Arabs say captors desecrating Islam

BEIRUT — A demand by militant kidnappers that a French ban on Islamic head scarves be overturned has raised a backlash among religious and political leaders in the Middle East, who often are silent about hostage slayings and other terrorism.

They say those holding two French journalists have desecrated Islam and mindlessly struck out at a country considered a friend to Arabs.

“This is a brutal operation on the human level, a bad one on the Islamic level and a losing one on the political level,” Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, Lebanon’s most senior Shiite Muslim cleric, said Tuesday.

The Hijab

“Hijab is the modern name for the practice of dressing modestly, which all practicing Muslims past the age of puberty are instructed to do in their holy book, the Qur’an. No precise dress code for men or women is set out in the Qur’an, and various Islamic scholars have interpreted the meaning of hijab in different ways.”
Wikipedia

Instead of attracting supporters, the kidnappings and their link to the head-scarf ban “provokes the ire of Muslim scholars and intellectuals worldwide,” Fadlallah said.

Such comments contrasted with muted reaction in the region Tuesday when a grisly video surfaced on a Muslim militants’ Web site showing the purported killing of 12 Nepalese workers kidnapped in Iraq.

The group that claimed responsibility accused the Nepalese of working for the U.S. military. One Iraqi cleric told Al-Arabiya TV that their deaths, while regrettable, were understandable because “their work is military work.”

Journalists Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot disappeared Aug. 19 on their way from the Iraqi capital to the southern city of Najaf. A group calling itself The Islam Army in Iraq claims to be holding the two and has demanded that France abolish its ban on Muslim head scarves in public schools.

France has said it would press ahead with the law, which goes into effect when school resumes late this week.

A militant group with a similar name to the one claiming to hold the Frenchmen was believed to have killed an Italian freelance journalist last week after Italy’s government rejected a demand that it withdraw its 3,000 soldiers in Iraq.

Islam / Islamism

Islamism is a totalitarian ideology adhered to by Muslim extremists (e.g. the Taliban, Wahhabis, Hamas and Osama bin Laden). It is considered to be a distortion of Islam. Many Islamists engage in terrorism in pursuit of their goals.

Adherents of Islam are called “Muslims.” The term “Arab” describes an ethnic or cultural identity. Not all Arabs are Muslims, and not all Muslims are Arabs. The terms are not interchangeable.

Unlike Italy, France has no troops in Iraq and led the opposition to last year’s U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. There are fewer than 100 French citizens in Iraq, mostly journalists, aid workers and employees of private companies; nearly all are in Baghdad, according to the French government.

Criticism of the kidnapping has come from government officials, activists and religious figures–including those who have censured France for its head-scarf ban.

Syria’s Grand Mufti Ahmad Kuftaro issued a statement Tuesday calling for the release of the two reporters and also urging France to reconsider its scarf ban, “because of the sensitivity and importance of this issue for Muslims.” Kuftaro also praised France’s stand in support of Arabs.

Many Arabs see France as an important ally in the Arab-Palestinian conflict.

Al Jazeera, the Arab television station, broadcast a stream of criticism from voices including Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit and Lebanon’s Fadlallah.

In a statement issued by the Palestinian news agency WAFA, Arafat urged the journalists’ “immediate release,” calling France a friend of the Palestinian cause. Egypt’s largest Islamic opposition group, the banned Muslim Brotherhood, also condemned the hostage-taking.

Source

(Listed if other than Religion News Blog, or if not shown above)
Associated Press, USA
Sep. 1, 2004
Donna Abu-Nasr
www.chicagotribune.com

Religion News Blog posted this on Wednesday September 1, 2004.
Last updated if a date shows here:

   

More About This Subject

Topics:

AFFILIATE LINKS

Our website includes affiliate links, which means we get a small commission -- at no additional cost to you -- for each qualifying purpose. For instance, as an Amazon Associate, Religion News Blog earns from qualifying purchases. That is one reason why we can provide this research service free of charge.

Speaking of which: One way in which you can support us — at no additional cost to you — is by shopping at Amazon.com.