Guantanamo Boy (38 page)
Authors: Anna Perera
2007
February 7, 2007
According to a Pentagon inquiry, there is no evidence of abuse at the Guantanamo Bay prison.
2009
January 14, 2009
A senior Bush administration official releases a public statement detailing the torture of one of the Guantanamo Bay detainees.
January 22, 2009
President Barack Obama issues executive orders to close Guantanamo Bay within one year, to ban CIA interrogation techniques that might be considered torture, and to review the prison’s detention policies.
2011
January 22, 2011
Two years after President Obama’s executive order to close Guantanamo Bay, the prison remains open with 174 prisoners. Many have called for its closure, including General Colin Powell, General David Petraeus, and General Wesley Clark of the US armed forces; former FBI Director William Sessions; and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
April 25, 2011
Leaked classified documents reveal that more than a hundred detainees at Guantanamo have been innocent or low- risk inmates, including cases where officials were aware of their status.
May 1, 2011
Osama bin Laden is killed by US forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan, during a covert operation authorized by President Obama.
May 3, 2011
When asked whether the information leading to Bin Laden was obtained by waterboarding, a controversial interrogation technique, Deputy National Security Advisor John Brennan replies, “Not to my knowledge.”
*For sources, please see last page.
by Michael Robinson, award-winning
high school social studies teacher
The book begins six months after the events of 9/11 in Rochdale, a large city near Manchester, England. Khalid is an average fifteen-year-old student at Rochdale High who enjoys hanging out with his friends, watching and playing soccer, and playing video games on the family computer. His father is originally from Pakistan, and his mother is from Turkey. The family is Muslim, but his mother does not wear the Islamic veil, and the family only occasionally says Friday prayers. The family goes on a vacation to Pakistan to visit and help Khalid’s father’s sisters move to a better house. Once there, Khalid’s father goes missing, and Khalid goes to search for him. While looking for his father on the streets of Karachi, Khalid becomes part of a street demonstration. Unable to find his father, Khalid returns home, where shortly thereafter several men storm into the house and take Khalid prisoner.
Over the course of the next two years, Khalid is taken from Pakistan to Afghanistan and finally to Guantanamo Bay. He is questioned relentlessly about being involved in terrorism and undergoes tremendous mental and physical torture. With the help of his family, community, and his lawyer, Khalid is released from Guantanamo Bay shortly after his seventeenth birthday and allowed to go home to England where he is finally free to live his life. This is a story of injustice, survival, and courage. Khalid was your typical average boy in almost every way, but after surviving two years of imprisonment, torture, conditions of near insanity, and severe loneliness, Khalid shows how the human spirit can overcome and survive the worst situations imaginable, proving he is anything but average.
Use the following questions and prompts relating to the overall themes in
Guantanamo Boy
as a basis for discussion of the book.
Family
- How does one’s family influence the choices that one makes?
- Discuss how one relies on his/her family for help, support, and guidance.
Prison and Punishment
- What is the purpose of a prison?
- Discuss if the punishments found in the book are effective and appropriate.
- Discuss if torture should be used to obtain information from someone.
Terrorism
- Define terrorism and a terrorist act.
- Discuss what types of terrorist acts have occurred in the United States and other countries around the world.
- Discuss how countries should respond to terrorist acts against its people.
Governments
- What is the role of a government?
- How do governments protect and provide security for their people?
- Discuss how a country can balance a person’s rights and still provide the security that is needed.
Religion
- Define religion and discuss the role it plays in society. How do religions affect a person’s way of living?
- Discuss how the world’s two largest religions (Christianity and Islam) are similar and different. What about other religions, such as Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism?
The following pages contain discussion questions and prompts using direct quotes from each of the book’s thirty chapters.
p. 4
:
“Six months after 9/11 and the world is getting madder by the day,” [Khalid’s father] says from suddenly behind him.
How did the world change, especially in the United States, after 9/11?
p. 4–5
: Khalid’s father to Khalid:
“Things will get worse before they get better,” Dad says. “A man came into the restaurant today, pointed his finger at the waiter and said, “You better watch your step round here, mate.’ Can you believe it? The boy hasn’t done anything wrong. Nothing except wear the shalwar kameez. That’s it.”
