BAGHDAD,
September 5 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - As France remained
optimistic Sunday, September 5, over the fate of its two kidnapped
newsmen in Iraq, a leading Iraqi scholar issued a religious edict,
demanding their captors to immediately release the French reporters
and not to harm them.
"We
issued a fatwa urging the group to immediately free and not to harm
the two French reporters, in recognition of France's position on
Iraq," Sheikh Mehdi Al-Sumaidaie, a senior scholar from the
strict Wahhabi current of Islam, told Agence France-Presse (AFP)
Sunday.
The
scholar, an influential figure among strict Sunni Muslim groups
claiming most kidnappings in Iraq lately, also lambasted the Iraqi
government and US forces for staging a raid in the area where the pair
was kidnapped, saying it had harmed efforts for their release.
"The
attack on Latifiya disrupted the process of their release," he
said at a press conference.
Al-Sumaidaie
was detained by the US occupation forces for lengthy periods after the
fall of the ousted regime. He is the imam of Ibn Taimiyah Sunni Mosque
and heads the Guidance and Fatwa Committee of the Salfist group.
Iraqi
interim government forces backed by US troops staged their boldest
raid yet against Iraqi fighters in Latifiya, a town south of Baghdad
which had become a no-go area for foreigners and Iraqi security
forces.
Experts
had warned that stepped up military activity against strongholds held
by Iraqis opposed to foreign troops on their soil in the area could
harm the chances of rescuing Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot,
who have been held since August 20.
Earlier
Sunday, a group calling itself the Black Banners Brigade of the Secret
Islamic Army (SIA), called for a fatwa on hostage-taking in a
videotaped statement aired on Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television.
"We
call on the Committee of Ulema to issue a fatwa... defining these acts
(of taking hostages)," one masked militant said, in reference to
the most senior Sunni Muslim authority in the country.
The
group, which on Wednesday released three Indians, three Kenyans and an
Egyptian, said it was willing to conform with whatever the fatwa
rules.
The
Committee of Ulema (scholars) groups Iraq's senior Muslim scholars.
The
Dubai-based channel said the group was "convinced" that
other Islamist groups, who have taken dozens of foreigners hostage in
Iraq, would also conform to such a ruling if the committee specifies
who can and can not be kidnapped.
Al-Arabiya
said the group was referring to a statement earlier this month, also
broadcast by the station, in which committee member Sheikh Ahmed Abdel
Ghaffur Al-Samarai reportedly said "foreign workers are coming to
Iraq for their livelihood and it is not permitted to kill them."
Many
foreigners accused of being spies or collaborating with US-led forces
have been taken captive in Iraq. Some have been released while others
have been killed, often brutally, and their execution graphically
posted on so-called Islamist websites.
French
Optimism
 |
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Chances of their release are growing
|
In
Paris, cautious optimism prevailed over the fate of the two hostages
who have been kidnapped for two weeks now, despite delay of their
release.
French
Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said Sunday that France believed the
pair were in good health and that a "favorable outcome" to
the crisis was possible.
Barnier,
who was speaking after meeting President Jacques Chirac in the wake of
his tour of the Middle East aimed at gathering support for the
hostages in the Muslim world, said he was ready to return to the
region if necessary.
"Our
absolute priority remains today to secure the freedom of Christian
Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot. Our priority remains their
safety," he said.
Rumors
had been circulating that the journalists would be freed within days,
but the return to Paris late Saturday of Barnier suggested their
release was on hold, according to AFP.
On
August 28, the group calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq, which
had kidnapped the journalists a week earlier, threatened to kill them
unless France rescinded a law banning the Islamic headscarf and other
conspicuous religious signs from state schools.
"As
I speak we have genuine reasons to believe that they are both in good
health and that a favorable outcome is possible," said Barnier.
"We
are working towards this with all our energy, calmly, prudently and
with discretion," he said, because "this is one of the
conditions for their safety."
French
Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin has called a meeting later Sunday
of key ministers to discuss the crisis.
"We
have hope, we are working for their freedom...I can't tell you any
more," said Raffarin on a visit to the French Alpine resort of
Avoriaz.
Obstacles
Meanwhile,
a member of delegation from the French Council for the Muslim Faith
(CFCM) which recently flew to Iraq to try to help free Chesnot and
Malbrunot said a number of obstacles still lay in the path of any
possible release.
"We
are both cautious and worried: cautious because there is bombing and
insecurity everywhere (in Iraq), and worried about how the transfer
would be carried out," said Mohamed Bechari.
"(The
problem) of taking the two hostages to Amman remains the hottest now,
as efforts are there to guarantee their personal safety after the
hoped-for imminent release," Bechari has told IOL Friday
