+- Forums (https://bb.islamsms.com)
+-- Forum: ENGLISH (https://bb.islamsms.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=5)
+--- Forum: Current Affairs (https://bb.islamsms.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=17)
+--- Thread: Religious Leaders In Hostage Plea (/showthread.php?tid=8374)
Religious Leaders In Hostage Plea - AbuMubarak - 09-25-2004
Thursday, September 23, 2004 Posted: 9:40 AM EDT (1340
GMT)
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/09/23...igil/index.html
LIVERPOOL, England (CNN) -- Muslim and Christian
religious leaders in the hometown of a British hostage
facing death in Iraq have appealed for his captors to
free him.
"In the name of God, the merciful one, we as Muslim
and Christian leaders in Liverpool appeal to you as
believers to have mercy on Kenneth Bigley," said Akbar
Ali, the chairman of Liverpool Mosque and Islamic
Institute.
Joining Ali at the news conference on Thursday was
James Jones, Liverpool's Anglican Bishop.
"We're appealing to them on the grounds of their own
faith and their own faith in the God of mercy to be
merciful, to have compassion in this situation and to
release Mr. Bigley," Jones said.
Bigley's wife, who lives in Thailand, also begged the
captors to release her husband.
"My husband, Ken, is an ordinary, hardworking family
man who wanted to help the people of Iraq amongst whom
he has made many friends," Sombat Bigley said,
according to a translation from The Associated Press.
"As a loving wife, I beg you once more for mercy."
Bigley, 62, was abducted last Thursday along with two
Americans from their Baghdad residence. The three men
were in Iraq working on reconstruction projects for
the Middle Eastern company, Gulf Supplies and
Commercial Services.
The two Americans were beheaded Monday and Tuesday.
Bigley's captors said he would face the same fate
unless the British government met their demand to
release Muslim women from Iraqi prisons. U.S.
officials said the only women currently held in Iraq
are the two "high value detainees" -- both held at
Camp Cropper near the Baghdad airport, according to
Iraqi sources.
The interim Iraqi government Thursday reiterated it
had no imminent plans to release any detainees -- as
have Washington officials.
Bigley's brother on Thursday criticized the U.S.
government. He said the initial report that the
prisoners would be released was "a shadow of light in
a big, long, dark, damp, filthy, cold tunnel."
"Now this has been sabotaged." Mr Bigley told BBC
radio on Thursday. (Full story)
Alberto Fernandez, spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in
Baghdad, said the release of the two female HVDs is
not pending, despite earlier reports that Dr. Rihab
Rashid Taha al-Azawi, known as "Dr. Germ," may be
conditionally released. The other HVD is Dr. Huda
Salih Mahdi Ammash, known as "Mrs. Anthrax," number 53
of the 55 most wanted Iraqis. (Full story)
Wednesday, Bigley pleaded for his life in a video
posted on an Islamic Web site. Later, his family
begged his Iraqi captors to "be merciful."
"We have seen and heard Ken's pleas. Thank you for
letting Ken make his appeal. All of the family are
very grateful to you for his message. They wish you to
say to Ken that they love him dearly and are waiting
for him to come home soon," said Craig Bigley, the
hostage's son.
He was joined by his uncles, Stan and Phil, who said
their 86-year-old mother also was appealing for his
safe release.
"We have heard what you say and want to continue to
listen to you. You have proved to the world that you
are committed and determined. Be merciful as we know
you can be," Craig Bigley said. "Release Ken back to
his wife and family. We ask you, as a family, to be
all merciful."
In the Web site video, Kenneth Bigley tearfully
pleaded for British Prime Minister Tony Blair to help
spare his life, saying, "Please, please help me."
"I think this is possibly my last chance to speak to
somebody who will listen," Bigley said in the
11-minute video. "I don't want to die here."
He added: "I need you to help me, Mr. Blair, because
you are the only person now on God's earth that I can
speak to."
Speaking at the United Nations, British Foreign
Secretary Jack Straw said: "I wish that the prime
minister were in that position and so does he. The
only people who can release Mr. Bigley are the
terrorists who have captured Mr. Bigley."
