Islam Online notes that U.S. Muslim leaders have sent a delegation to Iraq with a request that kidnapped American reporter, Jill Carroll be spared.
hat tip:
The Jawa Report
A delegation representing the leading US Muslim advocacy group arrived in Baghdad on Saturday, January 21, 2006, to plead for the release of Jill Carroll, a US reporter taken hostage in Iraq. A deadline set by kidnappers, who threatened to kill Carroll unless US occupation forces released all Iraqi women in their custody, passed late Friday with no word on her fate. Iraqi Sunni leaders have also appealed for release of Carroll, who has reported on the suffering of Iraqis living under US occupation.The American Muslims are going to Iraq under the auspices of CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations. CAIR has done this before. They plead for the release of 4 Christian anti-war activists kidnapped in Iraq in December 2005. At that time they released a statement that said in part:
They have worked in Iraq since October 2002 opposing the US/UN economic sanctions policy, the escalation of the war against the Iraqi people in March 2003, and the continued occupation of Iraq by all Western military forces.
The CAIR leader praised the four hostages as "longtime friends of the Muslim community". He stressed that on numerous occasions "they stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Muslims advocating for their causes – from forming human-shields in Iraq before the US invasion, to protecting the honor and property of the Palestinian people."Unfortunately, the only other victims of kidnapping by Muslim groups mentioned are those that were released for one reason or the other. The arguments for releasing these particular hostages is that they are friends of Islam. Release them and they will continue to help our cause, they argue. Note: OUR cause. Oh - and there will probably be a backlash on us over here in the U.S. if you behead this woman. We really don't want to have to deal with that, so release her, okay? I sincerely hope for the best for Ms. Carroll. I hope they release her unharmed. But I can't help but wonder, where was CAIR when Daniel Pearl or Nick Berg or the many other hostages were decapitated?
|