UK Muslims to Baghdad for British Hostage’s Release

LIVERPOOL, September 25 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – A British Muslim delegation is due to arrive in Baghdad Saturday, September 25, to make a last –ditch plea to release the British national held hostage by a militant group as mystery still shrouding the fate of six Egyptian captives.

Two senior officials of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) Daud Abdullah and Musharraf Hussain lead the delegation to help spare the life of Kenneth Bigley, a British engineer held hostage since September 15, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Two Americans, who were kidnapped along with Bigley, were beheaded , while the family of the British national pleaded to Prime Minister Tony Blair to save his life.

MCB Secretary General Iqbal Sacranie urged Bigley’s kidnappers to release him without delay.

“We appeal to the group that is holding Ken Bigley to release him without delay and without harm,” the BBC News Online quoted Sacranie as saying

“He is an elderly man and he is due to become a grandfather soon,” he said. “Be merciful. Our religion Islam does not allow us to harm the innocent.”

Touched

The mission of the Muslim delegation will include holding talks with senior Iraqi scholars to help secure the release of the British hostage.

“We have been seriously touched by the events and by the suffering and grief of the family, as well as by the whole British people,” Daud Abdullah told the BBC.

“We believe we are well placed - perhaps better placed than others - to convey our concerns and the concerns and the grief of the family and their wishes for his release.”

The new Muslim effort comes as the 30,000-strong Muslim community in Liverpool , Bigley’s birthplace, called Friday, September 24, for the release of the British hostage.

“We are all concerned and our thoughts are with him and his family,” AFP quoted Miftah Osi-efa, chairman of the Al-Rahma mosque, as saying.

He held Blair accountable for the plight of Bigley due to his staunch support for the US-led invasion of Iraq .

“Politics has failed. His [Blair's] Iraq policy has failed,” he said.

The family of the British hostage had earlier on Thursday circulated 50,000 leaflets to the residents of Baghdad ’s upmarket Al-Mansour district, where Bigley used to live, carrying a cry for help release him.

“This is a personal appeal from a family whose son is missing. A family man called Ken Bigley is being held somewhere in your community,” the pamphlet read.

“We are Ken's family. Ken's mother, brothers, wife and child love him dearly. We are appealing for your help. We are waiting for Ken to go home ... We appeal to those who have taken him to return Ken to us. Do you know where Ken is? Do you have any information about his whereabouts?”

No Word

Meanwhile, the fate of the six Egyptians kidnapped in Iraq is still unknown.

“Until now no group has contacted us to make claims or demands,” Farouq Mabruk , Egypt 's highest-ranking diplomat in Iraq , told AFP.

“This leads us to estimate that there are no political motivations behind these kidnappings,” he added.

Two Egyptian workers at the Orascom Telecom were taken at gunpoint Thursday, September 23, from their house in Baghdad while the four others were abducted near the town of Qaim on the Syrian borders.

The Egyptian diplomat dismissed banning the Egyptians from traveling to Iraq due to the deteriorating security conditions in the country.

“Up to now we leave it to the individuals themselves to assess the risks and make their own decisions,” he said.

An Iraqi group released on July 26 Egyptian diplomat Mamdouh Qotb for being “deeply religious”.