The question period at the end of the lecture almost overtook the length of the lecture itself. Non-Muslims and Muslims alike turned out to nearly fill the main branch of the Ottawa Public Library's auditorium on August 25.

Perhaps some had heard of the speaker through the media, or perhaps they had seen the orange posters downtown carrying the disturbing image of a prisoner, kneeling with a sack over his head, hands cuffed behind his back.

The speaker, Terry Holdbrooks, or “Mustafa Abdullah” as he is known among Muslims, is an ex- United States Army specialist who served as a guard at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba between 2003 and 2004.

Mr. Holdbrooks has since exchanged his army uniform for a beard and a kufi. That he is Muslim may not surprise us, but the fact that he converted while working at America’s most infamous prison, is certainly astonishing.

At the Ottawa Public Library, Mr. Holdbrooks spoke about life at Gitmo, as the detention camp is often called. He spoke about the training he received, his duties once he arrived on base, his treatment by detainees and fellow servicemen, and he gave his explanation and clarification of the torture reports and abuse said to have occurred within the prison walls.

Beginning with the pre-departure training, Mr. Holdbrooks explained the morning routine included viewing the same video consistently each day, as if it were the national anthem. This video, available on YouTube, depicts the entire arsenal of the US military being launched at unsuspecting foes. This video was viewed each morning, supposedly to instill in the young men and women pride and readiness to exact revenge for 9/11.

Mr. Holdbrooks said he entered the army fairly open-minded....however, he was not prepared for his encounter with the detainees at Guantanamo who bore very little resemblance to Sinbad the Sailor, turban flapping in the wind, sword at the ready to take off his head.

Mr. Holdbrooks noted that his instructors however had never actually set foot at the camp. The trainees viewed and practiced drills in de-escalating scenarios within a mockup of a Guantanamo cell block. The trainees never received sensitivity training, foreign language skills, or information about Islam, to prepare them socially and emotionally for the work that lay ahead.

Mr. Holdbrooks said he entered the army fairly open-minded, having studied foreign religious philosophies, and with an affinity for the Middle East engendered by a pleasant work experience with an Iraqi family business. However, he was not prepared for his encounter with the detainees at Guantanamo who bore very little resemblance to Sinbad the Sailor, turban flapping in the wind, sword at the ready to take off his head.

He rather found that he enjoyed the company of the detainees over the company of his fellow servicemen. While the large percentage of the men outside the bars, “believed everything Fox News told them,” he said he found the detainees to be better educated, and more in touch with the world at large.

Mr. Holdbrooks said he had many meaningful and fascinating conversations about philosophy, religion, history and politics with the detainees while serving in his favorite task, that of an escort. He cherished these private moments as he attended the detainee from here to there on the base, becoming more and more interested in Islam with each insightful answer to his every question. There was little room for any other enjoyment or delight inside prison walls.

In his talk, Mr. Holdbrooks attempted to clarify one of the most widely-publicized features of life at Gitmo: systematic torture. He stressed the difference between abuse and torture. Abuse, he defined as physical harm administered randomly, such as a punch or a kick. It is a simple thing for the detainee to get over abuse in this fashion, he said. Torture he defined as systematic abuse, prolonged, with the addition of mental and emotional harm.

As he spoke about more disturbing methods of torture used at Gitmo by interrogators, he mentioned that every wall of the interrogation rooms had posters depicted foreign women and children either dying or dead, with captions like “Where will you be this Eid?" and "What will your family do without you this Ramadan?".

He added that torture was not only condoned, but encouraged. While fraternizing between the ranks is something not allowed normally, the higher-ups would reward guards who tortured prisoners by taking them out for drinks.

During the question period, Mr. Holdbrooks was asked by a woman in the audience about the reported suicides of three detainees at Gitmo. He answered ominously that there were no suicides at all. The deaths were intentional, he added, leaving us to mull over his response in mournful silence.

Of course there is good in everything that Allah allows to happen, and the good of this situation is that Mr. Holdbrooks found inner peace through Islam. His experiences at Guantanamo confirmed to him the need for faith in something greater than his military, his country or his planet. (There are, to Mr. Holdbrooks’ knowledge, three former Gitmo guards who have accepted Islam, and one is a woman!)

When Mr. Holdbrooks accepted Islam he was still a guard at Guantanamo. He says he had to suppress the enthusiasm many converts express and only told his bunkmate the news after a time. His interest in the detainees had “raised enough eyebrows” and he says he didn’t want to make things harder for himself by going public with his conversion.

Nevertheless, word of his conversion spread among the inmates in record time. They began to refer to him as “Brother Mustafa” as opposed to “Hey you.” They also surprised him greatly by speaking to him in perfect English, whereas before he had heard only Arabic from them.

Speaking out about the injustice that happened and continues to happen at Guantanamo has been of great benefit to Mr. Holdbrooks' mental and spiritual state. He says accepting Islam was certainly a major factor in his healing, but he notes that the nightmares and other trauma he suffered from his experience at Gitmo didn't begin to recede until he began talking about it to people. He hopes his speaking out about it now compensates for his inability to help those detainees, his close friends, while they were imprisoned.

Mr. Holdbrooks wrapped up his informative discourse by pointing out that Canada is the only western country that has allowed one of its citizens to remain at Guantanamo Bay. He was referring to Omar Khadr, who, he reminded us, spent his first day of Ramadan this year in court. Mr. Holdbrooks urged his audience to demand Omar Khadr’s release and bring him home.

“It should be a simple thing,” he said, “if not for your brother in Islam, than at least for the reputation of your country.”