The family of Ken Bigley and the Muslim Council of Britain are working in Baghdad to save the poor man’s life. From the New York Post:
September 25, 2004 — WASHINGTON “” Britain took its desperate campaign to save the life of hostage Kenneth Bigley directly to the streets of Baghdad yesterday, distributing 50,000 leaflets carrying a message from his anguished family for help.
The pamphlets were being handed out in the western part of Baghdad, near where the 62-year- old civil engineer was captured from his home “” and where the headless bodies of his two American housemates and co-workers were discovered.“This is a personal appeal from a family whose son is missing,” the message written in Arabic says on the leaflets, according to the British Foreign Office.
“A family man called Ken Bigley is being held somewhere in your community. We are Ken’s family. Ken’s mother, brothers, wife and child love him dearly,” the leaflet continued.
“We are appealing for your help. We are waiting for him to come home.”
The leaflet gives a phone number of the British Embassy in Baghdad and urges anyone with information to call.
The Muslim Council of Britain also announced it was sending a team of negotiators to Baghdad to try to gain Bigley’s freedom.
“We are calling on those who have taken him to please return him to be merciful. Our religion, Islam, does not allow us to harm the innocent,” said the group’s spokesman, Inayat Bunglawala.
Will that argument really wash with the Tawhid and Jihad group? Do they really think someone like Bigley is innocent, and that Islam forbids them to kill him? I think at this point, given all that has happened over the last few months, anyone who actually believes that is quite severely out of touch.