One of the kidnapped — in a former life
For the record, here’s Serge Trifkovic on the role of kidnappings in Islamic history and the sunna of Muhammad:
Having established himself as the ruler of Medina, Muhammad attacked the Jewish tribe of Banu-“˜l-Mustaliq in December of A.D. 626. His followers slaughtered many Jewish tribesmen and looted thousands of their camels and sheep. They also kidnapped 500 of their women. The night after the battle Muhammad and his brigands staged an orgy of rape. As one of the brigands, Abu Sa”id Khudri, later remembered, a legal problem needed to be resolved first: In order to obtain ransom from the surviving Jews for the captive women, Muslims had pledged not to violate them:
We were lusting after women and chastity had become too hard for us, but we wanted to get the ransom money for our prisoners. So we wanted to use the Azl [coitus interruptus]. We asked the Prophet about it and he said: “You are not under any obligation not to do it like that [contained in Sahih Bukhari, second only to the Koran in authority].”
“Sudan says ‘bandits’ kidnapped aid workers,” from AFP, March 13:
KHARTOUM (AFP) “” A Sudanese official on Friday blamed “bandits” for kidnapping three foreign aid workers in Darfur this week, and also said there was no news about efforts to free the hostages.
A Canadian nurse, an Italian doctor and a French administrator working with the Belgian branch of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) were kidnapped at gunpoint on Wednesday in Saraf Umra in North Darfur.
“The (kidnappers) were bandits,” Ali Yusef, director of protocol at the foreign ministry, told AFP.
“There is nothing new,” he said, when asked whether there had been progress in efforts to free the three. The gunmen also kidnapped two Sudanese workers but later released them.
On Thursday, an official in Darfur said the kidnappers had demanded money.
“They want a ransom in exchange for the victims,” North Darfur Governor Osman Mohammed Yusef Kabir was quoted as saying by the Sudan Media Centre, which is close to the intelligence services.
Kabir said he had spoken to the kidnappers by telephone and that they “affirmed they don’t want to resort to violence… However, they demanded a financial ransom to release the victims.”
Another official said the hostages were “okay” and that the government was working to release them.The kidnapping came a week after Sudan ordered 13 international aid agencies out of Darfur in reaction to the International Criminal Court issuing an arrest warrant for President Omar al-Beshir for alleged war crimes there…