US Tolerance, Not Abuse, Breeds Gitmo Terrorists

When a January Pentagon report revealed that 61 ex-Guantanamo Bay detainees had engaged in terrorist activities, commentators wondered if Gitmo was breeding terrorists. And it has, Guantanamo proponent Gary Bauer writes for Politico, but not, as liberals assume, because it’s so brutal and repressive. Guantanamo is actually so sensitive to detainees’ religious needs that some former officials have called it the “American madrassa.”

Detainees are given Korans, allowed to freely associate, encouraged to pray. Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders have been appointed cell-block leaders, and those who don’t submit to radicalization are reportedly ostracized or even beaten. Some of these inmates are bound to join the jihad. “If they do,” writes Bauer, “it will be the accommodation, not suppression, of religious freedom at Guantanamo that’s to blame.” (More Guantanamo Bay stories.)