Imagine being abducted out of nowhere, blindfolded ....

Imagine being abducted out of nowhere, blindfolded, stripped naked, cut off from all human contact for months. Imagine being beaten, sexually humiliated, and water-boarded for weeks on end. Imagine being told that your daughter and mother would be raped. Imagine being force-fed through your anus. Imagine being hung from the ceiling by a metal chain and prevented from sleep for over two weeks.

And imagine undergoing all of this, for months or years on end, merely to be 'released' (if you made it through - many died or simply froze to death in the process) without even an apology, much less reparations or financial restitution. Just one more statistic on the 'War of Terror'. (To be released was lucky - even as we type this, there are many dozens of prisoners still at Guantanamo).

Well, no need to imagine all of that. It's as real as the terror attacks across the world. All perpetrated by a nation where the majority of its citizens still believe that its government is the greatest proponent of freedom and liberty in the world.

'They' don't hate 'us' for our freedoms. They hate the policies, the terror, the bombs, the drones, the torture, the humiliation, the waterboarding, the Guantanamos, the Abu Ghraibs, the hundreds of thousands of other secret CIA prison sites that have dealt with tens of thousands of people in a similar manner...

And what's worse is that the architects and engineers of all of this torture shall walk away scot free. Arrogant as they are, they still lie through their teeth and tell us they didn't torture, or that the torture was worth it.

While it's a step forward that 600 pages of documents detailing the CIA's torture were released, we need to remember that there are still ten times that amount of information that has been censored and shall never see the light of day, and even more information that was simply never recorded to begin with.

The anger that we all feel is real. Sadly, we weren't surprised.

Justice may not be seen in this world. But we are certain that it will be demonstrated in the next. "Surely, those who tortured the believing men and women, and did not repent - theirs shall be the punishment of Jahannam and a burning flame!" Quran [al-Buruj: 10]

And while we are angry, this is not in any way a justification of the tactics of ISIS(http://buff.ly/1zVNYrQ) and other such groups, for not only do they act in a manner that is prohibited, they also make matters worse by provoking more such attacks and torture.

To those who justify this, ask yourselves: what did the attacks of 9/11 do except cause all of this as retaliation? So do you think killing more and more people will actually bring MORE safety and security to the world? Wisdom requires acting with patience, not emotion.

by Dr. Yasir Qadhi