“It is pretty safe to assume that the Iraqi resistance is the quickest and most striking in the modern age,” said Dari

BAGHDAD, September 27 (IslamOnline.net) – The Iraqi resistance has every right to kidnap collaborators with the US-led occupation forces but should not kill them rather treat them as prisoners of war, an Iraqi Sunni scholar has said.

“Iraq is an occupied country and Iraqis are entitled to resist this ugly occupation no matter what the means is…It makes sense then to target collaborators,” Muthana Harith Al-Dari, spokesman for the respected Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS), told Al-Quds Press news agency Sunday, September 26.

But Dari, a son of a veteran Iraqi Sunni scholar, said that some kidnappings were not the work of the resistance but of some internal and external bodies, who seek to tarnish the image of the resistance.

The issue of civilian abductions in Iraq has caused a great controversy worldwide with Muslims from the four corners of the world vigorously condemning such tactics in conformity with the rulings of Islam.

More recently, an Iraqi militant group has kidnapped six Egyptian communication engineers working for Orascom’s Iraqna company responsible for setting up mobile networks in central Baghdad.

The fate of a British engineer also hangs in the balance with a delegation representing the Muslim community in Britain trying in Baghdad to secure his release.

‘Lawful Kidnapping’

“Kidnapping the collaborators is lawful when it comes to warfare. They are deemed as troops fighting alongside the occupation forces,” Dari added.

But he strongly opposed the killing of collaborators taken prisoner by Iraqi groups, citing the case of the 12 Nepalese people who were grisly shot dead earlier in the month.

“There was nothing wrong in kidnapping the 12 Nepalese as they used to work for the occupation forces as bodyguards or supply drivers in return for mind-boggling salaries. But we are totally against killing them. They are prisoners of war and shouldn’t be killed,” he said.

He categorically denied any links between the AMS, Iraq’s highest Sunni body, and the spree of kidnappings.

Blemishing Resistance

Dari further said that the resistance is not responsible for the entire kidnapping operations in Iraq.

He pointed fingers at the interim Iraqi government and occupation forces to tarnish the image of the resistance, citing the case of two Italian women who went missing on September 10.

A leading British daily on September 16 cast heavy doubts on the identity of kidnappers that snatched the two aid workers in Baghdad, citing clear differences in the style of carrying out the operation.

Dari said Iraqi resistance fighters set themselves up as a paradigm for bravery and gallantry.

“It is pretty safe to assume that the Iraqi resistance is the quickest and most striking in the modern age as it came hard on the heels of the US occupation [in April 2003],” he said.

“It also refuted US claims that the Iraqis would receive the US forces with flowers. Now we also hear the term ‘liberated cities’ like Fallujah, Tal Afar, Najaf, Karbala , Samarra and Baghdad neighborhood Sadr City. Ramadi will be added to the list in the not too distant future.”