IMAGES OF TORTURE ARE EVERYWHERE – ON TELEVISION, ON THE INTERnet, in print. Today, the torturers and the tortured have faces, and physical abuse is only one manifestation of the phenomenon. For too many, religious torment seems to be the torturer's weapon of choice. It is what we see in the pictures of smiling American soldiers from Abu Ghraib, taking pleasure in forcing their prisoners into lewd acts that violate their cultural and religious beliefs. It is also evident in the stories emerging from Guantanamo, including the explicit allegations that a Muslim prisoner was forced to eat pork and ingest alcohol and that a female guard threw what appeared to be menstrual blood on Muslim men, so that they would believe they were violating religious mandates. The straightforward pain of physical torture is impossible to fathom. And yet, torture that is designed to strip a man or woman of his or her identity, religion, and core beliefs seems somehow even more insidious.

Attacks on prisoners' religious identities are a time-honored tactic for dehumanizing the enemy, thereby making it easier to conduct military actions, to pursue war and allow torture. Such use – and misuse – of religion needs to be countered. Human rights activists are working to do so. But we also need to hear from religious men and women.