Beverley, AKA “Khadija”
A pro-Islamic slant that, according to Glen Cooper, offers a “different perspective,” such as supporting the global jihad. “Captors suspect Canadian ‘a spy,'” by Mohsin Abbas for The Star, November 21 :
VANCOUVER–Taliban militants, suspected of abducting a Canadian freelance journalist in northern Pakistan last week, are holding her because they think she is a spy, according to officials in the region.
No groups have taken responsibility for kidnapping Beverley Giesbrecht, 54, of West Vancouver, along with her translator and a personal assistant.
But Pakistani news reports said militants loyal to Taliban commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur are holding her in North-West Frontier Province.
Kamran Khan, a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan representing North Waziristan, denied media reports the three were abducted for ransom.
“All efforts are being made to secure Giesbrecht’s freedom. We are trying our best for her release by co-ordinating with local officials,” Khan said in an interview from Peshawar.
“There is not a single incident of kidnapping any journalist for ransom in my region,” he added.
Ehsan Ullah, a journalist in Mir Ali, a community about 70 kilometres from Jani Khel where Giesbrecht was abducted, said the Taliban are attempting to confirm that the Canadian woman is a legitimate journalist, and not someone gathering information for U.S. or Pakistan governments.
He said they likely would not mistreat Giesbrecht.
“They might take a couple of weeks to make sure that she is not a spy. There is not a single incident of a woman journalist mistreated by them,” he said of the tribes under Bahadur’s control.
Khan said the Canadian embassy in Pakistan hadn’t contacted him, but he was still working for her release.
Giesbrecht also goes by the name Khadija Abdul Qahaar, which she adopted after converting to Islam. She’s a former magazine publisher in British Columbia who produces a website, Jihad Unspun. She was working freelance for Al Jazeera.
Giesbrecht hasn’t spent much time living in Vancouver since she converted to Islam in Egypt in 2003. She had travelled to Malaysia, and met Islamic leaders in Asia to conduct interviews for her website following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Glen Cooper, Giesbrecht’s close friend in Vancouver, said she is a serious and fearless woman but has a bad back. He said the website has a clear pro-Islamic slant, but he argued she is a reporter with a different perspective, not a propagandist.
“Canadian media and people should support her realizing that she is a Canadian citizen with a Canadian point of view,” said Cooper.
Right. Especially now that she is in desperate need of the despised infidel’s aid, to rescue her from her coreligionists.