Former Guantanamo prisoner: Britain losing perspective

A British man who was held at Guantanamo Bay said today that fears of a Muslim threat in Britain and Europe had been blown out of proportion.

“I think the voice of reason is getting drowned,” said Moazzam Begg, one of four British men who were released from the US prison in Cuba in January.

“All of this crying out of people to beware of all these fundamentalist Muslims running rampant, a threat, throughout the UK and Europe, it really needs a cap on it, it really needs to be put into perspective, and that’s one of the things I am really worried about,” Begg said in a BBC interview.

Begg said he hadn’t decided whether he would vote in Britain’s May 5 election, but said if he did, he would support one of the splinter parties that had stressed its opposition to the war in Iraq.

His father, Azmat Begg, is running for a seat in Parliament for the Peace and Progress Party founded by actress Vanessa Redgrave and her brother Corin Redgrave.

Moazzam Begg, 37, was arrested by the CIA in Pakistan in February 2002 and held at the Bagram air base in Afghanistan until early 2003, when he was sent to Guantanamo.

Begg said he detected increased hostility toward Muslims.

“And that’s OK for the Americans, but for the British I had always maintained in my mind in my time in incarceration that the British were not so bad, the British have always maintained a neutral type position,” he said.

“And Britain, compared to the rest of Europe and even America and even Muslim countries, is a brilliant place for Muslims to be. We’ve got so many freedoms here in this place, which I am grateful for.”

Nine British citizens were held at Guantanamo. All have been released, and none was charged with any crime after returning.

Begg expressed concern about four British residents who remain imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay.

The UK's foreign office says that it cannot intercede for those men, who are citizens of other countries.

“Although I am released, one of the things that keeps me from just becoming a complete recluse is the fact that there’s still people over there, that Guantanamo still exists,” Begg said.