DUBAI: Pleas from across the Arab and Muslim worlds played a key role in turning the minds of Islamic militants who abducted two French journalists in Iraq and freed them this week after a four-month ordeal, analysts say.
“Never have Arabs and Muslims been so unanimous,” said Abdelbari Atwan, chief editor of London’s Arab-language daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi. “Islamists, liberals, nationalists, leftists, all sorts of persuasions, called for their liberation,” he said, referring to Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, who returned home to France on Wednesday.
"Never before...", eh? Well now, if we are to take Mr. Atwan at his word, it appears the "peaceful Muslims" hold the key to ending this reign of terror by the terrorists. If all they have to do is merely speak their disproval enmasse, and hostages are freed, then why did Margaret Hassan die? Nick Berg? Jack Hensley, Eugene Armstrong, or Kenneth Bigley? Paul Johnson? Daniel Pearl? Or the Nepalese, the Kurds and Iraqis, the Turks, Japanese, Pakastanis... The list is overwhelming.
My lord, where was this "unanimous" voice of Muslim outrage? Shall we then blame "peaceful Islam" for their deaths?
In a statement Tuesday announcing the liberation of the two pair, the Islamic Army said they were freed “because they were proven not to spy for US forces, in response to appeals and demands from Islamic institutions and bodies, and in appreciation of the French government’s stand on the Iraq issue and the two journalists’ stand on the Palestinian cause.”
The director of the London-based Islamic Observatory, Yasser al-Serri, said it was “undeniable that French policy was a determining factor” in the men’s release.
Oh horse manure... If the terrorists so "appreciated" the French government's stand on Iraq and Palestine, why the devil did they snatch the reporters to begin with? Why did they murder their Syrian driver? And why did it take 4 months to determine the reporters were just what they said they were?
This is nothing more than another terrorist (and terrorist supporter_ ploy. Another tactic of fear that says "stand with us or stay out of our way, and we will leave you alone".
I doubt the two journalists felt "left alone".
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