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Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nassrallah
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BEIRUT,
May 13 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Joining forces with
Muslim scholars and Arab and Muslim public opinions, Lebanon's
Hezbollah resistance group condemned the beheading of an American
hostage by some unknown Iraqis, dubbing it "an ugly crime that
flouted the tenets of Islam".
"Hezbollah
condemns this horrible act that has done very great harm to Islam and
Muslims by this group that claims affiliation to the religion of
mercy, compassion and humane principles," the resistance group
said in a statement Wednesday, May 12.
A
video put on a website Tuesday, May 11, showed the beheading of
Nicholas Berg with his executioners saying they were linked to
al-Qaeda and avenging the
abuse of Iraqi prisoners by
U.S.
troops.
Hezbollah,
which the
United States
blacklists as "terrorist", said Berg's killing had diverted
the world's gaze from an escalating furor over the abuse of Iraqis by
U.S.-led occupation soldiers.
"The
timing of this act that overshadowed the scandal over the abuse of
Iraqi prisoners in occupation forces prisons is suspect timing that
aims to serve the American administration and occupation forces in
Iraq
and present excuses and pretexts for their inhumane practices against
Iraqi detainees," read the statement carried by Reuters.
The
Lebanese resistance group, which forced Israeli troops to
unilaterally and hastily withdraw from south
Lebanon
in 2000 after a 22-year occupation, said the executors' behavior was
closer to "the Pentagon school - the school of killing,
occupation, crimes, torture and immoral practices that were exposed by
the great scandal in occupation prisons".
Popular
Condemnation
Berg’s
beheading has also been widely condemned throughout the Arab world.
"This
action was bad because it makes Arabs look like barbarians but that's
what the Americans think anyway. My fear is that now Americans will
feel Iraqis deserve the torture," Mamdouh, an Egyptian pharmacy
student who did not want to give his full name, was quoted by
al-Jazeera.net as saying Wednesday.
Some
Arabs said Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian Washington accuses of being
a leading al-Qaeda figure who is alleged to have led the
decapitation, had failed the very people he said he was avenging
by strengthening Washington's hand in Iraq, al-Jazeera reported.
"Zarqawi
is an enemy of the Arab and Muslim nation because he distorted their
image and portrayed Islam in an incorrect manner," Hasan Ahmad
Jar Allah, 41, a Saudi government employee, who had seen the tape on
the Internet, told al-Jazeera.net.
"What
religion or sect condones such a barbaric act? This is abominable, God
curse Zarqawi," he said of the tape which showed masked men
sawing Berg's head off with a large knife and holding it in the air.
Al-Jazeera.net
website also quoted an unnamed Gulf analyst as saying the killing
would prove counter-productive for Iraqis.
"This
strengthens the position of Americans in
Iraq
. American people are going to start asking their government when it
will retaliate."
Al-Azhar
scholars and Iraqi scholars – both
Sunnis and Shiites – have also condemned the beheading
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