As salaamu alaykum, Indiana —
January 2023 marks 21 years since George W. Bush opened the military prison at Guantánamo Bay. Since then, 779 Muslim men and boys have been held there, nearly all without charge or trial, all suffering from the monstrous effects of indefinite detention, confinement, and torture.1 It is an atrocity.
T-Mobile champions itself for holding anti-racist values. So why are they providing services that help Guantánamo Bay prison stay open?2
We've come together with partners at the Action Center for Race and the Economy (ACRE) and LittleSis to demand T-Mobile stop powering Guantánamo.
Tell T-Mobile: Cancel all Guantánamo contracts now.
Both Obama and Biden pledged to shut down the prison, but after ten years, dozens remain detained indefinitely at Guantánamo .
Those detained are largely the survivors of CIA torture, subjected to brutal interrogation techniques that included sleep deprivation, stress positions, waterboarding, and more.
Guantánamo has come to exemplify Islamophobia and the failures of the War on Terror. Every prisoner there has been Muslim, and the Islamophobic abuse they received included U.S. soldiers desecrating Qurans and force feedings during Ramadan.4
Meanwhile, instead of closing Guantánamo Prison, the Biden administration has signaled their commitment to "upgrading" it.5
This is why it's so urgent to pressure corporations like T-Mobile that help keep Guantánamo open into ending their contracts. It's a material, serious step towards shutting down the prison.
T-Mobile has proclaimed itself a leader among corporations "committing to racial justice."
In June 2020, CEO Mike Sievert said the company would no longer run ads on Tucker Carlson's Fox News show due to his persistent racism. During the 2020 uprising following the murder of George Floyd, their VP Jon Frier stated: "Allies have realized that it's not enough to not be racist. You have to actually be anti-racist…Being neutral is actually part of the problem."6
So why are they taking on contracts to help sustain a prison that, as the ACLU has said, is a global "symbol of racial and religious injustice?"7
T-Mobile can't claim to be "anti-racist" while simultaneously providing services and telecommunications infrastructure to Guantánamo, a site synonymous with Islamophobia, torture, and unlawful detention.
Here's the good news: We can win this.
In recent years our communities have pushed corporations to end unjust contracts.
Together, we can remind T-Mobile that each contract renewal in Guantánamo aligns their brand closer to torture and Islamophobia.
Thank you for everything you do to achieve justice.
In solidarity,
Sara, Granate, Lau and the MPower Change team
Sources:
1. "The Guantánamo Docket," The New York Times, September 23, 2022
2. "Activist groups call on T-Mobile to stop providing cell service to the Guantánamo Bay prison site," Business Insider, October 25, 2022
3. "Pentagon Releases Tribunal Records in ACLU Lawsuit," American Civil Liberties Union, June 16, 2016
4. "Guantánamo authorities 'planning Ramadan force-feeding factory,'" The Guardian, July 5, 2013
5. "Biden Promised to Close Gitmo. Instead, He's Upgrading It," The Daily Beast, January 5, 2022
6. "New T-Mobile CEO tweets 'Bye-bye, Tucker Carlson,' won't sponsor him anymore," The Verge, June 11, 2020
7. "The Pervasiveness of Islamophobia in the United States," Othering & Belonging Institute, September 13, 2022
MPower Change is a grassroots movement of diverse Muslim communities working together to build social, spiritual, racial, and economic justice for all people. Support our work.
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