Muslim leaders: Release Bigley

2004-09-26 21:57

Baghdad - Two British Muslim leaders made an emotional appeal in Baghdad on Sunday for the release of British hostage Kenneth Bigley saying he was a "victim like civilians in Fallujah."

"We are appealing to those holding him captive to have a rethink," a tearful Daoud Abdullah, assistant secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain told reporters in Baghdad.

"It is un-Islamic to ask someone to bear the sins of another, whatever mistakes, errors, sins, crimes that the British government committed and in this sense Mr Bigley is a victim as much as civilians in Fallujah are victims and we convey our pain about what we see on the television screens."

US air strikes on the Sunni Arab insurgent-held town of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, on Saturday killed at least 15 people and wounded 33.

US commanders said they were "precision" strikes against suspected hideouts of the hardline Unity and Holy War group which is holding Bigley, but medics said the casualties from the latest US raids again included women and children.

Daoud, who arrived in Baghdad on Saturday with another Muslim civic leader Musharraf Hussain, appealed to the kidnapper's sense of mercy not to repeat the executions of his two US fellow hostages.

He said the 62-year-old's captors would be rewarded by God if they showed clemency.

"As Muslims we should be just and do good and, to demonstrate your goodwill, free this individual," he said, flanked by Hussain.

"You will not only be rewarded by Allah but your sins would be covered up and you will be forgiven for all your wrongdoing, so take this into consideration and we appeal to you."

Daoud, a fluent Arab speaker, went out of his way to explain that he was in Iraq on a humanitarian, people's mission that had no connection with the British government.

He recalled that his organization had been an outspoken opponent of British participation in last year's invasion of Iraq.

"We are here to convey to the Iraqi people on behalf of British Muslims - and indeed British society - our deepest concerns, sympathy, love, respect and affection for all that the Iraqi people have gone through over the last three decades," he said.

Daoud said that he and Musharraf had met Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawar on Sunday and Mohsen Abdul Hamid, head of the Iraqi Islamic Party.

The two said they planned to meet other religious, civic and political leaders but would not be drawn on the duration of their mission.

"We will be here for some time yet and we will always assume he is alive until we can prove he is dead."

An Islamist website, which had previously published an unsubstantiated claim two Italian hostages in Iraq had been executed, reported Saturday that Bigley had been killed but the British government swiftly dismissed the announcement.

- SAPA