Muslim, Christian leaders plead for captives’ release
OTTAWA — Two Ottawa religious leaders — one Muslim, one Christian — have added their joint voice to the international chorus of pleas for the release of four aid workers help captive in Iraq.
Gamal Solaiman, imam of the Ottawa mosque, and Anglican Bishop Peter Coffin, made a public appeal Sunday to members of a little known Iraqi group, Swords of Righteousness, to rescind a death threat against the workers and set them free.
Ca n a d i a n s Jim Loney, 4 1 , a n d Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, along with British aid worker Norman Kember, 74, and American Tom Fox, 54, have been branded spies by their abductors who say they’ll kill the men Thursday unless all Iraqis imprisoned in American and Iraqi jails are released.
It was the release of this ultimatum Saturday that spurred the imam and the bishop to action, Solaiman said Sunday.
“ These were innocent people who were trying to create a peaceful atmosphere and they have been unfairly kidnapped and treated and this should cause concern to any people interested in promoting peace and promoting understanding,” Solaiman said.
The pair have even offered to make a trip to the Middle East together to negotiate on behalf of the captives if it might be of any help.
“If that’s what it takes, we can go,” the imam said.
Solaiman said it’s important for a Muslim and a Christian to make this gesture together. The captives are all members of the human rights organization Christian Peacemakers Teams, which has been reaching out to Muslims in Iraq.
“ Muslims and Christians, when it comes to charity and tolerance and promoting peace, they share a lot of ground, a lot of values,” Solaiman said.
The families of the two Canadians also issued statements pleading for their release.
“ Please release him,” said Loney’s mother, Claudette Loney, according to news reports. “We miss him. We love him. And we want him home.”
Sooden’s mother, Manjeet Kaur Sooden, issued an appeal through TV3 network in New Zealand, where her son had been studying.
“Harmeet . . . is a peace-loving man,” she said. “He went to Iraq to do good. I pray those who are holding Harmeet will look into their hearts [and] see the good that is in my son.”
The appeals came the same weekend that three Arab men, detained for several years by the Canadian government on the strength of security certificates, also spoke out against the abductions.
Mahmoud Jaballah, Mohammad Mahjoub and Hasan Almrei, three of five men held without normal legal recourse on Canadian Security certificates for alleged links with terrorists, are seeking to be released on bail while fighting deportation and immigration proceedings against them. But they put aside their own concerns to speak out on behalf of the abducted aid workers, in part because they wanted to return the kindness of one of the four captives.
Their statement, translated into Arabic and sent to Al- Jazeera and other Arab world news outlets, makes particular reference to James Loney’s efforts on their behalf.
“ He is a person who has organized and motivated people to participate in this struggle for what is right,” the statement reads.
Robin Buyers, a co- ordinator with Christian Peacemakers Teams in Toronto, confirmed Sunday that Loney had helped organize protests against the use of security certificates and the breach of civil liberties suffered by the detainees.
Buyers said that Jaballah, Mahjoub and Almrei contacted the Christian Peacemakers from jail late last week, of fe r i n g to help. The men were responding to a call for statements of support, especially in Arabic, for the captive aid workers. Ottawa Citizen