Hey, as long as there are Gloria Macapagal Arroyos and Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapateros out there, keep going with what works. From AP:
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — Militants kidnapped a senior Egyptian diplomat as he left a mosque Friday and demanded his country abandon any plans to send security experts to support Iraq’s new government, according to a video broadcast on the Al-Jazeera television station….
The abduction of the diplomat threatened to undermine efforts of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Thursday to persuade Arab and Muslim countries to provide troops to protect the U.N. mission in Iraq.
A separate militant group holding seven foreign truck drivers, including one Egyptian, announced a new set of demands in a new video, insisting that their Kuwaiti employer pay compensation to those killed by U.S. forces in the city of Fallujah. They have threatened to begin beheading the hostages starting Saturday.
The practice of beheading hostages has stirred opposition in Iraq, with radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who led a two-month uprising against U.S. forces beginning in April, joining the criticism Friday.
“We condemn what some people are doing regarding the beheading of prisoners and it is illegal according to Islamic law,” al-Sadr said at the Kufa mosque south of Baghdad, where he led Friday prayers. “Anybody doing this is a criminal and we will punish him according to Islamic law.”
No word on what Al-Sadr makes of Suras 8:12 and 47:4.