Former president Jimmy Carter has called on the U.S. to shut down its prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and two dozen other secret detention centers to demonstrate the nation's commitment to human rights

Christian Century, June 28, 2005

Former president Jimmy Carter has called on the U.S. to shut down its prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and two dozen other secret detention centers to demonstrate the nation's commitment to human rights. Carter made his comments to reporters June 7 in Atlanta--about a week after the Pentagon reported five confirmed incidents of intentional mishandling of the Qur'an at the Guantanamo prison.

The incidents included a guard kicking a detainee's Qur'an, a water balloon fight among guards soaking detainees' Qur'ans, a two-word English obscenity written in a Qur'an, and an interrogator stepping on a detainee's holy book. The Council on American-Islamic Relations renewed its call for the prison facility to be shut down.