memoir
A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobi ...
by British Muslim,
Moazzam Begg
Moazzam Begg ( ur, ; born 5 July 1968 in Sparkhill, Birmingham) is a British Pakistani who was held in extrajudicial detention by the US government in the Bagram Theater Internment Facility and the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp, in Cuba, for ...
, co-written by
Victoria Brittain
Victoria Brittain (born 1942) is a British journalist and author who lived and worked for many years in Africa, the US, and Asia, including 20 years at ''The Guardian'', where she eventually became associate foreign editor. In the 1980s, she wor ...
, former Associate Foreign Editor for ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', about Begg's detention by the government of the United States of America in Bagram Detention Facility and at Camp Echo, Guantanamo Bay and his life prior to that detention. It was published in Britain as ''Enemy Combatant: A British Muslim's Journey To Guantanamo and Back'' (), and in the US as ''Enemy Combatant: My Imprisonment at Guantanamo, Bagram, and Kandahar'' (). In the US, the foreword was written by
David Ignatius
David Reynolds Ignatius (born May 26, 1950) is an American journalist and novelist. He is an associate editor and columnist for ''The Washington Post''. He has written eleven novels, including '' Body of Lies'', which director Ridley Scott adapt ...
of ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
''.
Begg was seized by Pakistani officers in
Islamabad
Islamabad (; ur, , ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's ninth-most populous city, with a population of over 1.2 million people, and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital T ...
in February 2002, turned over to the U.S., and after prolonged sessions of interrogation, he was released from detention on 25 January 2005. According to statements made by the U.S. military, Begg was an
enemy combatant
Enemy combatant is a person who, either lawfully or unlawfully, engages in hostilities for the other side in an armed conflict. Usually enemy combatants are members of the armed forces of the state with which another state is at war. In the case ...
and
al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...
member, who recruited others for al-Qaeda, provided money and support to al-Qaeda training camps, received extensive military training in al-Qaeda-run terrorist training camps in Afghanistan, and who was prepared to fight U.S. or allied troops.
Begg admits having spent time at two non-al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan in the 1990s, having supported Muslim fighters in Bosnia and Chechnya, and that he had "thought about" taking up arms in Chechnya. Also, that he had previously met people who have since been linked to terrorism (
Khalil al-Deek Khalil Said al-Deek (born 1957) aka Joseph Adams after 1996, was a dual US-Jordanian citizen who came to USA to study computer science.Dhiren Barot
Dhiren Barot (aliases: Bilal, Abu Musa al-Hindi, Abu Eissa al-Hindi, and Issa al-Britani; born 1 December 1971) is a convicted Indian-born British terrorist.
Background
Barot was born in Baroda, India, into a Hindu family but converted to Isla ...
, and Shahid Akram Butt), but he denies ever having trained for, aided, carried out or planned any acts of terrorism.
John Sifton, a New York-based official from
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
, said that the book's narrative is consistent with other accounts of conditions in Afghan detention centres and Guantanamo Bay.
Critical reception
''Enemy Combatant'' received praise in Britain. American critic
Jonathan Raban
Jonathan Raban (born 14 June 1942, Hempton, Norfolk, England) is a British travel writer, critic, and novelist. He has received several awards, such as the National Book Critics Circle Award, The Royal Society of Literature's Heinemann Award, t ...
summarized this praise in ''
The New York Review of Books
''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...
'' as resulting from Begg’s "outstanding liberality of mind and evenhandedness toward his captors". Writing in ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
,''
Philippe Sands
Philippe Joseph Sands, KC (born 17 October 1960) is a British and French writer and lawyer a11 King's Bench Walkand Professor of Laws and Director of the Centre on International Courts and Tribunals at University College London. A specialist in ...
said that the book's "humour and warmth are striking", and recommended that it be read by American politicians such as George Bush and Dick Cheney. In ''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'',
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown (''née'' Damji; born 10 December 1949) is a British journalist and author, who describes herself as "a leftie liberal, anti-racist, feminist, Muslim...person". A regular columnist for the I (newspaper), ''i '' newspaper a ...
compared the book to the "Holocaust testimonies" of
Primo Levi
Primo Michele Levi (; 31 July 1919 – 11 April 1987) was an Italian chemist, partisan, writer, and Jewish Holocaust survivor. He was the author of several books, collections of short stories, essays, poems and one novel. His best-known works ...
and Rabbi Hugo Gryn, saying that Begg "writes with the same authenticity and conveys horror without
hyperbole
Hyperbole (; adj. hyperbolic ) is the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device or figure of speech. In rhetoric, it is also sometimes known as auxesis (literally 'growth'). In poetry and oratory, it emphasizes, evokes strong feelings, and ...
".
The book received mixed reviews in the US. ''
Publishers Weekly
''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...
'' described it as "a fast-paced, harrowing narrative". Jonathan Raban criticized the dialogue and called the gaps in Begg's story "frustrating," noting that they seemed to stop after Begg was incarcerated. He ultimately concluded that although the book was poorly written, it did not impact his belief in Begg's overall experience as a detainee. ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' reported "some notable gaps in Mr. Begg's memoir", such as not mentioning his arrest in 1994 for alleged fraud. ''
U-T San Diego
''The San Diego Union-Tribune'' is a metropolitan daily newspaper published in San Diego, California, that has run since 1868.
Its name derives from a 1992 merger between the two major daily newspapers at the time, ''The San Diego Union'' and ...
'' had similar concerns about Begg's ties to terrorist organizations and his later "cooperation with interrogators".
''The Muslim News'' called it an "open, honest and touching account". Begg earned the "Published Writer Award" for the book, at the annual
Muslim Writers Awards
Muslim Writers Awards is an annual British award ceremony, which aims to recognise, showcase and celebrate literary talent within the UK's Muslim community. It was established in 2006, with the Young Muslim Award category established in 2010.
N ...