U.S. Navy Chaplain Offers Spiritual Counseling to Prisoners at Cuban Base.

Byline: Carol Rosenberg

Jan. 31--GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL STATION, Cuba -- Since his arrival last week at the U.S. Naval Station in Guantanamo Bay, Abuhenna Muhammad Saiful-Islam has become very popular among the nearly 160 Taliban and al Qaida captives at Camp X-Ray.

"They all want to speak with me," he said. They all want to know about their fate and when they might go home, added the U.S. Navy chaplain, who has been assigned to minister to their spiritual needs. "I don't have any answer for them."

A lifelong practicing Muslim, the soft-spoken Saiful-Islam, 39, is a Bangladeshi immigrant who came to the United States nine years ago and now is navigating uncharted waters and juggling complicated loyalties in a demanding and high-profile task.

Sometimes he laughs uncomfortably when journalists question him. Sometimes he looks bewildered. But mostly he's a busy man, trying to soothe Muslim sensitivities over the conditions under which the captives from Osama bin Laden's al Qaida terrorist network and the Taliban militia are being held.

As a U.S. military chaplain -- one of only 14 Muslim clerics in the American armed forces -- his contacts with prisoners are governed by the same confidentiality as that of a priest, minister or rabbi.

An imam, or prayer leader, by training, Saiful-Islam also functions as a muezzin, chanting the call to prayer using a public-address system at Camp X-Ray. He has recorded the prayer for broadcast over the system five times a day.