One hopes that the absurd will not occur. That is, one hopes that Italians will have the good sense not to overflow with gratitude toward those who first kidnapped, then released those who had been held for several weeks, assuming they were about to be executed at any minute. Nor should there be the slightest gratitude to the "local Muslim" leaders in Italy who "intervened" (just as there should be no gratitude, only fury and eternal mistrust, at those "Muslim leaders" in France who intervened for the French journalists, or those "Muslim leaders" in England who intervened for "their" captive, Bigley -- a more obvious and sinister manipulation of local public opinion, of presenting oneself as the "mediator" who, of course, needs in the end to be rewarded with "understanding" for demands made in the country where that "Muslim leader" now lives, is hard to imagine).

But, perhaps this is carping. Really, shouldn't we all be tremendously grateful and thankful to those splendid fellows who so easily could have decapitated the girls, and chose not to? Wasn't that nice of them? Don't they deserve our thanks? Shouldn't we begin to see things in a different way? Just look at what the "dialogue of civilisations" promises? You are kidnapped, and held for ransom, and threatened with death -- but we don't carry out the sentence if you pay us what we demand. What could be fairer?

Posted by: Hugh at September 29, 2004 10:27 AM

'One hopes that the absurd will not occur'.

Unfortunately i believe it will . We will soon be bombarded with articles praising the intervention of the islamic "Clergy" ( love that word ! inspires a warm feeling towards islam and implies its rapprochement to judeo christianity).
watch for the "indepth" BBC ABC SBS interviews.
The fact that these two girls are photogenic,left wing and actively involved in humanitarian aid will launch a media feeding frenzy.

And the backlash will of course be against Berlusconi who is in a no win situation on this affair whether he "paid" or not.
Note how they are already praising their "treatment" at the hands of their captors and compare this to the testimony of the philipino truck driver who was released a month or so back.

Posted by: george at September 29, 2004 10:57 AM

Dear Hugh,

If you think that the situation with Italy is, or will be, bad,...just wait until the FRENCH hostages are released...and see the orgy of dhimmitude that will gush forth from the exalted heights of the French elite chattering classes, the media, etc...

Lord, spare us...

BTW, please check out the message I left for you on the "Brigitte Bardot" post...

Posted by: Pelayo at September 29, 2004 12:23 PM

I just finished viewing a three disc DVD set of
the rise and fall of Hitlers vision for the Father land. Sadly the appeasement the Catholic's
made to placate the Nazis and help with the survival instincts was never taught in any school I attended.
Did Italy not learn from history that appeasement to morally bankrupt facists just show a silent consent buy the thugs to continue spreading their perception of reality and who qualifies to be seen as a human.
The market price for a hostage is now 500,000 dollars,that will buy allot of weapons to help take more hostages that will help buy more weapons which will...................can you see a pattern here folks.

As for Bigley,where's the outrage from Muslims that he's caged and paraded in front of the camera's. I know,the Quran forbids filming hostages and Muhammed said this because he knew the TV would be invented,and females should drive a car because the Quran predicted this invention as well.
How can 1.2 billion Muslims be unable to track down a few Islamists within their own Countries
that also make video's and use a car to dump the body on the street.
Remember how upset Muslims were when the USA had the remains of the non-Muslim hijackers and they weren't treated according to Islamic rules for dealing with dead Muslims or their body parts.
Well,were they Muslims or weren't they,you can't be a little pregnant,the British Muslim council can't absolve Islam of the beheadings while attempting to go to Iraq to negotiate with the Islamists that are acting un-Islamic.

Posted by: ala-sux at September 29, 2004 3:19 PM

I sense a bad case of "Stockholm Syndrome" about to be publicly displayed by the two Simonas. They learned about Islam while in captivity, I mean, while they were "guests" of "Insert Big Bombastic Islamic Cause Here" Brigade.

Posted by: 3812Michelle at September 29, 2004 7:59 PM

They learned about Islam while in captivity, I mean, while they were "guests.

How wonderful! free Islamic tuition and hotel like accomodation to boot !
Does this mean there Captors, i mean hosts, were of the Islamic persuasion ?
perhaps Lord Carey might like to be informed of this

Posted by: george at September 29, 2004 8:54 PM

The payment of a ransom means that there will be more kidnappings - it will become even more of a luctative business than it already is.