Bigley's plea appeared on an Islamic Web site often
used by Iraqi militants to get their message out. His
captors have said they want Muslim women freed from
Iraqi prisons or Bigley will be killed like his two
American colleagues.
'Amused' Cat Stevens back home
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/09/23/stevens.b...tain/index.html
LONDON, England (CNN) -- The British recording artist
Yusuf Islam returned to London Thursday saying he was
"shocked and slightly amused" after U.S. officials
determined he was on a terrorist watch list and was
not allowed to enter the United States.
Islam, the peace activist and singer once known as Cat
Stevens, said he was traveling to Nashville,
Tennessee, with his daughter for a recording session
when he was approached aboard the flight into
Washington, D.C.
"Suddenly we were forced to land and suddenly I was
being interrogated by all these FBI officers," Islam
said at an impromptu press conference at London's
Heathrow Airport.
"The whole thing is totally ridiculous. Everybody
knows who I am, you know, I'm no secret figure.
Everybody knows my campaigning for charity, for peace.
And there's got to be a whole lot of explanations.
Hopefully there will be that."
When asked if he was being victimized, he said
"absolutely," then added, "but you know people make
mistakes."
"I just hope they've made a big mistake."
Islam was taken off a United Air Lines flight from
London to Washington on Tuesday and officially denied
entry to the United States when U.S. authorities
ordered the aircraft to land in Bangor, Maine.
He was taken to Boston and Washington before being
sent back to London on another United flight from
Dulles International Airport.
U.S. Muslim leaders say they want the government to
explain why he was on a "watch list" meant to keep
terrorists out of the country.
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge accused Islam of
having some unspecified relationship with terrorist
activity.
"Celebrity or unknown, our job is to act on
information that others have given us," Ridge said.
"And in this instance, there was some relationship
between the name and the terrorists' activity with
this individual's name being on that no-fly list, and
appropriate action was taken."
Other officials said he was on the watch list because
of reported associations and financial support for
Muslim charities with terrorist connections. But they
would not disclose the names of those charities, and
Homeland Security spokesman Garrison Courtney told CNN
only that "the intelligence community has come into
possession of additional information that further
heightens our concerns of Yusuf Islam."
The 56-year-old Islam changed his name after becoming
a Muslim in the 1970s. Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for
the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said his
organization wanted a better explanation for why the
singer was denied entry into the country.
"We are getting a little tired of this kind of
Kafkaesque treatment of people, where vague
allegations are made and actions are taken against
individuals and organizations," Hooper said.
He said American Muslim leaders "need to know where
the allegations are coming from."
"I don't think we want to be in a situation where
people are denounced by anonymous government officials
and labeled as terrorists and that's it -- everybody
says 'Okay, we don't need any more information.' We
need more information," he said.
According to Islam's Web site, he is associated with
three charities: Small Kindness for humanitarian
relief; Islamia Schools' Trust for education; and Waqf
al Birr Educational Trust for educational research and
development and scientific and medical research.
As Cat Stevens, Islam had a string of hits in the
1960s and 1970s such as "Moon Shadow," "Peace Train,"
"Wild World" and "Morning Has Broken" before
converting to Islam in the 1970s and changing his
name.
He dropped out of the music business for more than a
decade after converting to Islam, but returned to the
studio periodically since the late 1990s. He condemned
the September 11, 2001, al Qaeda attacks on New York
and Washington, performing at a benefit concert to
raise money for victims and donating a portion of the
royalties from a career retrospective to a relief
fund.
He also condemned the recent attack on a school in the
southern Russian town of Beslan that killed more than
300 people, many of them children.
Religious Leaders In Hostage Plea - AbuMubarak - 09-25-2004
isnt it peculiar how thousands of muslims are dying and you dont hear from these "religious leaders"
but when some kuffar are about to be killed, they are willing to travel thousands of miles, because they feel an affinity because they are from the same home town
what about the same ummah? does that not count for anything?