Sex torture: Mumbai suspect claims abuse

By Michael J.W. Stickings

This headline from Wednesday's Telegraph piqued my curiosity:

Female FBI officer 'tortured Mumbai terror attacks suspect with sex'

According to Fahim Ansari, one of the planners of the attacks, "three foreigners, including [a 'white woman], sexually abused him, causing him 'severe itching and wounds' on his body, including his genitals. A Muslim, he claims that "this amounts to torture because it is against his religion."

And I suppose it is, however little sympathy we may have for him, given that -- assuming this is true -- he was degraded and humiliated (and perhaps physically harmed).

Now, it may all be a lie aimed at discrediting Indian authorities, but -- again, if true -- it further undermines the non-Muslim world's standing in the eyes of Muslims, contributing (along with Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, Bagram, and the CIA's black sites) to the massive gulf that separates us from them.

And, yes, I know, when it comes to human rights, the Muslim world has, on the whole, no credibility at all. But we, Indians and otherwise, should be better than this.