And the money will be used to buy more weapons, and to finance more terrorist-recruiting mosques and 'charities'.

But how nice that the poor infidel females received instruction on Islam - I wonder if they were shown the beheadings of the two Americans? Or what happens to Muslim females when they try to act as human beings instead of pets or baby-machines.

Any bets that these two will convert to islam - maybe marry one of their captors and live happily ever after.

I'm very glad that they were not killed, but the whole thing leaves a very sour taste in my mouth.

Posted by: DianaC at September 30, 2004 2:10 AM

The hostage takers are in a win win situation. When they kidnap somebody the public blames the leaders of that country. If they execute the hostage, the blame again is cast on the leader of the country, if they let the hostage go they are celebrated as good and noble man, and Islam is celebrated as the religion of peace. Not to mention the fact that – as the story a above demonstrates- kidnapping is also a lucrative low risk business.

If the Italians really paid the ransom they should be held responsible for the wave of hostage takings they will trigger now, and for the lives of those hostages who will be killed.

Posted by: gloria at September 30, 2004 6:20 AM

hugh makes an important point. And yes, it seems to me too that "the absurd" already has occurred. Those smiles on the women's happy faces, as if they're coming back from a holiday, or the Olympics or something. At least one of them is determined to go back to Iraq right away. They say they were treated with "respect" - three weeks in captivity, in blindfold, threatened to be killed, that's respect? Are they really that grateful for not being raped or beaten? They don't seem to have a bad word to say about their kidnappers. Yes, they learned about islam. And - they even got 10 copies of the Koran in English translation as a gift!!! That too was also reported as good news - how nice of them! Who's next to go have a spiritual learning holiday in Iraq - just a million bucks from the government, and there we go!

I don't want to dismiss the fear and suffering of those women, but they look like they're doing it themselves - not to mention solidarity with those captives treated with less respect (who got their throats cut up, for example).

Wonder who they will be giving the Koran translations, will they be in missionary use?

Posted by: Scandie at September 30, 2004 6:21 AM

In Afghanistan, the people are less than enamoured of the multitude of NGO types that infest the landscape with their SUVs, and otherwise doing quite nicely thank you in the guise of providing humanitarian aid.

If anyone should be on the hook for endangering the lives of captured NGO workers, it should be the NGOs, who are accountable to nobody and the workers themselves, who, like people who engage in extreme sports, voluntarily assume risk.

Posted by: waterdragon52 at September 30, 2004 9:01 AM

An economic point of view.

A global market is being created for hostages. The Islamic terrorists "create/manufacture" hostages and governments buy these hostages with ransoms and/or concessions. This sends the message that there is a demand for hostages and that producing hostages is "good business." And so the market expands.

The proceeds from this market then go into providing more goods and services for the Islamic terrorists jihad.

When will governments and others understand this basic principle: You create more of what you pay for.

Posted by: panos at September 30, 2004 11:36 AM

I get the feeling that at those girls might have been converts to Islam before they left Italy. One of them in her photo seemed to be wearing an Islamic style headdress. Also the fact that they don't seem traumatised by their ordeal, speak well of their captors and appear happy to bring back a load of korans with them.

If a ransom was paid then this would make sense, the captors get fresh funds to buy weapons and lead the world to think how merciful Islam can be, plus the girls get to sell their stories to the papers and don't forget to put in a good word for Islam.

If my hunch is right this could be just the sort of scam that we should be wary of. Muslim converts pretend to be kidnapped and held to ranson.

Posted by: Elephant at September 30, 2004 12:18 PM

"Just look at what the "dialogue of civilisations" promises? You are kidnapped, and held for ransom, and threatened with death -- but we don't carry out the sentence if you pay us what we demand. What could be fairer?"

Carried to the logical extreme, one could be an infidel, as long as one is able to buy themselves out of harms way.

As the trite expression goes in the old grainy B&W westerns with the scratchy background music; "yer money, er yer life."

Yes, a wonderous religious experience.

Posted by: witness at September 30, 2004 2:54 PM

witness wrote:

"Carried to the logical extreme, one could be an infidel, as long as one is able to buy themselves out of harms way."

We already have that. It's called jizya head or poll tax that early Islamic rulers demanded from their non-Muslim [infidel] subjects.

Posted by: panos at September 30, 2004 4:35 PM