“˜Umdat al-Salik, a manual of Islamic jurisprudence certified by Al-Azhar University in Cairo (the most respected authority in Sunni Islam) as conforming “to the practice and faith of the orthodox Sunni community,” lays out four options for hostages: “When an adult male is taken captive, the caliph considers the interests … (of Islam and the Muslims) and decides between the prisoner’s death, slavery, release without paying anything, or ransoming himself in exchange for money or for a Muslim captive held by the enemy” (o9.14).
“Foreign hostages found dead in Yemen,” from AAP, June 15 (thanks to all who sent this in):
Seven out of nine foreign hostages including a child were found murdered in northern Yemen on Monday, security officials said.
“We have found the corpses of seven people who were kidnapped,” a local security official said. “They were killed.”
Two of the three children captured with the group were reportedly found alive.
The bodies were found by the son of a tribal leader in Noshour, east of the volatile Saada mountainous area of northern Yemen where the nine were abducted, the official said.
The authorities had accused Shi’ite Zaidi rebels in Saada of seizing seven Germans, a British engineer and a South Korean woman teacher. The rebels denied the charge.
The nine – among them three German children and two women nurses – belong to an international relief group that has been working at a hospital in Saada province bordering Saudi Arabia for 35 years, a local official said on Sunday….