What is a shalwar kameez?
Discuss the meaning of racial profiling and how it applies in this example.
p. 11
: Khalid on his mother:
Mum has never worn the veil and neither did her mother in Turkey, where she was brought up.
What is the veil?
Why would Muslim women wear the veil? Why would they not wear it?
Chapter 2: Blood’s Thicker Than Water
p. 25-26
:
Khalid reads the message written in large black words on his flapping white T-shirt:
S
MALL
-M
INDED
F
LAG
-W
AVING
X
ENOPHOBE
. Eh? Khalid stops for a second to wonder at the meaning of the word “xenophobe.”
What is xenophobia? Give an example.
p. 28
: Nasir to Khalid:
“I’m thinking you must be careful, lad. My wife’s family have plenty of friends who live there and they say the Americans are paying people big bucks to report anyone suspicious to them.”
What is the danger in paying for information?
p. 40
:
[Khalid] logs on to his e-mail and discovers that Tariq’s game—Bomber One—is ready. A whizz-kid friend of his in Lahore has helped to finish the program and download it. Tariq’s sent him instructions on how to set up his profile so they can all play together soon.
Discuss what type of game
Bomber One is. What kinds of computer and video games are popular? Explain.
p. 47
:
Khalid finds himself part of a demonstration in Karachi: The throng of men is growing by the second. Khalid stops. Turns to go back and find another route to avoid this chaos. But he gets caught in a sudden wave of men surging from a side alley. Pulling him forward in a lawless mass of anger that reminds him of getting caught in the rivers of fans coming out of Old Trafford after Manchester United have lost a game.
Why was it dangerous for Khalid to become involved in the demonstration?
p. 50
:
Jim shakes his head. “Everybody from a Muslim country is seen as a threat to the USA right now.”
Discuss why Jim makes the statement above.
p. 52
:
“Will you have to marry a Muslim girl?” Niamh asked. “I can marry who I like,” [Khalid had] said. Not wanting to get into this. Thinking, Should I tell her if she isn’t a Muslim she can convert? Loads do.
Discuss why it would be important for a Muslim to marry a person who is also Muslim?
How does this quote relate to other religions such as Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, etc.?
p. 62
:
Blocking the hallway is a gang of fierce-looking men dressed in dark shalwar kameez . . . Confused by the image, [Khalid] staggers, bumping backwards into the wall. Arms up to stop them getting nearer. Too shocked and terrified to react as they shoulder him to the kitchen and close the door before pushing him to his knees and waving a gun at him as if he’s a violent criminal. Then vice-like hands clamp his mouth tight until they plaster it with duct tape. No chance to wonder what the hell is going on, let alone scream out loud.
Discuss what Khalid may be thinking as this terrifying abduction is taking place.
p. 63
:
Paralyzed by fear, Khalid wonders desperately where they are taking him. Who are they? Why him? What for? Questions he can’t even speak out loud.
Discuss what we know about Khalid and the events of the day that may have contributed to his being kidnapped.
Discuss the following statement: Khalid was innocent. How can this happen to an innocent person?
p. 67
:
“This is Karachi, not England,” [Khalid’s interrogator] says. “You don’t have any legal rights here. Tell us what you know and you can go home.”
What rights does Khalid not have while he is in Pakistan?
Discuss what human rights have been violated.
p. 76
:
“Do I look like a terrorist?” [Khalid] says aloud, totally confused by the whole thing. His thoughts scatter to consider every possibility.
Discuss Khalid’s question, “Do I look like a terrorist?”
What (if any) characteristics do terrorists have?
p. 84
:
Khalid stares into his invisible future and sees nothing worth living for . . .
Explain why Khalid has given up on his future.
p. 91
: Masud to Khalid:
“Americans looking everywhere, all time for Bin Laden . . .”
Who is Bin Laden? What is he responsible for?
Discuss why Americans are looking for Bin Laden.
p. 92
: Masud to Khalid:
“They accuse me of being enemy combatant.”