 04:55, 2006 July 23 | (?Allegations from U.S. counter-terrorist officials) |
| Revision as of 10:13, 2006 August 27 | (?reverted unexplained excision) |
| Revision as of 14:49, 2007 February 8 | (?Just Undid an Excision) |
Allegations that Tablighi Jamaat has ties to terrorism
In the end I started Allegations that Tablighi Jamaat has ties to terrorism.
The lesson of this experience
I happen to largely agree with the admirers of the Tablighi movement. It includes 3 million people. Even if a dozen, or one hundred, or even one thousand potential al Qaeda recruits had used a Tablighi pilgrimage as a cover to explain why they were traveling to Pakistan, that would still leave 2,999,000 Tablighi pilgrims who weren't al Qaeda recruits.
My experience with these admirers reinforced for me
- the importance of presenting our information from a neutral point of view; and letting our readers make up their own mind.
- the danger of allowing wikipedians who form an opinion of the notability or credibility of material that does not rely on verifiable sources to suppress material that complies with policy.