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Iraq militants ask if kidnapping foreigners is acceptable under Islam
An Iraqi militant group appealed today to an influential Sunni Muslim organization for an edict on whether the kidnapping of foreigners who work for occupation forces is acceptable under Islam. The appeal came as a Turkish transportation company, Renay International, announced it would withdraw from Iraq a day after Iraqi militants threatened to behead one of its employees - the latest company to meet kidnappers' demands to go. Also Sunday, a slain Egyptian was found near Beiji, about 150 miles north of Baghdad, his hands bound and signs of a beating on his corpse, said Iraqi Maj. Gen. Anwar Mohammed Amin. It was not immediately clear if he was a kidnapping victim. Militants waging a 16-month insurgency have increasingly turned to kidnapping to force coalition forces and contractors from the country. More than 100 foreigners have been abducted since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2002 and many have been executed. The Arab television station Al-Arabiya on Sunday aired a videotape showed a masked man identifying himself as a member of the group ``Holders of the Black Banners,'' reading a statement seeking a ``fatwa'' or religious edict from the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq. The militants asked whether Islam permits the kidnapping and killing of foreigners who work for occupation forces, sayind the association should ``issue a legal fatwa defining this issue, and we are ready to abide by it.'' The Holders of the Black Banner recently kidnapped seven truck drivers from India, Kenya and Egypt, demanding their employer stop working in Iraq. The drivers were released after weeks in captivity. The Association of Muslim Scholars had no immediate comment. Posted by: TS(vice girl) 2004-09-05 |
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