Zakariya

Zakariya (also transliterated as Zakaria or Zekeriya, Arabic: زكريّا‎, or Arabic: ذكريّا‎ is a masculine given name, the Arabic form of Zechariah which is of Hebrew origin, meaning "God has remembered".

Ancient times

Medieval era

Modern times

Given name

Zechariah (priest)

Zechariah (זכריה in Hebrew, Ζαχαρίας in Greek, Zacharias in KJV, Zachary in the Douay-Rheims Bible) is a figure in the Bible and the Quran. In the Bible, he is the father of John the Baptist, a priest of the sons of Aaron, a prophet in Luke 1:67–79, and the husband of Elizabeth who is a relative of Mary the mother of Jesus.

Biblical account

According to the Gospel of Luke, during the reign of king Herod, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the course of Abia, whose wife Elizabeth was also of the priestly family of Aaron. The evangelist states that both the parents were righteous before God, since they were "blameless" in observing the commandments and ordinances of the Lord. When the events related in Luke began, their marriage was still childless, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both "well advanced in years" (Luke 1:5–7).

The duties at the temple in Jerusalem alternated between each of the family lines that had descended from those appointed by king David (1st Chronicles 24:1–19). Luke states that during the week when it was the duty of Zechariah's family line to serve at "the temple of the Lord", the lot for performing the incense offering had fallen to Zechariah (Luke 1:8–11).

Yemeni detainees at Guantanamo Bay

The United States has held a total of 115 Yemeni citizens at Guantanamo Bay, forty-two of who have since been transferred out of the facility. Only Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia had a greater number of their citizens held in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. By January 2008, the Yemenis in Guantanamo represented the largest group of detainees.

Among the Yemeni detainees currently held (as of November 2015), 44 are recommended for transfer out of the facility, while twenty-three are being held indefinitely and are not recommended for transfer. Only Ali Hamza Ahmad Suliman al Bahlul has been convicted by military tribunal, and his conviction has been vacated on appeal. Two Yemeni detainees are awaiting trials by military commissions, Ramzi bin al-Shibh and Walid Bin Attash.

Events

A delegation of Yemeni officials visited Guantanamo shortly after it opened in January 2002.

On March 12, 2008 Mark Falkoff of the Center for Constitutional Rights issued a call for the repatriation of the Yemeni detainees, reporting that 95 Yemenis remained in detention, and they now constituted more than a third of the total detainee population. Falkoff wrote that the delay in his release is due to a failure of the USA and Yemeni governments to reach an agreement on the security arrangements for the detainees, following their repatriation. By contrast, almost all the 133 Saudi detainees in Guantanamo had been sent home in 2006 and 2007.