Chesnot, left and Malbrunot disappeared in Iraq the day they were to have left Baghdad for Najaf

Additional Reporting By IOL Correspondents

AMMAN, August 30 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Prominent Muslim groups and governments added Monday, August 30, their voice to those denouncing the kidnapping of two French journalists in Iraq and calling for their release.

Prominent Shiite leader Mohamed Hussein Fadlallah called for the release of the journalists, saying the abduction does a disservice to Muslims across the world and comes against the principles of the religion.

Gamal Eddin Mahmoud, a member of the Islamic Research Academy of Azhar – the world’s highest religious Sunni authority – said Islam prohibits the abduction or killing of civilians to lobby for any case.

An armed group calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq demanded France revoke its law banning hijab in public schools.

They described the law as "an aggression on the Islamic religion and personal freedoms," according to the Arab TV station Al-Jazeera, which showed parts of a tape received Saturday, August 28, from the group.

The Iraqi kidnappers issued in the tape a 48-hour ultimatum to France to revoke the hijab ban law, but failed to say what would happen when the deadline ends on Monday night, amid fears the two hostages could face execution as was the fate of other westerners abducted in the turbulent country.

"False Claim"

Sobhi Al-Yazgi, the director of Palestinian Scholars Association, dismissed claims the abduction of the French journalists was for a revocation of the hijab ban.

 "This is an argument based on false claims," said Al-Yazgi, noting that the two kidnapped journalists are civilians with nothing to do with military practices of the US-led forces in the war-scarred country.

The banned but largely tolerated Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest opposition group, joined calls for the journalists' release in a statement faxed to news agencies.

The group has in the past denounced the hijab ban, but said kidnapping "French journalists (who) had nothing to do with the passing of the French law" was not the way to fight it, read the statement, carried by The Associated Press (AP).

Sheikh Maher Hammoud, a Sunni Muslim scholar in the southern Lebanese port city of Sidon, issued a statement Sunday, August 29, saying: "This is not the way to solve problems. Such actions will only increase the enemies of the (hijab) in France. "

Disserving Islamic Causes

In Jordan, the Islamic Action Front also said the kidnapping was an inappropriate way to protest the hijab ban, and noted France had opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq.

Also, Jordanian government spokeswoman Asma Khodr said her country stood ready to help France secure the release of two French journalists abducted in Iraq, adding that the kidnapping does not help Arab and Muslim causes.

"We denounce the kidnapping of all civilians, particularly journalists, because it does not help Arab and Muslim causes, in Iraq, Palestine or elsewhere," Khodr  told a weekly news conference.

"If we are asked to intervene and if we can help to guarantee their liberation we will not hesitate," Khodr said.

French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier appealed for the release of Amman-based Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot during a visit to Egypt earlier Monday, as part of an emergency Middle East mission to press for their liberation.

Khodr said she did not know if Barnier would also visit Jordan.

Amman newspapers Monday insisted France was a friend, not the enemy.

The head of the Jordanian press association, Tareq Momani, added his voice to those condemning the newsmen's abduction and said in a statement Monday that "Islam does not approve such action which contradict religious precepts".

Foreign correspondents based in Jordan also issued a statement calling for the "immediate release" of Chestnot and Malbrunot who were "doing their job with integrity to draw the world's attention to the sufferings of the Iraqi people".

Fresh Appeals

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has added his voice to those of the many Islamic leaders calling for the journalists' release.

Describing Chirac as "a good friend of the Palestinian people", he said the "journalists were helping the Iraqi and the Palestinian causes".

Also, the head of the London-based Islamic Observatory called Monday for the release of the two French journalists, saying their reports in the war-shattered country gave an objective picture of Islam.

"We call on the abductors to free the two journalists... who had been denouncing the American crimes in Iraq in their work," Yasser Al-Serri, whose institution defends Muslims around the world and is widely respected by Islamic groups, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) by telephone from London.

Serri said the two journalists were known to "present the right image of Islam and of Islamic civilization".

The kidnapping has stunned France, which was one of the fiercest opponents of the US-led invasion on Iraq and has resolved not to send any troops to the country, even in a peacekeeping capacity.

On Sunday, French President Jacques Chirac vowed to spare no efforts to free the hostages and dispatched Barnier to the region. He also implicitly reminded the kidnappers that France opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq.

"France ensures equality, the respect and protection of the free practicing of all religions," Chirac said in a televised address.

"These values of respect and tolerance inspire our actions everywhere in the world ... They also inspired France's policy in Iraq."

Some Iraqi groups have kidnapped dozens of people in their campaign to drive out US-led forces and hamper reconstruction, demanding that the hostages' nations pull their troops out of Iraq if members of the US-led forces, or that foreign companies end operations there.

But the demand to end the hijab ban was the first time hostage takers sought to reverse a nation's domestic law.

The Muslim community in France, for its part, vigorously condemned Sunday the kidnapping of the two French journalists, saying it was "shattered" by the extremists’ "unworthy and odious blackmail".

Muslim groups in the country are also expected to stage a rally in the Paris Mosque later in the day to pray for the release of the two abductees.

Chesnot of Radio France and Malbrunot of Le Figaro newspaper disappeared in Iraq on August 20, the day they were to have left Baghdad for the Shiite holy city of Najaf, then the scene of fierce fighting between US forces and Shiite militia loyal to Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr.